The Principal Network will serve as both a physical and virtual convener of school leaders and will create communities of practice for them to work together to solve real problems and create change, school-by-school, to improve learning and teaching. The Principal network will also serve as an ongoing resource for school leaders throughout the country.

This component of the Leadership Initiative adopts a systems approach to improvement, which incorporates a “vertical slice” of the Johannesburg Central District to include both school and district-level officials. School Principals and District Officials in the intervention will be introduced to a structured series of activities designed to help achieve organizational coherence within the system and the effective alignment of activities and structures for the common purpose of improving educational processes and outcomes.

The research directly linked to the initiative focuses mainly on monitoring, evaluating and improving of the intervention. The ultimate aim is to identify the elements of the intervention that were most successful with a view to replicate the intervention in other school districts. Another aspect related to the research agenda is the development of education management and leadership case studies which will be published.