CSM Directory

Biography:

I have worked in education for 35 years, including 12 years of headship in 3 different schools. For the last 12 years I have worked as an independent education consultant, working across all phases. I have facilitated NPQH and NPQSL for the last 12 years and deliver lots of bespoke leadership development in schools. I also coach a wide range of headteachers and senior leaders on a regular basis. I also work with schools on developing well-being and on a range of pedagogical approaches including Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction and Philosophy for Children (P4C).

I spent my last 10 years of headship developing a coaching culture within my school to help all stakeholders realise their evolving potential. For the last 9 years I have worked as an independent leadership consultant and coach working with a range of primary and secondary headteachers and executive headteachers. I have undergone extensive training in coaching and regularly run coaching training for Winchester University to train coaches supporting participants on the NPQ programmes. I also run a range of 1-4 day coaching programmes to develop participants expertise in coaching, as well as working with schools to help them develop a coaching culture to impact on leadership capacity and the quality of teaching and learning. I have a coach myself and am constantly reflecting on my practice and how to develop it.

I am passionate about the power of non-directive coaching to enable leaders to realise their evolving potential. I understand the myriad of competing demands and the tensions and complexity of headship first hand and know how coaching can cut through that by focussing on one goal and provide clarity and challenge to the coachees thinking to move them forward and realise their greatness. My core vales of autonomy, reflection, humility, authenticity and humour are reflected in my coaching style. I help my clients challenge their assumptions and limiting beliefs and gain greater clarity to achieve their goals and become the best leader they can be. This is all done within a supportive relationship that demand the coachee's best thinking, whilst recognising the absurdities of headship and life! My own regular coaching sessions have had a huge impact on me and my professional and personal growth and I want to provide this for my clients. Where relevant and with the coachee's consent, I sometimes offer leadership models or structures from other sources to the coachee to support them generate their own unique solutions to their goal. I have huge empathy for headteachers and the multiple roles they inhabit in their schools, which is informed by my own leadership experience and my regular immersion in the day to day lives of schools through my work as a consultant. I am increasingly interested in the importance of leaders being aware of their core values and beliefs and using these to strengthen their leadership and their development as a whole person.