| Summary: | The impact of successive government reforms in education over the last twenty years has had its greatest impact on headteachers. The increase in responsibilities imposed on headteachers had led to the inextricable linking of effective schools with effective leadership. School improvement and school effectiveness research has identified the significance of the role played by headteachers in developing the school and raising standards of achievement. Preparation for school leadership and management has become one of the major issues of the last decade. The emergence of the Teacher Training Agency in 1993 enabled the government to establish a number of training programmes for potential and experienced headteachers. The National Professional Qualification (NPQH) provides training and development for aspiring school leaders. The qualification is based on nationally agreed standards for headteachers and in due course will be mandatory to all seeking headship appointments. This thesis tracks the significant milestones in headteacher training and development within England and Wales alongside comparative developments in Singapore and the United States. Through the use of a survey instrument and semi-structured interviews, NPQH candidates and their respective headteachers revealed their experiences of the programme, its impact on the candidates, colleagues and headteacher, and its impact on the school. Because of the difficulty in obtaining permission to survey candidates, the sample was restricted to the first cohort of candidates from Cambridgeshire LEA. The thesis concludes with a consideration of some of the approaches used in other countries, the role of the headteacher of a candidates' school and whether preparation for this highest position in school leadership can solely be through assessing a candidates' competence in specific aspects of school management.
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