National Leaders of Education are closing the gap and boosting attainment
Great heads and their teams really do make a difference.
National Leaders of Education (NLE) are outstanding school leaders who, together with staff in their schools – known as National Support Schools – support other schools in challenging circumstances.
Primary schools supported by NLEs improved their KS2 level 4 results (including English and maths) by seven percentage points between 2006-7 and 2007-8 and a further three percentage points between 2007-8 and 2008-9.
Nationally, primary school results declined by an average of one percentage point in 2008-9, but schools supported by NLEs saw their results improve by three percentage points.
Before NLE support, these schools were 16 percentage points below the national average but that gap has now been narrowed to just six percentage points.
This is just one example of a locally driven approach to school improvement where heads receive targeted support from peers who are likely to have been through similar experiences.
There are now 377 National Leaders of Education (175 secondary, 172 primary and 29 special), who together have supported in the region of half a million students across the supported schools and the national support school.
Numbers of NLEs will increase to 500 by 2012 with 300 primary and 200 secondary schools taking on the role of National Support School.
Trends: primary (KS2 level 4 including English and maths)
Client schools (those receiving support)
- 2006-7 – 57%
- 2007-8 – 64%
- 2008-9 – 67%
National Support Schools (those providing the support)
- 2006-7 – 81%
- 2007-8 – 83%
- 2008-9 – 82%
National average
- 2006-7 – 73%
- 2007-8 – 74%
- 2008-9 – 73%
