Burford School Middle Leaders Programme – open to other schools

Middle leaders run subject and pastoral teams, or have cross phase roles such as the SENCO or timetabler; they are the powerhouse which propels a school towards ongoing improvement, development and success.

The Burford School Middle Leaders course is an opportunity for mainscale teachers or those who have their first TLR to consider their own career development, the pathways they might take and the skills and experiences they will need to get there. It is a pre-cursor to gaining middle leader responsibility and the National Professional Qualifications.

This programme aims to give you a flavour of the vision, skills, responsibilities and practicalities of the role of a middle leader. It is also an opportunity to network beyond subject and year teams.

Suitable for teachers from Year 3 of their teaching career.

Programme dates
Mondays, from 3.30pm to 4.45pm on the following dates:

• Session 1: 15 June 2026
• Session 2: 22 June 2206
• Session 3: 6 July 2026
• Session 4: 14 September 2026
• Session 5: 28 September 2026

Programme Outline:

Programme Outline

• The Burford School Middle Leaders Programme comprises 5 face to face twilight sessions on Mondays at 3.30pm. Attendance at all sessions is encouraged to ensure continuity of learning

Session 1: Middle Leadership – Know Thyself

• The responsibilities of a Middle Leader, skills needed to lead and develop a team: self scrutiny, good communication and diplomacy, organisation, accountability, working with SLT, keeping up with the national agenda

Session 2: Culture & Implementation

• An introduction to the steps leaders need to consider to successfully implement change – big or small

Session 3: Leading Teaching & Learning

• ADAPT
• Difficult Conversations: Radical Candour

Session 4: A day in the Life of a HOD/HOY and Other Routes to Career Success

• The reality of the role: leading your team in the long and short term, all of the jobs that others don’t see, managing workload
• Other routes: SENCO, timetabler
• The application and interview process

Session 5: Developing Your Team

• Spotting talent, providing the right CPD opportunities, what happens when things go wrong, HR policies and procedures

Facilitation: This programme will be run by experienced leaders from Burford School with expertise in this area.

*This programme is free for colleagues working at Burford School.
For colleagues working in OTSA Partner Schools – £100 per person
For non-partners – £195 per person

Most schools and trusts run their own CPD programmes. This programme is being run by colleagues at Burford School with places offered to colleagues in other schools in partnership with OTSA. Do you have any spare places on school or trust led events/programmes that you would open up to colleagues in other schools? If so, please get in touch with us at info@otsa.org.uk

Payment

Payment is required at the time of booking by credit card, debit card or Paypal. Unless otherwise stated, a ticket gives admission to one person at face-to-face and online events. In the event that you share an online event link with other people who then attend the event, including sharing your screen, or you arrive at a venue without a ticket and we are able to admit you, we will invoice you or your organisation for additional tickets retrospectively.

Refunds

No refunds will be given with less than 30 days notice.

In the event of a refund request, please note that the Eventbrite booking fee of 6.95% plus 0.59p per ticket is not refundable.

To keep our event fees as low as possible, we are not able to issue invoices for payment by cheque or bank transfer and we are not able to reserve places without payment.

We strongly recommend that you take out ‘event ticket insurance’ which may cover the cost of your fee should you be unable to attend the event.