This report is concerned primarily with impressions gained from a course on the role of school managers which was held for managers of schools in Liverpool's designated Educational Priority Area (EPA). The Liverpool EPA Project is an attempt to create support for the idea of the community school in socially deprived areas. The function of the school manager is to exercise a degree of local control over a school which is centrally administered by a large local authority. The manager acts as a means of communication between residents and the school, and is acquainted with the special needs and problems of his school. An account is given of the discussions during the course on the role and functions of school managers as they themselves see it, and an analysis is presented of those views in the light of the Plowden Report's recommendations on managing bodies within the concept of the community school. (CL)