Students achieving as real musicians

Foreword

Dr Dean Dudley, CF Director of The King’s School Institute

There is a well-worn and potentially dangerous cliché that states ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’. This cliché insufficiently articulates the power that is harnessed in the concept of social capital. That is because what we know depends in great part on who we know and how we engage and interact with them based on the ‘what’.

The importance of social capital in developing middle leaders in schools and building their capability by interacting with one another, both within and across their designated areas of responsibility in schools, cannot be understated. It is in the development of relational trust and in cultivating social interactions that build leadership competence and capability.

Of particular note, the role of social relationships in developing pedagogical leadership that enables change. In short, developing leadership capability in schools necessitates moving beyond an exclusive focus on the competencies and capabilities of individual leaders to engage more broadly with the social side of leadership capability. Based on this research and for the fifth consecutive year, The King’s School Institute has invested in identifying and supporting a select number of staff in completing the Leading from the Middle program run by the Association of Independent Schools (AIS) of NSW Leadership Centre. In 2022, The King’s School Institute committed 14 teachers from each of its three campuses to completing the program. This program seeks to place great teachers “in a powerful position to exercise significant leadership within their Department, if not across the School as a whole”. For the first time, these exceptional middle leaders were also championed by a member of the School’s Extended Executive. This measure was added to this year’s Leading from the Middle program to increase the traction of the candidate’s projects.

“developing pedagogical leadership that enables change”