Award winner to share expertise

Iain Hulland, winner of the Promethean Award for Headteacher of the Year at the National Teaching Awards, will jet off on Thursday to lead a three-day conference on leadership and evaluation in education.

The Alder Grange Community and Technology School head, will be accompanied on the trip by two senior advisers from Lancashire Education Authority.

He hopes to swap ideas with teachers from the across the Atlantic.

Mr Hulland, 54, said: "It has been a bit of a whirlwind the past week, what with filming for the awards in London and now jetting off for Boston.

"There won't be much chance to do any sightseeing, but I am looking forward to meeting other teachers, who I am sure will have some terrific ideas.

"I will be speaking about how a school such as Alder Grange does self-evaluation and sustains strong leadership - basically how we have kept things going from strength to strength while keeping a good balance between running the school and teaching."

Mr Hulland was deputy head at the school from 1990 and became the headteacher in 1997.

Since then his accomplishments have included leading the school to achieve technology status, the Healthy Schools Standard and becoming the first school in the country to win a Listening School award.

It was these achievements and nominations from colleagues which led to Mr Hulland being crowned the best headteacher in the country at the award ceremony.

Adding to the East Lancashire teaching expertise will be Accrington born, Andy Hargreaves, who is now a professor in education at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

He has organised the conference and invited Mr Hulland to speak at it.

Mr Hulland added: "Andy came home to Lancashire in the summer and we did some work together about school self evaluation.

"I don't know whether he knows about the award yet and probably doesn't realise he has now got a prestigious speaker arriving."