The “Developing Headspace” programme is a year-long professional well-being and support programme for Headteachers, Executive Headteachers and MAT CEOs.

It has been designed to support and enhance individuals’ capacity for authentic, inspiring and sustainable leadership.

It offers a regular, reflective space for leaders to renew perspective, think strategically and refresh the vitality of their core purpose.

Spread across three school terms, the programme includes a range of activities designed to provide on-going care, support and encouragement for leaders across the school year.

The programme aims to support school leaders in 5 key areas…

Vision: The programme uses processes and activities to help individuals stay anchored to their vision and purpose for leading in education.

Values: Participants are supported to identify ways of leading and managing themselves can that increase alignment with who they are and their key values.

Resilience: The programme aims to help participants to build a greater understanding of how they respond to stress. Individuals are supported to develop greater emotional, psychological and vocational resilience.

A Values Network: The programme design facilitates the development of supportive and collaborative relationships with like-minded colleagues.

Confidence: The programme helps individuals grow their self-awareness and an appreciation of their core strengths and unique gifts.

Transforming Leadership Residential

The programme begins with our two day Transforming Leadership Residential, set in a beautiful location in the Suffolk countryside.  It is designed to lay the foundations for the programme, by helping participants gain clarity on their current situation, what they want to achieve and build relationships with their fellow participants.

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Dates: 1st – 3rd October 2020

Online Group Coaching Circles

After the residential, Online Group Circles will provide a space for participants a much needed opportunity to take a step back from the busyness of school life. These interactive sessions are designed a chance to reflect on progress, build on the outcomes and delve deeper into the key themes that came out of the Transforming Leadership Residential.

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Date: 22nd April 2021

Final Evaluation Day and Group Nurture Meal

The final evaluation session and group nurture meal take place at the end of the programme to give Heads another opportunity to come together as the programme draws to a close. The day will seek to create a relaxed space where Heads can strengthen the relationships they have built over the year, revisit lessons learned and plot next steps.

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Date: 24th June 2021

Accommodation and Meals: As part of the programme cost, accommodation at a Bed and Breakfast for the residential will be provided by Integrity Coaching. We will make all arrangements for your meals throughout your stay.

Bespoke Resources: You will receive free leadership think pieces and a reflective journal to complement the programme content and support your development.

Price: £1250 + VAT

Giles Barrow

Giles has a background as a teacher in mainstream and specialist contexts. He spent most of his leadership experience as head of support services in a south London authority. This involved establishing provision for children excluded from schools and in-school practice for students with additional and special educational needs.  Fifteen years ago he began training in transactional analysis. He is now a training and supervising transactional analyst in the field of education.

Giles is especially interested in the relational aspects of leading in learning and developing values-based approaches to creating school culture. He enjoys teaching, spends much of his time training school staff and getting alongside teachers in classrooms. Giles writes on a range of themes about learning, schooling and what it’s like to teach.  Outside of working in schools he runs a small farm in east Suffolk.

Viv Grant

Viv has been in the education profession for over thirty years. She is a former primary head teacher and seventeen years ago was one of the youngest heads in the country to turn around a failing primary school.

She has been a lead trainer and consultant for a number of educational training bodies, including the Department for Education, the National College,The London Centre for Leadership in Learning at the Institute of Education and the NUT. She was a  contributing author  to the 2011 publication Mentoring and Coaching in schools and in 2014 published her first book, “Staying A Head: The Stress Management Secrets of Successful School Leaders.”

She has written for the Guardian and appeared on TV, BBC Radio London and BBC Radio 4 Woman’s hour, talking about her work and the role coaching plays in helping school leaders to excel.