Enhancing Educational Leadership and Management in Nursery Schools

Executive summary

The report is about understanding the educational leadership and management which is crucial for strategizing the organisational activities and educational programs for supporting the children and young people in the society. Through this report, it is possible to review the theories of leadership and managerial practice which support the educational leaders to choose the right leadership style for leading the teaching professionals and support the children and young people with high quality educational programs. The legislative framework and ethical principles will also be discussed critically to support the leadership and management in the nursery school. As per the analysis, the transformational leadership style and supportive managerial practice are beneficial for the child to create good environment that promotes learning and activities for the benefits of the children and young people. The report also provides a scope to identify the roles of the leadership in change management in the nursery schools, where the roles of sharing vision, managing change through communication and enhancing partnership working practice, empowering the teachers and staff and engaging the parents and students in the school would be best practice to ensure high quality education for the children. The action plan will be developed for achieving future aim of the nursery school. Concluding statement and recommendations will also be evaluated for developing good leadership practice in order to promote student learning and development.

Introduction

Leadership and management practices are crucial to reshape the organisational activities and run their operations to satisfy the ultimate users (Adams, Kutty and Zabidi, 2017). In the nursery schools, for child and young people, it is necessary to develop suitable leadership and management practices so that the teaching professionals can provide good quality care and enhance the child learning and developmental activities. The report is hereby effective to develop suitable leadership and managerial practice in the nursery schools, as it is important to ensure child learning and development. The assessment provides a scope to manage the organisational culture with good leadership and managerial practice at the nursery schools, so that it would be possible for the organisation to maximise quality care and provide good learning and educational training programs to the children which would be beneficial to meet their needs and reshape their brain through interactive learning and continuous support. The report focuses on leadership and managerial practice in the nursery educational institution as well as analyse the importance of good leadership and management in the schools, in order to support the children to develop their mind set and ensure brain development through learning process. The practice of managing changes will also be discussed with further action plan that should be implemented in the nursery school for better leadership and management.

Leadership and management in working with children in nursery schools

Educational leadership provides a purpose and direction to the individuals and group to process for sharing a school culture and values, by facilitating the development of strategic planning and visions for the school in order to maximise contributing of the stakeholders and meet the students’ needs and preferences (Castillo and Hallinger, 2018). Through educational leadership, it is hereby possible to develop creative educational programs, empower the managers for managing the teaching professionals, maintaining commitment and leading hem towards achieving the vision of the school that is to maximise the quality of education for supporting the children and young people. In this context, for supporting the need and preferences of the child, it is necessary to develop transformational leadership style, where good communication, cooperative behaviour, emotional intelligence of the leader and continuous motivation to the child are beneficial to lead the child by ensuring educational learning and development (Adams, Kutty and Zabidi, 2017). In this regard, the leader focuses on communication and cooperation so that each teachers and staff member can participate in the educational institution to develop good strategic planning for supporting the child and young people (Adams, Kutty and Zabidi, 2017). In this regard, the leader focuses on partnership working practice so that good teamwork can be established. Each teaching professional can share their perception and they are encouraged ton show their creativity to adopt new technology for supporting the children. Hence, good communication in the school and cooperative working practice are the major practice through which the leader focuses on managing their staff, teaching professionals and leading them towards achieving the vision of the school (Oplatka and Arar, 2017).

The transformational leadership style is beneficial for the educational leader to guide their management team and support them with adequate resources and information for restructuring the educational activities to support the child or young people in the nursery school. The educational leader also focuses on developing good corporate culture for managing the stakeholders including the school authority, government, teaching professionals, assistant, manager, board members and parents, in order to run the institution efficiently by ensuring quality education. Inspirational motivation and continuous support are also the characteristics of the educational leader, where the leader aims at supporting the teaching staff for developing good interactive learning activities and identify the needs of the children to support them with learning and skill developmental programs (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, 2019). The leader also motivates the teachers with monetary incentives and health and safety at the workplace, quality supervision and control, which further enhance the performance and productivity of the teaching professionals. Increasing commitment in the school and shared visions are also beneficial for the leader to develop the educational activities and lead the teaching professionals towards achieving the future success by arranging learning programs for the children or young people (Oplatka and Arar, 2017). Hence, the leadership and managerial style are effective to provide continuous support and guidelines, enhance creativity and technical advancement, and create interactive learning through student involvement as well as developing good learning environment.

