Reflections on the Chartered College of Teaching Fellows Roundtable

What are you hoping for? What are you afraid of?

These two questions jumped out at me in the middle of a fascinating roundtable, which focused on the Framework for Ethical Leadership in Education (FELE) and was expertly led by Carolyn Roberts, former Chair of the Ethical Leadership Commission. The whole event was packed full of pertinent questions like these, which were designed to provoke and promote active reflections on the dilemmas, choices and decisions that school leaders have to navigate and resolve. We were challenged to consider what can hold leaders back from making the right choices and decisions, and how the FELE could be used to support leaders when faced with dilemmas or difficult calls.

Rich discussion followed, highlighting issues of concern as well as powerful potential ways forward, so I would now like to share the key learning elements that stood out for me.

What is the FELE?

The FELE was introduced in the report ‘Navigating the moral maze’ (2019). It was created by the Ethical Leadership Commission (ELC) set up by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) to help leaders consider the ethical foundation of their work, and support their decision making. In addition to its seven values, which were taken almost verbatim from the 1995 ‘The seven principles for public life’ (Committee on Standards in Public Life), it adds seven virtues.

• The values are: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, leadership
• The virtues are: trust, wisdom, kindness, justice, service, courage, optimism

These virtues were not new either, in that they are common to ancient writings as well as contemporary standards. What was new was that they had been identified and brought together as key elements in a framework specifically designed to support leaders in education to behave ethically.

What strikes me each time I re-visit it, is how very relevant these values and virtues continue to be, and how the FELE could be a very positive resource for many other organisations to draw on, not just those in education.

This was reinforced right from the opening question of the roundtable, as participants were encouraged to focus on their own very recent experiences, ensuring that from the outset the discussion was relevant to their own roles and context.

Which of the values and/or virtues are uppermost in your mind?

‘In the light of the week you’ve had so far, which of the values and/or virtues are uppermost in your mind at the moment?’

How would you answer that right now?

The responses in the roundtable came swiftly, and while almost all the values and virtues were mentioned at least once, the top three identified by this group of fellows were integrity, wisdom and trust. They were not seen as theoretical wishful thinking, but integral elements for Ethical Leadership and essential for solving practical issues.

Do you agree?

Integrity was also linked to courage and being open about reasons for decisions. This was a recurring theme. Optimism was highly valued too, particularly the importance of leaders being visibly optimistic, as well as being true to their values.

The importance of sharing experiences was echoed, including the challenges which come from battling between what is right for the individual and what is right for the school when these conflict. It was agreed that this is often seen as the real dilemma of school leadership.

What difference can the FELE make?

During the two years following the introduction of the FELE, the National Governance Association (NGA) supported a total of 314 organisations who wanted to adapt and use the FELE. In their report ‘Paving the way for Ethical Leadership in education’ (2021), these pathfinders reported that the FELE really did provide a common language and shared focus for conversations about ethical dilemmas, and those complex issues that leaders and governing boards have to get their heads round at all times and in all contexts.

Positive impact was evident in areas such as recruitment, curriculum, staff wellbeing, staff as role models, students as global citizens and leaders, governors, and re-affirming existing values and ethos.

During the roundtable time constraints meant we just focused on one area – curriculum. This tied in very well with the release of the findings of the Curriculum and Assessment Review final report (2025) the previous day. Carolyn posed a series of questions relating to some of the dilemmas around curriculum, including:

• curriculum planning
• timetabling and allocation
• grouping of students
• recruitment of teachers.

Discussions relating to internal tensions in schools (such as those relating to subject specialist shortages, and which classes should be taught by the subject specialists) as well as external constraints (e.g. relating to the requirements of Ofsted, or the Trust, or the LA) illustrated the range of dilemmas that leaders can face.

These all dovetailed into questioning just what part principles (and values and virtues) play in decision making. The importance of context was also seen as a key influence. As Carolyn said, a wise decision in one place may be a courageous decision in another.

What do we do about…?

Some ‘familiar’ dilemmas were outlined, including the impact of budget cuts, options choices, setting versus mixed ability, Year 6 teacher choice, and monitoring an underperforming area.

