Which scenario best illustrates distributed leadership in school…

Concept — Distributed leadership treats leadership as a capacity spread across many people in an organisation rather than a property vested in one post. Its defining marker is that decision-making authority itself — not merely the workload — is genuinely devolved, so several actors exercise real judgement within their own sphere. Delegation of tasks without delegation of authority is therefore not distribution.

Application — Applying that marker here, the arrangement in which subject heads lead curriculum teams with decision authority puts real decision rights into several hands at once: each subject head decides within their curricular domain, so the leadership function is spread horizontally across the staff instead of resting on the principal's office alone.

Contrast with the other scenarios

• Delegating administrative tasks while retaining the decisions moves work outward but keeps authority at the centre — the standard distinction between delegation and distribution.

• Routing all major decisions through the principal makes a single office the only decision point, which is the definition of centralized, hierarchical control.

• The principal personally chairing every committee keeps consultative forums in place, but the presiding role in each of them is concentrated in a single post; the scenario evidences centralized formal leadership and gives no indication that decision authority has itself been devolved to those committees.

Result — Distributed leadership is identified by dispersed decision-making authority, so the scenario in which subject heads lead curriculum teams with decision authority is the one that best illustrates it.