Importance of leadership and management in nursery schools

Suitable leadership and management are important for the nursery school to create good climate that will promote the students ability to learn and develop their brain. Good practices can be developed through suitable leadership and management in the nursery schools, which are equality and diversity in the classroom, maintaining fairness, politeness and good attitude towards others, managing disciplines, maintaining punctuality and positive behaviour. These are important for the child and young people to develop their personal and professional skill in near future (Hallinger, 2018). Hence, good leadership and managerial practice in the school promote student learning activities and develop their interpersonal behaviour in long run. Additionally, the leadership and management is also beneficial in the nursery school to develop ethical practice and create good culture with harmony, respect for others, listening to others, understanding others values and beliefs and shared activities (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, 2019).

The children can get good circumstances to develop their behaviour and interpersonal skill which will be beneficial for achieving the future success. Quality of educational activities, creative learning sessions, interactive classroom activities are also developed under suitable leadership and management in the nursery school, where it is possible for the leader and management team of the school to utilise their institutional learning resources and latest technology for supporting the children with creative learning and training courses (Harris et al., 2019). On the other hand, the leadership is also advantageous to support the teaching professionals and staff members in the school through continuous motivation, commitment, safe working condition, managing harmony and freedom to work, empowering the staff in the organisational decisions making practice and partnership working practice (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, 2019). These are also beneficial to develop a strong team to support the children in the school with the best quality learning and developmental activities.

Legislative framework and policy to manage children in nursery school

The managers and leaders in the nursery school focus on developing good corporate governance in the workplace for supporting the child and young people in the society. There are ethical principles, through which the educational leaders try to support the young people and child. The principles of harmony and freedom to work at the school, engagement and empowerment of the teaching professionals in the school, managing transparency and accountability, value creation for all the stakeholders engaged with the educational activities and managing equality and diversity, are the major ethical practices, through which the educational leader and managers try to enhance quality of learning and educational activities to guide the children (Oplatka and Arar, 2019). Equality, diversity, discrimination and rights are the major four principles to support the child in the institution and in this regard, the Equality Act 2010 as well as discrimination practices at the school are effective to provide equal opportunity to all the child and young people to share their personal experience and get engaged in the educational courses and classroom sessions (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, 2019).

All the children in the society and young people can get equal scope to participate and in this context, Human Rights Act 1998 is also effective to be implemented in the school to maximise the rights and choices of the child and young people. The child and young people are hereby encouraged to share their experience, perception and needs so that the teaching professionals can identify their requirements and develop suitable educational planning for enhancing their learning and development (De Nobile, 2018). Additionally, Children Act 2004 and Child protection practice are also fruitful to develop good ethical governance in the school and protect the interests of the children. On the other hand, the teaching professionals try to implement Data Protection Act 1998 to maintain confidentiality of data and information so that it would be possible to handle the child personal data safely (Hallinger and Hammad, 2019). Mental capacity Act 2005 is also effective to improve the mental health of the child and young people in the school, so that they will be able to participate in the learning activities and ensure brain development. Hence, the situation of supporting the child is important in the nursery school, where the leader and managers follow the legislative structure and ethical principles for better quality education.

