ABSTRACT
Continuing this theme, in chapter 7 Emil Jackson and Andrea Berkeley describe their experience of piloting “work discussion groups”—sometimes known as “work study groups”—with a group of eight headteachers who had formed a collaborative partnership, funded by an early-2000s government initiative, a forerunner of today’s Teaching School Alliances. Despite their responsibilities to the children, staff, families, and communities they serve, it remains rare for headteachers to feel looked after in their own work. Even when they have an excellent relationship with their chair of governors, senior leadership team, or local authority, it is not uncommon for headteachers to feel profoundly alone with their most challenging dilemmas and decisions. Facilitated by Jackson—and later Berkeley—with an external consultant, these “work discussion groups” offered a regular, safe, and confidential forum in which school leaders were able to consult to each other about issues, dilemmas, or challenges preoccupying them. To the best of our knowledge, work discussion groups for headteachers is not something that has been written about elsewhere.
