Coaching as an in-school leadership development strategy: experiences from leading from the middle

There is a large literature on leadership mentoring and coaching. However, in education in England, mentoring is the term that has dominated policy and discussion until recently, with the application of this concept as a core element in teacher training and in the induction of new headteachers. Coaching has emerged more recently as a significant element of continuing professional development for teachers. The first national leadership development programme to embody an explicit and systematic approach to coaching was the National College for School Leadership's programme for school middle leaders—Leading from the Middle (LftM). This paper explores the experience of school-based coaching on LftM. It begins by considering key issues concerning the practice of leadership coaching before presenting data on the LftM coaching experience drawn from two evaluations of the programme. The findings suggest that the potential functions of coaches on programmes such as LftM are wider than those in more traditional coaching roles, and the demands arising from the programme and from the school may lead to some role ambiguity. Secondly, three important issues affect the coaching experience: coach skills and commitment, the time devoted to the process, and the place of coaching within broader school leadership development strategies.