There was a lot of interest and discussion around this last one in particular, with contributions reflecting how difficult it can be to address effectively. These included:

• the importance of approaching the situation with real empathy and kindness
• the recognition that one of the key tenets of Ethical Leadership is having those hard conversations, but that these should be coming from a point of care and openness (the notion of ‘radical candour’ was included here)
• being clear and consistent about your own values and virtues, and your school vision, is really important in building trust with staff.

So what do the values and virtues actually mean when thinking about these particular issues?

This was a great question, causing us to focus and reflect on the individual values, resulting in some really interesting comments, including:

Selflessness is about being willing to do the right thing rather than the expected thing.

Integrity is demonstrated through authenticity in leadership and being true to yourself, to your vision and your values.

Honesty is about being honest with yourself as well as with others – what do you really believe about schools and their purpose? (about learning? about teaching? about leading? about teachers?).

Trust – the importance and complexity of holding trust for others stood out for me in relation to decision-making. Which decisions demonstrate that you are holding trust for individuals, and which decisions demonstrate that you are holding trust for the school? Making a decision designed to serve the purposes of the school in the community is perfectly reasonable, but that may have a difficult effect on individuals.

Courage – the questions linked to having courage were also really interesting as they focused on internal ‘battles’ and ‘don’t want’ scenarios.

What are you anxious for? What are the things you don’t want to do? What are the conversations that you don’t want to have? What are the decisions that you don’t want to take?

This has given me an additional perspective on courageous Ethical Leadership – and being prepared to potentially do what you don’t want to do.

Is risk-taking ethical?

This was the final question. Whilst it focused on the specific example of planning the curriculum and timetable, it was also posed in more general terms. Opposing views on risk-taking in education were outlined plus the fact that some leaders are much more ready to take risks than others, but overall there was a level of agreement that you have got to be prepared for risk-taking.

This is when those two challenging questions that I highlighted at the start of this post could become particularly useful:

What are you hoping for? What are the best possible outcomes that could result from your decision, and would you be willing to take a risk by making an imaginative and ‘brave’ decision in order to try to achieve these?

What are you frightened of? What are the potential consequences of you taking that decision? What is the worst case scenario? It can sometimes be easy to talk about being brave, being innovative, and being principled, but, in practice, what might the implications of taking ‘brave’ decisions be for you, as a leader, personally (as well as the school) in relation to Ofsted or an inspection? Are you willing to take that risk?

Dilemmas, difficult choices, risk-taking and decision-making – the demands of Ethical Leadership can be challenging. Having the FELE as a structure and, as mentioned above, being clear about, and true to, your own values and virtues, as well as the school’s vision are all important in helping to build trust with staff, students, parents and the wider school community, and also then in supporting change when it is needed.

What now?

While the FELE has undoubtedly had a positive impact in many contexts it has become clear to me that there are still colleagues, from across different contexts, who have little or no knowledge of the FELE. Yet, my experience is that, invariably, when the FELE is introduced to them, it is welcomed as an excellent idea.

The challenge now is to encourage all those who think it is a good idea to actually engage with it in practice and adapt it within their own contexts. As we have seen, used well, it can be a valuable tool or resource that can help to shape the ethos of a school and to support leaders in the dilemmas they face so that they make the right choices when critical decision making is required.

References

Ethical Leadership Commission (2019) Navigating the moral maze: The final report of the Ethical Leadership Commission. London: ASCL. Available: https://www.ascl.org.uk/ASCL/media/ASCL/Our%20view/Campaigns/Navigating-the-educational-moral-maze.pdf (accessed 17 December 2025)
Francis B (2025) Delivering a world-class curriculum for all. London: DfE. Available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/690b96bbc22e4ed8b051854d/Curriculum_and_Assessment_Review_final_report_-_Building_a_world-class_curriculum_for_all.pdf (accessed 17 December 2025)

Committee on Standards in Public Life (1995) The seven principles of public life. London: HM Government. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life/the-7-principles-of-public-life–2#the-seven-principles-of-public-life (accessed 17 December 2025)

National Governance Association (2012) Paving the way for Ethical Leadership in education: Pathfinder schools and trusts Available: https://www.nga.org.uk/media/ylteeeuz/ethical-leadership-report-final.pdf (accessed 17 December 2025)