Recent research points clearly to heads of department as key players in raising pupil achievement. This self-help guide aims to provide a training pack to help them to do just that. The sections on monitoring and target setting provide a useful stimulus in a difficult area. The pack is prescriptive in the nature of the activities described. Department heads will find it useful if they see the activities as suggestions rather then as recipes for success.

Jo Dibb Deputy headteacher, Morpeth School, Tower Hamlets, east London