Books

Below is a list of books available from ASCL. To order either click on the book title or click on the menu to the right of this list. Your order and an invoice will be mailed to you, all prices include postage and packaging. 

Raising standards through effective CPD
Date: February 2009 Price: £15
The need for the highest quality leadership and management of continuing professional development (CPD) has never been greater. Almost invariably in schools and colleges today it is a key feature in the job description of one of the senior leadership team whose role impinges on every single member of the workforce.

Practical whole school self evaluation - guidance on being inspected (This book is in PDF format)
Date: November 2008 Price: £8 (Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the ASCL Charity)
Author: Tony Thornley
This document is intended to be a practical guide to self evaluation, with a particular focus on the SEF and inspection. It contains ideas I have picked up whilst working as a headteacher, as an HMI and inspector, and with many schools as a SIP and a consultant.The fourth edition of this booklet contains a number of revisions to the original (May 2006) version and its successors.

Pay arrangements September 2008 – August 2011
Date: May 2008 Price: £2
Pocket book of salary scales for September 2008 - August 2011

New to the leadership team
Date: March 2008  Price: £18
Authors: Harvey Black and Jill Clough
While the possibilities can be hugely exciting for those of you new to the leadership team, the challenges and scope of responsibility can be equally daunting, especially for those who have moved quickly through the ranks. We hope this book will help you to prepare for and become more comfortable and confident in your new role.

Achieving more together: Adding value through partnership
Date: January 2008 Price: £25
Author: Robert Hill
This book develops several of the principles of sustainable leadership set out in Robert's first book, Leadership that lasts, but especially the wider leadership of the system being exercised by a rapidly increasing number of ASCL members.

Practical whole school self-evaluation with guidance on being inspected
Date: May 2007  Price: £20
Author: Tony Thornley
This document is intended to be a practical guide to self-evaluation, with a particular focus on the SEF and inspection. It contains ideas I have picked up whilst working as a headteacher, as an HMI and inspector, and with many schools as a SIP and a consultant.

Practical self-evaluation for curriculum and pastoral leaders with guidance on being inspected
Date: May 2007  Price: £20
Author: Tony Thornley
This booklet is a partner to my guide to whole school self-evaluation. There is intentional overlap between the two in the principles and overview of self-evaluation. However, this booklet sets out to focus on how those responsible for pastoral or curriculum areas can carry out self-evaluation without getting overwhelmed by the whole of a SEF.

Alive and kicking: Case studies in teaching foreign languages
Date: March 2007  Price: £12
Authors: Sue Webb, Jim Donnelly, Maria Sharratt, Andres Simpson, Matthew Morris, Nigel Clemens, Jenni Hall, Peter Kent, Annabel Kay, Benn Warren and Elin Owen
The case studies gathered together in this publication demonstrate that, whatever external strategies or levers are in place the greatest impact comes from the enthusiastic teacher.

ASCL Cymru election manifesto
Date: December 2006 Price: £00
ASCL Cymru – A manifesto for secondary schools and colleges

Leading an extended school
Date: November 2006 Price: £16
Editor: Malcolm Noble
The extended schools agenda is one of the great unknowns challenges facing schools this decade, and its true impact on schools is still up for debate.

The personal touch
Date: July 2006 Price: £10.50
Authors: Jill Clough, Irene Dalton and Bernard Trafford
The purpose of this book is to encourage: to persuade school leaders truly to ‘lead the learning' by using their own experiences both of learning at school and in further or higher education, and also through professional and personal practice.

Pay arrangements April 2006 – August 2008
Date: May 2006 Price: £2
Pocket book of salary scales for April 2006- August 2008

Raising the student voice
Date: May 2006 Price: £8
Author: Bernard Trafford
A follow up to the 2003 publication Schools councils, school democracy and school improvement by Bernard Trafford, head of Wolverhampton Grammar School

Work-life balance
Date: March 2006 Price: £15
Author: Deborah Duncan
Everyone is talking about it – work-life balance. What does it mean and how can we in schools and colleges achieve it? This book will endeavour to address these two questions from a range of perspectives.

Leadership that lasts
Date: March 2006 Price: £20
Author: Robert Hill
Being a school leader is getting tougher...
Headteachers and senior leaders are working longer hours. They are staying in post for less time and retiring earlier. Fewer senior teachers are applying for the top school posts when they become vacant.

Facilities management for schools
Date: March 2005 Price: £12
Authors: Malcolm Noble and Malcolm Trobe
This is the third SHA publication written by Malcolm Trobe and Malcolm Noble to guide members through the intricacies of dealing with the private sector in the construction, refurbishment and management of school buildings. The first was a guidance leaflet to help members get started on a PFI project. No sooner was that guidance published than it became clear that the subject of PFI was such a huge one, and the pitfalls so numerous and various, that a whole book was needed.

