In Phil Revell’s leadership article (The Job, July 5) we learn from reesearch how it is important for head teachers to have both a clear vision of where their school is going and a clear map of how to get there.

However, an ordinary map is accessible to just about any pupil or teacher since it merely indicates physical location, not the complex human relationships within a street, school or hospital.

Perhaps the Institute of Education’s researchers could explain what kind of apparently cognitive map successful head teachers deploy to make practical sense of the differentiated jargon, attitudes and educational perceptions they encounter when walking and talking around the school to ensure everyone is heading in the right direction.

Is the map a subtle “sense-making” entity that ordinary folk wouldn’t be able to understand?

Neil Richardson
Moorside Road
Huddersfield