The article reveals characteristic features of school leadership in urban and rural areas. It specifies the notions of the concepts "leadership", "educational leadership", "school leadership" and presents the main characteristic features of a leader-teacher in accordance with the policy of The New Ukrainian School. It is argued that school leadership is the joint activity of a large number of leaders within the secondary school which is aimed at creating comfortable and equal learning

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... ies for all students. The main part of this activity is performed by a motivated lead teacher, who is an organizer and manager of colleagues, students, and their parents. Among the main characteristics of lead teachers, defined by the authors, there is the ability to motivate colleagues and students, innovativeness in teaching, skillful lesson planning and design, usage of modern technologies, partnership, openness and flexibility. In the light of educational reform The New Ukrainian School, the responsibilities of lead teachers include planning, mentoring, communicating with parents, evaluating, and actively participating in school governance. On the basis of empirical research conducted in urban and rural schools the authors were able to analyze the nature of modern school leadership, to define the barriers to leadership in schools, to reveal the problems that affect the development of leadership skills such as insufficient funding, lack of material and technical equipment, low school governance. It is found that the majority of rural educators do not call themselves "leaders", although in their activity they use the methods and principles inherent in leaders. Their answers also indicate the need for additional training in educational leadership, community development, and school governance, as they understand school leadership mainly as an activity of the administration. Teachers in both urban and rural schools are equally interested in partnership pedagogy, development of students' critical thinking and mandatory implementation of agreements. At the same time, the answers revealed the insufficient level of teacher mentoring, mutual support and evaluation, which are the important components of school leadership. Keywords: leader, leadership, school leadership, leader-teachers, urban and rural secondary educational institution, NUS, partnership pedagogy.