‘OMG, what have I done!’ I thought, during my first meeting with the Trust Head of Finance after taking up a role as a head within a MAT,...

In my last 3 years as a coach working with heads, one theme has emerged more than any other – how can I keep going in this job? I’ve...

I’ll let you into a secret – you’re not the only headteacher sitting on a beach this summer second-guessing decisions you made, things...

If you have a tendency towards perfectionism, it can work fairly well for you when you’re a classroom teacher, at least in terms of your...

One of the hardest aspects of being a leader in the education sector today seems to be the extent to which you’re in the firing line....

According to the TES (‘Headteachers are leaving schools’, 23 June 2023), school leaders are leaving the profession in record numbers....

As I speak to headteachers and trust leaders up and down the country, in my role as a coach, I notice trends emerging. As we’re all...

If you’re a headteacher, you’ve probably heard about coaching, whether you’ve actually experienced it yourself or not. In this blog, I...

I’ve been reflecting a lot with school leaders, lately, on how different situations in leadership require a different approach. When a...

The idea of ‘dedicated headship time’ first appeared when education workforce reform was being looked at more broadly in 2005. The phrase...

Being able to give feedback that’s ‘clear but kind’ is an important leadership skill, but it’s not easy and takes a lot of practice to...

A few days ago, I read a social media post from a headteacher who had just permanently excluded a student, and was feeling terrible about...

Spinning plates, firefighting, being snowed under, drowning in paperwork, headless chickens . . . These are some of the metaphors I...

Values matter for organisations and for individuals. When values are shared across an organisation, it brings people together and gives...

Most of the education leaders I work with are passionate about empowering their teams to do great work, and they really want to nurture...

There’s a couple of scenarios that have come up a lot lately in my conversations with school leaders. The first is the leader is filled...

In a recent poll which I conducted in school leader groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, 57% of respondents said that worry about staff...

Mindfulness is spreading in popularity and there has been an explosion in the number of apps, books, website etc available over the past...

During the course of my career, I’ve been part of many different teams and I’ve attended some brilliant meetings that motivated, inspired...

The last 18 months have been an exercise in agility for all organisations, none more so than those in the public sector, such as...