Post qualification application to high education
Date: November 2005 Price: £12.50
Report of commission of the Secondary Heads Association

Leading learners and learning leaders
Date: January 2004 Price: £9
Edited by: Rob Bray
This is an important book. Deputies and assistant heads do not represent the majority of SHA's consistently growing membership and, though the huge role of the former was acknowledged in If it moves some years ago, the latter have never had a book dedicated to their role, aspirations or frustrations.

Fairer funding: From exasperation to entitlement
Date: December 2003 Price: £3
Author: Lindsey Warmby
In the 1990s, SHA welcomed the introduction of local management of schools, We have worked consistently to improve the system based on three fundamental principles.

Managing a PFI project
Date: September 2003 Price: £12
Authors: Malcolm Noble and Malcolm Trobe
PFI has gained a mixed press since its inception. As is often the case, it has been the more negative aspects of the scheme that have made the headlines! What has seen less publicity are the many PFI education schemes that are now working very effectively across the country. Clearly there were teething troubles in the early days of educational PFI programmes. Most of these difficulties now appear to be behind us.

School councils, school democracy, school improvement
Date: July 2003 Price: £13
Author: Bernard Trafford
This 104 page book, published by the Secondary Heads Association, is written by Bernard Trafford, head of Wolverhampton Grammar School and member of SHA Council and Executive. His latest book describes how the process of creating a democratic ethos and working democratic structures within a school brings about significant school improvement, discussing the changes from the point of view of the students and their concerns, needs and worries as well as from that of teachers and school leaders.

Managing collaboration 14-19
Date: March 2003 Price: £11.50
Editor: Sue Kirkham
This timely book contains a small sample of existing projects from which school and college leaders contemplating future collaboration will be able to draw many lessons.

Last act: Summary and comment on the Education act 2002
Date: March 2003 Price: £7.50
Author: Richard Bird

Two sectors, one purpose: Independent school in the system
Date: September 2002 Price: £11.50
Editor: Bernard Trafford
This is a book about independent schools. But it is a SHA publication and the association has always (and rightly) prided itself on the fact that it brings together committed education professionals from a wide range of schools and colleges and encourages communication, mutual understanding and support for the good of all those who work and learn in the education system.

What's it all about?
Date: July 2002 Price: £10
Authors: Jill Clough, Irene Dalton and Bernard Trafford
This refreshing publication which constitutes an invitation to step off the treadmill of meetings, phone-calls, reports, letters and forms, and spend some time reflecting on those central issues which determine the true nature and real outcomes of the education we are able to offer our young people.

Making the most of it: Middle management in schools and colleges
Date: May 2002 Price: £11.50
Editor: Bernard Trafford
For some time there has been a perceived need for SHA to publish a book about the nurturing of our middle managers, so essential for real and sustainable progress yet so often an under-developed resource. This symposium, produced by the same thoughtful and well-read team of practioners responsible for The Creativity of School Leadership, has turned out to be more ambitious and wide-ranging than the publication originally envisaged and I am sure that members will find it as stimulating and helpful as the previous booklet.

Hard times for English teaching
Date: March 2002 Price: £9
This book arose directly out of a discussion in SHA Council during which members expressed concern that the combined effect of the framework for teaching English and the extension of the National Literacy Strategy into secondary schools might deliver the final death blow to English teaching as we have known and valued it.

Diversity, inclusivity and equal opportunities
Date: October 2001 Price: £11.50
Editor: Bernard Trafford
This book allows a cross-section of our members to demonstrate convincingly that they are, and have been, playing a major role in creating the just and fair society that many people dream of. To SHA members, diversity, inclusivity and equal opportunities are not vacuous buzz-words of the moment, used to peddle the latest brand of snake oil, but living realities which we try to promote and which we have to mange every day.

Governing bodies: Purpose, role and practice
Date: October 2001 Price: £10.50
Author: Bruce Douglas
This book is both philosophical and intensely pragmatic.  It seeks to fully justify the idea of lay governing bodies while talking about the ways they could and should operate.  It takes as its starting point that the very existence of such bodies, importantly responsible for a huge public service, is remarkable.  Such an arrangement is not precisely replicated elsewhere in the world - nor are the current English (and Welsh) arrangements of long historical date.

14 and beyond: Proposals for the development of a coherent post-14 education framework
Date: October 2001 Price: £8

Managing staff reductions
Date: August 2001 Price: £7
Author: Brian Urwin

The management of stress
Date: July 2001 Price: £6
Author:  John Sutton

Working with the unions
Date: May 2001 Price: £5
Author: John Sutton

The creativity of school leadership
Date: March 2001 Price: £10
Editor: David Bennett

Managing value added
Date: January 2001 Price: £8.50
Author: Tony Neal

Working with parents
Date: November 2000 Price: £12.50
Author: Eithne Leming

Managing the school for inspection: The 2000 framework
Date: May 2000 Price: £7.50
Authors: David Bennett and Kevin Harper

Managing a new headship
Date: July 1999 Price: £6
Author: Robert Godber

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