Ways to lead changes in the nursery school

The leader of the nursery school is playing a crucial role in leading the changes and managing change in order to achieve the future success by ensuring child learning and development. For achieving the future aim of the nursery school, the leader focuses on change management towards technical advancement, creating interactive learning and developing partnership working practice and person centred approach of learning (Shoup and Hinrichs, 2019). In this regard, the leader plays an important role to identify the child’s needs and their preferences to participate in the educational programs and classroom session, and after acknowledging the requirements of the children, the leader focuses on developing innovative strategy to support them with efficient learning and developmental programs (Hallinger and Hammad, 2019). In this context, the leader develops shared vision and shares the visions with all the teaching professionals, school assistant and head teacher in order to improve understanding about the changes. The reason for the changes is also shared with other stakeholders of the schools including the school authority, investors, government, teachers and assistants as well as the parents and students, so that every stakeholders can understand the importance of managing changes in the school (Adams, 2018). Additionally, the leader is responsible to encourage the behaviours and attitude of the internal stakeholders in the schools such as teaching professionals, assistants, school author, board members and other staff in the nursery school. They are encouraged to show their creativity and the leader tries to motivate the teachers with monetary and non-monetary incentives (Oplatka and Arar, 2019). The leader empowers the teaching professionals and other staff members in the schools for managing changes through identifying diverse ideas and developing collaborative decision, so that the teachers can participate and share their feedback and perception towards the change. It is helpful for the leader to manage change and lead the teachers towards achieving the future success.

Additionally, the leader is responsible to ensure strong support from the managers, teachers and staff members in the school in order to lead the chance and understand the doubts of the teachers and their concerns (Hallinger, 2018). The leader also focuses on identifying their doubts and resolving their queries so that there would be no such misunderstanding and internal conflicts. It is also the role of the leader to protect the teachers and children in the school through ethical practice and managing health and safety during the changes (Hallinger, 2020). In this context of change management in the nursery school, it is the role of the leader to arrange training and developmental program, to support the teachers and other school authority so that the vision of the nursery school can be met in long run. The major vision of the leader is to protect the children and enhance the learning and development activities to ensure good education for the children and young people (Hallinger and Hammad, 2019). Hence, the leader is able to support the teaching professionals and lead them, through high cooperation and communication, where the leader is also able to develop strong bonding and achieve future success as a partnership working practice. Hence, leadership and management in the nursery school is the interactive practice, where all the stakeholders with different position and power in the schools are involved and they are encouraged to participate efficiently for achieving the future organisational success through change management and creativity.

Action plan for future success of the nursery school

Conclusion

Leadership and management in the nursery school are important to guide the child and young people in the society, through learning and developmental activities. It is the role of the leader and management team of school to take care of the child and young people through providing continuous support and educational activities. Providing safety and security to the child as well as following the ethical principles in the school are helpful for the leader to develop good corporate culture and support the children and young people for learning and development. In this regard, the transformational leadership style is beneficial for the leader of the organisation to motivate the teaching staff and engage them in the organisational activities, where the long term goal of supporting the children and young people in the society with educational programs would be met. Transparency and accountability management, flexibility at workplace and continuous support to the teachers and managers are helpful to maximise their performance and provide good educational programs to the children and young people.

The leader of nursery school develops long term and short term goals and it is necessary to share the organisational objective with the teachers and school authority, so that they can identify their roles and responsibilities in working in the institution and supporting the children. The leader and management team are also able to implement the legalisations including Children Act 2004, Data Protection Act 1998, Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Human Rights Act 1998 in order to maximise child care and provide them safe and secure place to learn and develop their brain by ensuring fulfilment of their needs and preferences. It is hereby mandatory for the leader of the institution to develop further strategic planning to manage change with the teachers in order to fulfil the above mentioned short and long term goals within specific period of time.

Recommendations for future practice

The organisational leader must invest in developing the nursery school website and create integrated system where each teacher is engaged with the operations and it also provides a scope to the parents to get involved with the educational activities for supporting their children.

Developing good culture and disciplines in the school are mandatory for the organisational leader, where the leader needs to provide flexible educational activities; so that the teachers can provide interactive learning programs to the students. The leader also needs to provide them clear roles and responsibilities where the teachers can follow the instructions of the managers and improve their performance to ensure quality learning and developmental activities for the benefits of the children.

The leader must be cooperative and communicative by focusing on partnership working practice, so that the teachers and other stakeholders can interact with the leader and adopt creative strategic changes for supporting the children in long run in order to ensure quality learning and developmental activities.

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