Schools' failure to train the next generation of headteachers will have "catastrophic consequences" for the education system, Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools, has warned.
The courses and support available to aspiring headteachers are "far too fragmented and not consistent at all levels", he said, adding that recruiting excellent school leaders is becoming harder than ever.
"As the baby-boom generation retires, younger, less-experienced colleagues will have to take their place – and this is at a time that we are asking so much more of our schools."
Many governing bodies are also failing to appoint the best candidates to lead schools, he told teachers at the Hackney Learning Trust. "In seeking successor heads, governing bodies employ what they know and what is familiar rather than what the school needs."
"If we're serious about long-term school improvement this has to change. We need a more professional approach in governing bodies, especially in the most challenging schools and communities. If that means paying governors, then so be it."
A younger leadership force will also need the support of clusters and federations if it is to succeed.
Discussing the need for authoritative headteachers, Wilshaw pointed to his own leadership style, "Wilshaw's way", which he developed while leading Mossbourne Academy. "It owes a bit to Nelson Mandela, a bit to Mother Teresa, a bit to Machiavelli and Clint Eastwood, and an awful lot to Frank Sinatra, you know the song."
A lack of training isn't the only obstacle facing school leaders, according to Wilshaw, who added that "some teachers simply won't accept that a school is not a collective but a hierarchy."
"How many teachers not only grumble about managers' decisions but also question their right even to make them?"
Headteachers should be guided by what is best for students, he said. "If anyone is preventing them from getting the education they deserve, be they unreasonable union reps – and we know a lot of them are very reasonable, though some aren't – or foot-dragging local politicians, this should be their guiding principle."
