I’ve been reading posts online this week from leaders who have just taken their first steps into headship, and it’s caused me to reflect on my own first weeks and months in a headteacher role nearly 15 years ago. One moment came clearly into view. I was fortunate to be part of a new heads group in my LA (sadly I don’t think they’re all that common these days). We attended a workshop together and the first activity was to bring a photo that showed something you felt proud of f

I’ve noticed that AI has become a regular talking point in coaching conversations with heads. I was really impressed the other day as I listened to a head tell me how he and his staff are leveraging it, among other things, as a tool to enhance effective feedback to pupils. The creative possibilities seem to keep coming, but I can’t help wondering what we might be losing as AI occupies a bigger and bigger space in school life and in the minds of school leaders. The context of

I was coaching a lady recently who had moved school and into a new role as a head of department. She was feeling a bit like a fish out of...

‘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....

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

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

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...

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...