Leadership with a Moral Purpose

Ever wanted to make an OFSTED inspector tingle? This book will show you how your school can do just do that.By helping you explore why you came into the job in the first place and how to use that moral purpose to drive school improvement, Will Ryan has written the essential read for headteachers who know that there is more to school improvement than blindly following government initiatives.This book gives all primary heads – aspiring, newly appointed or those for whom the phrase ‘There must be something more than this…!' rings a bell – the ideas, techniques, tools and direction to turn their schools Inside-Out and inspire them to lead with the heart and with the soul.What's more it will help give Heads the confidence to do those things they know are right because they are right for the children, right for the staff and right for the community.''This is an unusual book for school leaders: it starts from the inside out. Will Ryan brings a new perception of how leadership could develop, beginning with a dream of what a school could be- one filled with the passion, energy, belief and moral purpose that feed the collaborative strategies necessary for success. By establishing a vision of what everyone in the school is working toward, and by involving each participant as an active member of the professional learning community, the school leader is building a powerful team, including the parents as partners, that can put the individual and necessary bits and pieces together to create a place where teachers and children want to belong, want to work together, and want to support each other. The detailed checklists and the bulleted summaries offer us ways to begin, methods for organizing our dream mandate for our school, so that an action plan can grow from the inside out. This is an important book, and it has strengthened my own beliefs in creating schools that include every child and every teacher in the plan for its success. This is a book for school leaders written by an educational leader who has been there, who loves the place called school, and who has mapped the territory for us with his own passion and belief.''By David Booth Professor OISE University of Toronto''With the premise that too many schools are ‘outside in' schools, running to keep up with someone else's agenda, Will Ryan sets out to give ideas, techniques tools and direction to enable heads to turn their schools ‘inside out'. Will Ryan has been a teacher, headteacher and local authority adviser and writes with this experience behind him.''Headteacher Update Autumn 2008''Aimed at primary heads, this book aims to give headteachers the confidence to do those things they know are right because they are right for the children, right for the staff and right for the community and not because they are slave to somebody else's agenda. To this end it has a very powerful and positive message that most should find inspiring.The term 'inside-out school' is used to describe the ideal school - one driven by a clear moral purpose, as apposed to an 'outside-in school' which is running to keep up with pressures from others outside.Will Ryan has 33 years of experience of primary education as a teacher, inspector and local authority advisor. Each chapter of the book begins with a story from his own experience. This keeps the tone lighthearted and amusing while at the same time exploring important and relevant issues for primary headteachers. While at times the feet of the book seems slightly gimmicky and occasionally the relevance of examples could be called into question, on the whole Ryan uses clear-to-follow guides that fit with the needs of modern heads on how to improve schools from the inside and lead by example.'' - Leadership Focus UK Dec 2008''Leadership with a Moral Purpose is both a manual and an aspiration for a makeover of primary schooling. The author offers compelling and convincing arguments for a richer vision of primary education than can be found in some initiatives coming from governments over the last 20 years. He writes from personal experience as a long-serving head and from working with others in Rotherham schools as a school improvement adviser. The book has been very well received and praised by several top educationalists including Michael Fullan, all of which adds to the notion of making Leadership with a Moral Purpose essential reading.'' - Aspect Magazine January 2009''Though aimed at primary school leaders, there is much here that appeals to those of us in the secondary sector. I particularly liked the chapter on creating a vision for the best classrooms. Secondary teachers don't own their classrooms in the way primary colleagues do, but there is much to be learned about making the environment work. The tables of key features of 'hopeful' and 'woeful' classroom cultures will be used as a discussion tool for my teachers this term I Its plain and simple advice is easy to follow and difficult to ignore.It was the chapter on Leading with a Moral Purpose that made the biggest impact, however, reminding me about why I became a headteacher in the first place. The 'insideout' school is the ideal - one driven by a clear moral purpose, as opposed to an 'outside-in' school which is running to keep up with pressure from outside. An easy read with clear, practical advice, this book has no pretensions to be an academic text - just the sort of educational book I like to read! I recommend it.''- Kenny Frederick, The Teacher Magazine, March 2009