CREATING HIGH PERFORMANCE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP TEAMS

BRINGING TWO
WORLDS TOGETHER

Strategic School Leaders takes leadership teams on a truly transformative leadership journey not just for the team itself but also the entire organisation the team is responsible for. As experienced current and former school leaders, backed by input from the commercial world we:

– Create the conditions for much greater levels of openness, honesty and alignment in Senior Teams.

– Increase the emotional connection of team members through expert coaching and consultancy.

– Ensure that you and your team are thinking and acting in a more strategic way, raising your focus beyond daily operational topics.

– Support you and your colleagues to acquire the domain specific knowledge and skills for educational leadership.

Why-Us-Diagram
"Rod provided invaluable support and encouragement, so much so that the school continued to employ him in a coaching capacity once the scheme ended. His support helped me improve the school to “outstanding” and he was instrumental in sustaining my own energy and confidence. He offered enormous support during some particularly challenging times, when the school became an Academy and then the lead school in a new Multi-Academy Trust."
Simon Decker
Head Teacher

WHY STRATEGIC SCHOOL LEADERS?

Our consultants are a skilled mix of former head teachers and deputies with over 50 years of experience in the state and independent sector AND business leadership consultants. 

Our outsider perspective reinvigorates school leadership teams in a new way, turning them into functioning, high performing teams. We make a long term commitment to your success. We raise the line of sight of leaders above the day to day or even the next Ofsted review to something bigger…the longer term vision and strategy for your future excellence.

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THE CHALLENGES

Today, more is expected of Educational Trust & individual School provision than ever before while at the same time resources are increasingly stretched.      

Such conditions require optimal performance in regard to the quality of leadership, effectiveness and impact of the senior leadership team.  

However, schools are set up in such a way that easily encourages misalignment, tension or dysfunctions in senior teams. In education, people are deeply emotionally connected to their subject areas. In a top team comprised of representatives from different departments, it is natural that people will both stay within their subject area and see the world through the lens of this area.

This creates additional challenges for leadership teams who need to come together and make strategic decisions for the benefit of the institution rather than operating in silos. The price for this is significant for the wellbeing and professional satisfaction of colleagues as well as for a community struggling to  deliver on its mission and goals. 

Academic institutions rarely get the investment in team development in the way that companies do. Developing critical leadership skills is an essential enabler and prerequisite of excellence in provision. How much time and budget is allocated to your leadership effectiveness?

As they are becoming more competitive and commercial, institutions need to shift towards professionalising the skills and quality of leadership teams.

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OUR APPROACH To IMPROVINg School leadership team performance

1. In-depth Research

Before we undertake any work we speak to people and gather diverse views about the current situation. This includes 1:1 conversations with the senior leaders, teachers and influential stakeholders such as governors. We bring all this information together and produce a summary which we share in a short workshop with the leadership team. This workshop gives an opportunity to test how we work together and gives the whole leadership team a chance to decide if they want to continue the conversation.

2. Strategic Workshops

Strategies are often too simple or too complicated and more often than not they are not really referred to once produced. We run strategic workshops to engage all senior leaders on the topic of strategy. We think beyond simple metrics or Ofsted ratings towards a genuine strategy which will inform and direct all staff. This happens over a number of workshops and is a process of alignment, open dialogue and sometimes quite robust conversations!

3. Engage All Stakeholders

Although we will be working most directly with the senior leaders, the whole process must touch all stakeholders. We therefore have steps which are run internally to engage staff, students, parents and governors.

4. Transformation Modules

We will agree on specific transformation modules to support the strategy. These are designed with your culture in mind and then run over a 12-18 month period.

5. 1:1 Coaching

Alongside all the work that we do, the most important element for successful is always 1:1 coaching. This step is often overlooked because it can be uncomfortable at first but it is the secret to achieve a significant change in both behaviour and results.

6. Long-term Partnership

As you will notice, this is not a small commitment from either side. Some organisations feel they can pop in once a term and give some guidance then hope things change - but our experience tells us that this is not effective. We commit to working alongside you over time, so the journey can be build up over that period. This ensures we take as many people as possible with us and that the learning always happens in manageable chunks.

"The trainer's ability to adapt her styles in line with the topic at the time was great, she found her level with us quickly and made us feel at ease and made it fun to learn."
Clifton College

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