Best Practices of South African Public School Leaders: A holistic legal-based practice of excellence aims to contribute to the field of education management, law and policy by sharing critical and inspiring experiences of principals and other educational leaders regarding their best practices in public schools. It provides various models of excellence that are recommended by authors so that schools can use them to change their schools into ‘schools of excellence’.

It provides readers with knowledge, skills, values and inspiration;

• That are based on the access and availability of education, fundraising, academic excellence, staff and learner motivation, co-operative governance, clean audit reports, schools as learning organisations for staff, safe and disciplined school environment, excellence in principalship and stakeholder involvement;
• About the roles of principals’ associations, professional associations for teachers, school governing body associations and teacher unions in changing schools to be centres of excellence; and 
• From the principals and educational leaders who practically implemented the strategies and became successful.

• Chapter 1:  Improving Access to and Availability of Public School Education 
• Chapter 2:  Fundraising in No-fee Public Schools 
• Chapter 3:  Best Academic Practices that Lead to Excellent Performance in Public Schools 
• Chapter 4:  Towards Excellence in Public Schools’ Staff and Learner Motivation 
• Chapter 5:  Co-operative governance: Best practices in public  schools 
• Chapter 6:  The Role of Principals’ Associations in Excellence in Public Schools 
• Chapter 7:  The Roles of Professional Associations for Teachers in Excellence in Public Schools 
• Chapter 8:  The Role of School Governing Body Associations in Achieving Excellence in School Governance 
• Chapter 9:  The Role of Teacher Unions in Driving Excellence in Public Schools 
• Chapter 10: Excellence in the Creation of a Safe and Disciplined School Environment 
• Chapter 11:  Resource Management for Clean Audit Reports in Public Schools 
• Chapter 12:  Schools as Learning Organisations for Staff Members 
• Chapter 13:  Re-Imagining Excellence in Public School Principalship from a National Teaching Awards Perspective 
• Chapter 14: Enhancing Excellence in Stakeholder Involvement in Public Schools: The Role of School Leaders 
• Chapter 15: Concluding Remarks 
• Index

This book will be useful to principals; members of school management teams; members of school governing bodies; members of associations for school governing bodies; members of professional associations for teachers; members of principals’ associations; teachers; officials from the department of education; and other stakeholders in education to turn schools into ‘schools of excellence’. Researchers, academics and policy makers can use it as a source of critical information that is relevant to the reflection on public policies and their practical implementation at school level. It can also be used as a training tool in workshops and seminars.