Winning article on school principal (5)
I believe the answer is:
ahead
'winning' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'article on school principal' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'a' (indefinite article).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'school principal' becomes 'head' ('head' can be a synonym of 'school principal').
'a'+'head'='AHEAD'
(Other definitions for ahead that I've seen before include "advanced" , "What's down the road" , "In the lead, in advance" , "Forward - in front" , "In the future" .)