ABSTRACT
Through the soft light of London’s early morning the new, young, unblemished teachers are setting out on their early morning commute to school. It is London’s Llareggub, gobbing gulls on the Embankment, as Miss T click-clacks her high-heeled way to the Tube, past rehearsing Guards in their undress uniforms on Whitehall, left-turning, right-wheeling, presenting arms in anticipation of a Royal Birthday. Professional understandings and attitudes inform the activities of teachers and teacher-leaders. What has been said so far identifies what is positive in this process. HoDs were very much orientated to getting the best out of the people for whom they were responsible – both teachers and students. They used various descriptors to illustrate this: ‘empowering’, ‘communicating’, and even ‘absorbers of stress’ in their department members and their managers. But the key concept was undoubtedly ‘communication’.
