ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of subject leader responsibilities, and considers the ways to support class teachers. It also considers how teachers can work together with science subject leaders within their own schools to develop teaching and learning in science through dialogue and collaboration. The chapter introduces the term 'dialogic teaching' to explore how teachers can work with children's ideas and encourage children to use talk productively with each other. It explains why people have chosen to use the term 'subject leader' rather than 'co-ordinator' which is the term used in many schools. An alternative view is leadership distributed through a school, with colleagues taking on responsibility for leading different aspects of the school curriculum within an ethos of collaboration and culture of shared ownership. The key areas of responsibility of a science subject leader are: the strategic direction of the subject, management and monitoring.
