Coaching in Schools

Holistic change within a school community

“Good mental health education is all about helping young people learn to take responsibility for managing their lives better, and adopting practices that will help them lead physically and mentally healthy, and more content, lives.”
– Sir Anthony Seldon, The Times, May 2021

Also called Performance and Wellbeing Coaching, school coaching is about getting clients from A to B using tested tools and strategies so they can be happier, healthier and more successful – and about empowering the client get where they want to go in life.

School coaching was born out of coaching in the corporate and sporting worlds, and uses many of the same approaches. Some of the world’s top athletes and businesspeople use coaches; Tony Robbins has worked with four different US presidents. However School Coaching has another layer: we are trained to work with adolescents, using tools specifically tailored to developing brains, and related to the unique stresses and strains that come from growing up in an increasingly complex society.

School Coaches are used by a growing number of top schools in the US and UK with a mounting body of evidence to back up its usefulness not only  to individuals – students, teachers and the leadership team – but to the school community in general.

Benefits to the school:

I am not only trained to provide coaching in one-to-one sessions, but also to deliver workshops, lessons, talks and programmes to pupils, staff and parents.

I can also offer training for The Other Subject, a ground-breaking coaching programme which offers lessons and tools for every year of secondary school, fits with the PSHE programme and empowers pupils to jump into the driving seat of their own lives.

Schools that have a coaching service can be very appealing to pupils/parents seeking a more modern and progressive pastoral care programme where pupils have a choice about the type of support they receive. Many pupils, parents and staff welcome coaching because the title has no connotations, it augments traditional counselling routes, is time-limited and is performance and solution-focused. Often coaches can catch issues before they become all-encompassing, and are trained to refer/signpost any children who are quietly struggling.

I can also assess need, signpost on and hold space for the counsellors if they are short of capacity.

Benefits to pupils:

Tailored programmes for each student cover the areas they wish to focus on, based on the tried-and tested-coaching system The Other Subject (www.theothersubject.com). 

– Year group focused and age-appropriate workshops on topics that frequently cause issues, for example:

• Peak performance
• Stress and worry management
• Exam techniques and revision
• Motivation
• Interview training and career planning
• Emotional regulation
• Goal setting and accomplishment
• Boosting confidence and assertiveness
• Time management and organisation
• Building and maintaining healthy relationships

 – A huge amount of experience with interview techniques and personal statement writing. While both are part of my coach training, it is also something that comes with 20 years as a journalist and senior editor.

Benefits to teachers and the school community:

Coaching promotes the implementation of learning and reciprocal accountability. Coaching is an embedded support that attempts to respond to student and teacher needs in ongoing, consistent, dedicated ways. The likelihood of using new learning and sharing responsibility rises when colleagues, guided by a coach, work together and hold each other accountable for improved teaching and learning.

Coaching supports collective leadership across a school system. An essential feature of coaching is that it uses the relationships between coaches, principals, and teachers to create the conversation that leads to behavioural, pedagogical, and content knowledge change. Effective coaching distributes leadership and keeps the focus on teaching and learning. This focus promotes the development of leadership skills, professional learning, and support for teachers that target ways to improve student outcomes.

My practice:

–  I hold a diploma in adult coaching from the coaching academy Noble Manhattan, and am formally accredited by the International Authority for Professional Coaching & Mentoring (IAPC&M). By early to mid-January I will also hold a diploma in Adolescent Coaching. The only section remaining of my diploma is the final exam.

–  As well as my formal qualifications, I have appropriate insurance and am DBS checked. As required by my accreditation body I am engaged in CBT and in regular supervision by a senior coach. I am fully compliant and accredited by one of Europe’s most established bodies, the IAPC&M.