Teacher leadership needs to be fostered, supported and developed and not left to chance. Contemporary scholarly literature suggests that middle leaders play a significant role in working with their teachers to encourage initiatives for school improvement. The stimulus for this article is an independent evaluation of the Middle Leadership Program (2013-2014) run by the Queensland Education Leadership Institute (QELi) in Australia under licence to the National College of School Leadership and Children's Services in England. First, we examine the recommendations from that evaluation. Second, we present a select review of international literature on studies about professional development for middle leaders. Third, we apply ten criteria for determining the quality of leadership learning programs. Finally, we offer a suggested design for leadership programs that cater for those moving towards principalships (headships) and those staying in the middle leadership tier where they have an important role to play in fostering and enhancing teacher leadership.