Leading Communities : Purposes, paradoxes and possibilities

If schools are serious about raising achievement, they must engage with the communities their pupils come from, and create learning communities within the school that encompass everyone from the pupils to the headteacher.

But how do you bring communities together - within and across schools, and with local neighbourhoods?

What is the glue which binds communities together? Professors Kathryn Riley and Louise Stoll argue in this stimulating booklet that schools must research the community from which their pupils come, in order to understand the problems of individual pupils, and to judge how far the school can provide leadership within that community.

The same skills and sensitivities are also needed to launch and sustain the internal learning community within the school.

Their observations are complemented by reflections from John Bangs, National Union of Teachers; Professor Tim Brighouse, Commissioner for London Schools; and Maggie Farrar, National College for School Leadership.