IF YOU want to keep up with the latest trends in school management, it is worth saving time by using the Internet. A quick trip on the Web led me to the following:

The School Leadership and Management search page for Education-line is at: http:www.leeds.ac.ukeducolslm.htm

Last week the “quick search” option gave a list of 250 documents. Among the most recent is Does Educational Research Matter? presented by Peter Mortimore, head of London’s Institute of Education, to the British Educational Research Association’s conference in Brighton last September in which he answered recent criticism of his profession. Another recent report is from R.A. Sparkes who presented Lies, Damned Lies and School Performance Indicators at this year’s Scottish Educational Research Association Conference.

The Scottish Council for Research in Education has a report at: http:www.scre.ac.uksummaryrr86.html on the Management of Change in Small Scottish Primary Schools by Valerie Wilson and Joanna McPake.

The National Association of Headteachers is at: http:www.naht.org.uk Its website is being rewritten, but you can send e-mail queries to the association direct from the site.

The Secondary Heads Association is at: http:www.sha.org.uk You can read the latest press releases - there are statements about the withdrawal of the Arthur Andersen-Birmingham consortium from Islington and John Dunford’s comments on William Hague’s education proposals propounded at the Conservative party conference.

The US Educational Resources Information Center Clearinghouse on Educational Management is at: http:eric.uoregon.edu It includes a page of items on trends and issues - focusing on the US education system and giving advice drawn from the latest literature in the field.

Detailed references can be searched through the ERIC database (nearly a million records) at: http:ericir.syr.eduEric

A key UK resource is the Educational Management Information Exchange at the National Foundation for Educational Research. Much of the information is available only to local education authority staff and members at: http:www.nfer.ac.ukemieindex.htm

The website for the National Association of Governors and Managers is: http:atschool.eduweb.co.uknagmhqindex.htm It has quite a useful set of documents for governors, including the recently issued Statutory Instrument (1999) No. 2163 and Governors’ News.

Then, of course, there is the TES website - www.tes.co.uk - which is a useful archive of articles and links. It gives regular school management articles from the Briefing pages (in this week’s edition: Management amp; Finance); selected articles from School Management Update (in Updates); an archive of all articles since October 1994 (in TES Library); links to government agencies, secondary and primary schools, FE colleges, and local education authorities (in NetworkEducation Links and NewtorkFE); school management forum in the TES Staffroom; management books in the TES Bookshop; Scottish management links in ScotlandNetwork; Ask the Expert archive on Learnfree. In January, all these will be merged into a more coherent Management Zone which should make it even easier to use.

Another directory worth looking at is http:www.education2000.co.uk This website provides daily updates of educational news from The TES, the Department for Education and Employment, the Guardian and the BBC, as well as resources for school managers.

Neil Levis and Sam Saunders