In brief...

New faces at headquarters

ASCL headquarters is bursting at the seams following the appointment of several new staff.

Tim Glover started on 5 May as ASCL's first full-time solicitor. Tim qualified as a solicitor in 1991 while working for British Gas in the regional solicitor's office in Leicester, only a stone's throw from ASCL headquarters. Most recently he worked for Peninsula Business Services Limited as an employment tribunal advocate representing their clients. He describes this as a very intensive time but the experience gained, he says, was second to none.

Tim will work with ASCL's Legal Consultant, Richard Bird, and legal firm, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain.

In the Management and Professional Services (MAPS) Office, Mark Walton has been appointed to help coordinate ASCL's larger one-day conferences, following Jenny Jones's move to business development manager. Mark comes to the association from NIACE where he worked in a similar role in the events department.

Guy Walsh joined ASCL in May as personal assistant to Martin Ward, following Gillian Rawson's move to legal administrator. Guy previously worked for Business Post as call centre manager.

These appointments will help us keep up with the demands of our growing membership, which stands now at over 12,700, and with the increased activity in MAPS.

Leading the leaders

Sue Kirkham and John Dunford have been part of an NCSL-led working group to design a scheme to put into practice the white paper's proposal for 'national leaders of education' (NLE).

The plans that have gone from this group to the secretary of state represent a very much improved model than was originally envisaged. We have suggested that NLEs should be a cohort of heads available to support schools in difficulties, with accreditation being given both to the leader as an NLE and to his or her school as a 'national support school'. Ministers have approved the group's proposals.