In collaboration with Cambridge Assessment International Education, LILO offers its participants the opportunity to claim the Cambridge International Certificate in Educational Leadership. The Cambridge leadership qualification is designed to help educational leaders

The Cambridge leadership qualifications are designed to help educational leaders

• develop their professional thinking and practice, and
• enhance their knowledge, skills and understanding of effective leadership, leadership practice and school effectiveness.

The prestigious qualifications will be of interest to

• aspiring and practicing leaders working at one of the more than 10,000 Cambridge schools across 160 countries worldwide
• teachers and administrators from non-Cambridge schools and different education-related organisations who want to develop understandings of leadership in Cambridge school contexts

The qualification is under the framework of Cambridge Professional Development Qualifications (Cambridge PDQs). More information about Cambridge PDQs can be found at: https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/support-and-training-for-schools/professional-development-qualifications/

The Education University of Hong Kong is the first university in the world to offer Cambridge leadership qualifications as part of a postgraduate degree programme.

The LILO team will offer its best resources and tailored guidance for its participants wishing to obtain the Cambridge leadership qualifications to complete the following requirements:

1. Find a mentor to work with throughout the LILO programme. The mentor could be a senior and trusted colleague in school (s/he can be your mentor for the LILO Virtual Consultancy course).
2. Maintain a reflective journal throughout the programme. By keeping a journal, you will more effectively evaluate your practice and develop reflective skills to underpin professional development.
3. Complete the LILO taught courses
4. Complete the Innovation Development Project
5. Plan, prepare, and carry out interview(s) with an experienced leader. You will design the interview questions based on your professional development needs and interests.
6. Write a final reflective piece of around 1,000 words.

Please read very carefully the syllabus: https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/support-and-training-for-schools/professional-development/professional-development-qualifications/curriculum/educational-leadership/

The LILO team will be here to help you navigate the requirements.

The resources we will provide include

• an orientation handbook
• Cambridge educational leadership learning materials
• recommended literature from Cambridge on educational leadership
• other readings and materials tailored for your professional development needs

Resources for professional reflections about mentoring

• Getting started with Mentoring
• Getting started with Reflective Practice
• Cambridge Professional Development Qualifications: A guide for mentors
• On Reflective Writing

Suggested contents for the final reflective essay (1,000 words)

1. Explain and articulate your new knowledge and understanding of theories, definitions and research findings about successful leadership internationally and apply it critically to your own context and leadership roles (demonstrate an awareness of the contextual nature of leadership and the ways in which context affects leadership action).
2. Describe how you applied your understanding of successful leadership to a research interview with an experienced leader in your own local context.
3. Articulate and evaluate key features, strategies and skills of successful leadership practices at different levels, apply your understanding to an analysis of your own role and identify key priorities for professional development.
4. Demonstrate understanding of the features of educational leadership that have an impact on the improvement of teaching and learning, and evaluate the strategies and skills required to develop the quality of teaching and learning in your context and role.
5. Plan, implement and evaluate an initiative to improve the quality of teaching and learning in your area of leadership responsibility, and evaluate the impact of the initiative on teaching and learning and on development of your own leadership practice.
6. Demonstrate critical understanding of the academic literature on leading and managing change, as well as critically review/ evaluate the implications from the literature (on change and school improvement for leaders and their development).
7. Understand the importance of staff development in relation to improving the quality of teaching and learning, school improvement and change processes.
8. Show your understanding about how to develop staff in schools and other educational settings, and which forms of staff development are the most effective and have an impact on learning.
9. Describe how you developed and presented to different audiences, by the electronic portfolio for the course Virtual Consultancy, an evaluation of your leadership role, including a strategy for development that focuses on selected practices of successful leadership.
10. Evaluate the outcomes of the presentation (for example in Virtual Consultancy or Organizational Learning Field Study) to produce a short-term development plan for developing your role in order to improve specific outcomes in your area of leadership.