Julie Nightingale finds out about a new scheme that aims to help address the lack of black and minority ethnic leaders in England's schools.

At 35, Reema Reid was a latecomer to teaching although she has climbed rapidly up the career tree since. In the last 11 years the one-time teaching assistant has progressed to co-headship in a federation in Lambeth, making her one of a small number of school staff from a black or minority ethnic background to hold a senior leadership role. (Reid is British-born of Jamaican parents.)

In 2008, while a vice-principal, she took part in a pilot scheme offering aspiring leaders from a BME background the opportunity to shadow an Ofsted inspector. Funded by the National College and operated by the Network for Black Professionals, it gives participants an insider's view of inspections and a deeper understanding of what makes a good school tick (and a poor one falter).

Reid joined two-day inspections in two Midlands primary schools.

"I took part because I wanted to be a headteacher and I wanted an insight into the inspection process to know what I was letting myself in for," she explains. "But the other side was that you never see any BME Ofsted inspectors and that was a concern for me as I was working in a school where 98 per cent of the children are of black or ethnic minority background. You must wonder how much understanding [non-BME] inspectors are likely to have of the cultures of those children and families. So the shadowing was an opportunity to gain some insight and to act as something of a role model to both pupils and inspectors."

Participating in the scheme also gave her professional confidence a huge fillip. And confidence is the key thing BME staff lack when it comes to aspiring to headship, she says.

"One of the many things that I learned and was able to take back into school with me, for example, was the importance of using and analysing data and how important a role it plays in the inspection process. But everything that the inspectors were focused on for school improvement and accountability I recognised and was already doing to some degree. In that sense it was confirmation that I was right in what I was doing to raise standards and improve children's lives regardless of culture, social circumstance or the area in which they live."

The experience emboldened her to apply for her current co-headship at the Iqra Primary School, a voluntary-aided school with an Islamic ethos in the federation of Loughborough and Kings Avenue schools in Lambeth. Later this year she plans to go for her first substantive headship.

Gurdeep Singh, 34, was head of maths at Aylesbury Grammar School for Boys and had been teaching for 13 years when he took part in the shadowing scheme.

Born in Huddersfield, his family are Sikh but he had never seen his own 'cultural background' as relevant and was initially reluctant to join an initiative which appeared to be making a special case for individuals. "I felt the scheme was something that should be open to everyone, irrespective of colour," he says, but decided, on balance, that it was too good an opportunity to miss.

He joined the inspection teams at two academies and seeing the workings of Ofsted at such close quarters was a revelation.

"My perception of inspections was, like all teachers I suppose, rather negative," he says. "But shadowing them you get to see the variety of things they do — analysis, lesson observations, talking to staff and students. The fact that I enjoyed it as much as I did was surprising."

Back at Aylesbury Grammar, he shared the experience in a report for the senior leadership team, setting out how the school could extract more benefit from inspections by, for example, getting more feedback. It proved timely: three months later, the school was itself inspected, at which point he gave a presentation to staff, highlighting areas such as the kinds of evidence inspectors look for to show the impact of a school's specialism.

The shadowing combined with the Leadership Pathways programme he has taken with the National College, helped him secure a promotion to assistant head, he believes.

"I felt I was so much more knowledgeable so when I had to talk about building community cohesion, for example, I could draw on examples of things that I had seen in other schools that could work here." He is also planning to apply to become an Ofsted inspector.

The shadowing scheme is open to black and minority ethnic teachers with experience of middle or senior management who are aspiring to headship. Another pilot begins in spring 2010 with wider roll-out planned after that.

BME staff remain under-represented in school leadership. Between 2003 and 2009, an average of just 1.9 per cent of headteachers appointed were from BME backgrounds, according to the Howson annual report on recruitment and other sources. Recent College research adds to the picture (see Leadership News, page 7).

Increasing the numbers of BME leaders in schools is not only desirable in equality terms but is also a significant strand of the National College's succession planning strategy, says Judy Barson, Project Manager, Diversity and Equality, for the College.

"We need to draw on the widest pool of talent possible and encouraging more people from a BME background to go for leadership is very much part of that strategy," she says.

Rajinder Mann, executive director of the Network for Black Professionals, also emphasises the strategic importance of the scheme to the sector.

"A lot of BME staff are hesitant about participating in the scheme as they don't want to be treated differently but it is very much part of a national strategic drive to address the paucity of BME leaders and build capacity in leadership. It is about raising awareness and promoting good practice and, in that way, is for the sector as much as the individuals."

Ofsted itself is looking to encourage more BME senior leaders and heads to apply to become full-time inspectors. Gloria Dolan, manager of the shadowing scheme for Ofsted, said it reflected the inspectorate's commitment to diversity and to helping to promote a fairer society which values people's differences.

"Society benefits from the rich cultural diversity that people can bring," she says. "And if certain groups are excluded, we are even further away from a fair society and that's not good."

Next Steps
For more on equality and diversity in leadership see: www.nationalcollege.org.uk/achieving-equality-and-diversity