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Who is the Middle Leadership Development Programme for?

Schools, academies and children's centres

The Middle Leadership Development Programme (MLDP) is for schools, academies and children's centres interested in developing their middle leaders through a cluster-based approach.

If you aren't already in a group (cluster) you can either set up your own or join an existing one.

In order to start the programme, clusters must:

  • identify a lead school for the cluster, which must be rated good or outstanding in leadership and management, and good or outstanding overall by Ofsted
  • identify two facilitators, who must be able to attend scheduled training and assessment (see role of the facilitator)
  • be prepared to commence delivery of the programme no later than the term following facilitator training
  • identify a group of middle leaders who are ready to join the programme
  • ensure that each middle leader has access to a learning coach for the duration of the programme (see role of the learning coach)
  • commit to releasing participants and encouraging their attendance at every session, and enable them to undertake a leadership challenge
  • agree that the participant’s headteacher will provide support and assess their progress on completion of the programme
  • commit to using the current materials provided for programme delivery only and not to share them outside of the cluster
  • maximise the opportunities for cluster working, support and challenge

Middle leaders

Once clusters have been set up and facilitators have been trained, the professional development programme can be run on an ongoing basis for middle leaders within the cluster.

Middle leaders might include staff who have recently taken on a middle leadership role, taken on new responsibility or identified a leadership challenge to resolve.

Examples of the types of middle leader roles held by previous participants of MLDP include:

  • subject/curriculum leader
  • head of department
  • pastoral leaders, for example, head of year or head of house
  • SENCOs
  • gifted and talented co-ordinators
  • advanced skills teachers
  • assessment co-ordinators
  • career co-ordinators
  • leadership coaches