Leadership in School Networks: findings from the Networked Learning Communities programme

MiE, Vol 20 issue 3 The Networked Learning Communities context The Networked Learning Community (NLC) programme has been a major research and development activity of the National College of School Leadership (NCSL). One hundred and four voluntary, funded school networks were set up following a process of bidding and selection operated by a core NCSL team, the Networked Learning Group (NLG). A second tranche of unfunded networks went through a similar bidding process as we began to understand how networked learning operated for the programme’s pioneer schools. Many of our key principles, which were comparatively novel four years ago, are now part of everyday education currency. The central idea of pooling resources, expertise and effort to achieve more together than can be done alone, has fed the development of Primary National Strategy Learning Networks and extended schools and the commitment to collaboration in place of competition informs implementation of the Every Child Matters agenda. This work began with the premise that network leaders, like school leaders, are essentially focused on the same objective: “to build the capacity for individuals to flourish, for schools to continually improve and change and for young people to be the best they can be” (Harris & Lambert 2003: 8). That was the principle that underpinned our thinking at the beginning of the NLC programme. So Leadership in School Networks: findings from the Networked Learning Communities programme