Gemma was beaming as she arrived at her coaching session. “Lisa, I’ve just got to tell you about Ali, we’ve had a real breakthrough!” she burst out.
Gemma* is a leader in a large secondary school, Head of Geography. In a previous session her goal was to engage Year Nine pupils more, especially those who weren’t likely to choose Geography at GCSE. Ali was a particularly challenging pupil who was not only disengaged, but frequently disrupted classes; causing other pupils to get frustrated or join in and adding stress to the teachers. During the session Gemma had said, “We’ve tried everything already to help Ali and nothing works.”
How often do we feel like Gemma did? And yet, there is always something else to try and our job as coaches is to help our clients to achieve more than they would alone.
Through gentle challenge, Gemma eventually came up with some possible new options to try but left the session not too sure that she’d have much success.
You can imagine how delighted I was to hear Gemma’s comment next session!
One of the ideas she’d come up with was to have an open conversation with Ali, something she’d done many times before. But this time Gemma planned to just listen and ask more questions to try to understand Ali better.
Gemma was astounded that something so simple had worked. Ali was now behaving better in Geography and the other pupils and teachers were all feeling much calmer too.
It wasn’t a miracle cure, but it was a good start.
Coaching leaders in education is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. A qualified teacher and former school leader myself, I relish giving leaders what I would have loved: regular coaching to develop leadership skills and make education better for all.
Every leader I work with has gone on to do something impressive that’s improved the lives of at least one young person, usually several, as in Gemma’s case.
It’s said that education is a powerful tool to change the world and I agree. Couple a passion for education with coaching and we strike gold because coaching provides leaders with time to think, plan and innovate. This leads to better working relationships with colleagues and pupils, better outcomes, and fresh ideas.
Since 2011 I’ve been lucky to have worked with hundreds of school leaders across the UK and more recently with governors too. Over that time the evidence base for coaching has grown, with Schools Week publishing an article in 2022 that states “Our findings demonstrate that effective teacher coaching does lead to conditions that underpin school improvement.” (source: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/research-how-can-teacher-coaching-lead-to-school-improvement/)
When schools improve, outcomes for youth improve.
If, like me, you love this idea of making that difference to young people, The Coaching Academy’s Coaching within Education programme is second to none. Led by people like myself, who work closely with education providers and actively coach in this field, we share ideas, resources and tips to help you feel qualified to coach youth and all those who impact on them. I look forward to meeting you!
* Client names have been changed for confidentiality and Lisa had permission to share her client’s story
Lisa Read is an award-winning coach and trainer, Lisa Read is passionate about helping coaching professionals understand how neuroscience supports and enhances the coaching process. As Lisa’s professional background is as a teacher, special needs co-ordinator and senior school leader. She has coached and trained in 100s of schools, multi academy trusts, teaching school alliances and universities, and was one of just 16 coaches selected to deliver coaching to schools for a London 2012 Olympics national development programme which ran from 2011 to 2019. In addition, Lisa is a trainer and coach for The Coaching Academy, the UK’s largest coaching school.
If you are feeling inspired and would you like to learn more about making an impact and becoming a coach, then do join us on our FREE Introduction to Life Coaching webinar and follow-up Insight Into Coaching Within Education - choose from available dates here.
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