7: Leading a Connected and Partnership-based System

This chapter will consider the growth of partnerships in education systems and in particular the system leadership that’s required for them to thrive. The term partnership is used generically to refer to all forms of school-to-school collaboration including Networks, Federations, Alliances, Clusters and Trusts. This chapter begins by focussing on the English education system and exploring the policy context in which the drive for a partnership-based system became mainstream practice. What this looks like in practice is then examined. Achieving a partnership-based education system that accelerates improvement and is sustainable is largely down to how it is led. I will look at the leadership required including the perspective of three system leaders who bring the policy context to life by sharing their own practice.