Focus: Understanding human behaviour in change and the emotional drivers of growth.

Led by: Paul (leadership) + Gabrielle (change in pedagogy)

Key Components:

• The Rider and Elephant model (Heath & Heath): logic vs. emotion in organisational change
• Introduction to the Emotional Culture Deck: surfacing unspoken emotions in teams
• Why new initiatives fails in schools: the psychological and cultural obstacles
• Introduction to the 10 leadership practices that build trust
• Linking emotional culture and trust to pedagogical change
• Participants share their strategic priority and how it is aligned to their school’s vision and purpose:
  
  • What does success look like?

Outcome:

Participants identify human, emotional, and relational factors shaping their strategic initiative and construct early influence strategies. Participants also begin forming a relationship with a significant other in a similar role.

Focus: Building a common narrative around teaching and learning that is not just spoken but is enacted.

Key Components:

• Tapping into the emotional system
• Reflection activity on one of the 10 leadership practices that build trust: Listening
• Group discussion: What is an education worth having in a world of powerful AI?
  
  • How does your strategic priority fit with what is coming?
• The Bermuda Triangle: Establishing a strong alignment between what people say, do and think. “For 30 years we have asked teachers to think their way into a new way of acting. What we really need to be asking them to do is act their way into a new way of thinking” Dylan Wiliam.
• What is your school’s common narrative around teaching and learning (and assessment) and why it matters?

Outcome:

Participants begin identifying their leadership strengths and areas for growth. They reflect on their strategic priority in relation to future scenarios and identify a common narrative about teaching and learning.

Focus: Changing the conversations and practices to align to your narrative about teaching and learning

Key Components:

• What is your leadership pedagogy and how it that influences the behaviour of the people you are leading?
• The importance of stakeholders: Changing practices and mindsets to align to the narrative
• Introducing the Reflective Change Cycle (Reflect → Experiment → Evaluate → Refine → Embed)
• Running “micro-inquiries” and learning sprints
• Designing department meetings that function as pedagogy, not admin
• Coaching as a thinking partnership (not evaluation)

Breakout discussion:

Reflection on the reading — OECD: What Teachers Should Teach and Students Should Learn in an Age of AI.

Participants explore how shifts in curriculum design and pedagogy intersect with their strategic goal.

Outcome:

Participants draft a pedagogical inquiry cycle or capacity-building structure to apply in their school.

Focus: Building the capacity of your middle leadership team

Key Components:

• From compliance to empowerment: the leadership shift
• How Directors of Teaching & Learning can free HoDs from “administrative gravity”
• Creating cross-department coherence through shared language of learning
• Building evidence-informed reflection: learning stories, student voice, and data meaning-making
• Planning for distributed leadership and shared ownership
• Using Professional Learning Communities as a strategy for alignment

Breakout discussion:

Reflection on How to Create the School of the Future (Mattila & Silander).

Participants connect future-focused learning principles to current school constraints.

Outcome:

Participants develop a departmental/whole-school alignment plan or revised leadership rhythm to support their goal.

Focus: Consolidating the learning and establishing a long-term peer community.

Led by: Paul (leadership) + Gabrielle (change in pedagogy)

Key Components:

• Participants present a short “Learning Impact Map” showing how their strategic goal has progressed;
• Facilitated coaching circles: collective troubleshooting and refinement;
• Setting the rhythm for the ongoing Community of Practice
  
  • Cadence of meetings (e.g., monthly or termly)
    
  • Shared inquiry focus
    
  • Resource bank
    
  • Collective leadership commitments

Outcome:

Each cohort formally launches as an ongoing Community of Practice, continuing to meet independently for mutual support.