Coaching in education
As a governor in London schools for over 17 years, I have worked with leadership and middle leaders in both primary and secondary schools. I’ve also sat on many exclusion panels, interview panels, disciplinary panels, appeals and grievances. I am a lead coach for Yes Futures
Working with students
Even the most talented students can struggle to achieve their potential when their mindset and behaviours are not working for them.
- Some students are not equipped on their own to create and develop personal skills, motivation, focus, resilience, drive, attitude, confidence, discipline; goal setting and achievement; and deal with stress.
The Education Endowment Foundation, in its Teaching and Learning Toolkit , gives interventions in meta-cognition and self-regulation (the areas I work on with students) ‘+8 high impact for low cost’ – the highest of any intervention.
Communication with parents and handling complaints
I have seen the distress that parental complaints can cause staff in school as well as parents. I can help schools to:
- Coach and support parents in working out exactly what they are asking the school to do and how they can best help support their child so parents, child and school work together as a team
- Coach and support parents with their child's behaviour for learning both in and out of school
- Develop ways of improving school communication with parents so that the number of complaints is minimised
- Deliver and manage the expectations of parents and deal with issues when they arise
Leadership and management: my leadership programme helps you put in perspective what matters to you and your organisation
- Modify your own style to bring out the best in your teams
- Communicate effectively, articulate your vision and inspire the whole school
- Identify future leaders
- Deal with staff concerns when managing change
- Improve devolved leadership
Recruitment and team building
I sit on lots of interview panels in schools for middle and senior leader posts.
- Attract the right people
- Develop interview questioning technique to really get the information you want
- Identify the traits you need to develop in each team/department
- Identify the ‘culture’ of departments and how it affects performance
- Develop a common language in school that you can all share
Conflict resolution
- Become effective at minimising conflict and dealing with it when it occurs
- Understand how to bring harmony to a challenging environment
- Create win/win strategies, sharing tools that really work
Caroline allowed me to move from a state of frustration and confusion to one of clarity and power… From growing my confidence in my career choices through prompting me to take the right steps to create the life I want career wise, the transformation she guided me through has been colossal… Working with her has undoubtedly been a great life investment.
Alex, London
I was coached by Caroline over a six month period, in my role as headteacher. The sessions really helped me in further articulating my vision, leading my team and developing my staff. Caroline was always professional, enthusiastic and asked both challenging and supportive coaching questions. I do recommend her to any other school leaders.
Annie Gammon, Headteacher at Stoke Newington School and Sixth Form
Working with Caroline was very helpful and enabled me to make the progress I need to achieve. Caroline had a good understanding of what I wanted and got me to think about what I was doing in a realistic and timely manner … She is very easy to talk to about any aspects of my career and personal life.
Carol, Chester
From the start, Caroline built a great rapport with me and made me feel at ease… Caroline is able to motivate and encourage you through her use of effective questioning. This worked particularly well with me personally as I could see that Caroline was genuinely committed to supporting me to achieve my goals and in return I wanted to discuss my successes at our next sessions, so I was determined to make progress!
Janine, West London
Caroline is an excellent coach who has provided me with the confidence I needed with my studies. She is very professional and the results I had thanks to her coaching skills have been superb. She has unique coaching skills and a very positive approach. I highly recommend her services.
Raquel, Slough
I found the sessions extremely valuable and have been impressed with Caroline’s ability to explore not only what my goals are but also the precise actions I self-generated to achieve them.
Matt, West Country
Caroline has helped me realise what I need to do to deal with combining family and career. She has given me confidence to come up with fresh ideas about to how to push forward with projects whilst not impacting on my family and academic commitments.
Sandra, Blackheath, London
Caroline is a very personable, friendly and charming lady who is also a coach who listens very well. Her coaching and insight helped me move forward and do so faster than had I been taking action alone. I am grateful for her support, encouragement and generosity.
William, North London