Breaking the Glass Ceiling of Good
A one-day workshop for headteachers and SLT hosted online by Sonia.
When?
Tuesday 11 March 2025 or
Thursday 1 May 2025
(All dates: 09:30-15:30)
Where?
Delivered online using zoom (save money and time and learn together as a team)
What?
Spend the day learning the 4 key barriers to high performance that stop your school from excelling, and how you can overcome them. To create your genuinely outstanding school that your community needs.
Do you want your school to be outstanding? Then you’re in the right place!
Schools that follow the methods outlined in this workshop are 300% more likely to be graded ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted.
And we don’t look at the Ofsted criteria.
This workshop will help you to:
- Understand why high performing teams really are the key to outstanding education
- Learn the strategies you need to overcome the 4 key barriers to high performance
- Make immediate improvements with practical tools
How we know we can help you:
Since 2011, Sonia Gill, founder of Heads Up has visited recently inspected outstanding schools, particularly those in challenging contexts.
What does she find?
That in nearly all cases, these schools:
- Are genuinely outstanding.
- Have a curriculum that is rich and broad, providing a holistic education.
- Retain staff among the happiest and most fulfilled I’ve ever met, often working fewer hours than those in ‘Good’ schools.
To this day Heads Up continues to visit outstanding schools and still find that they offer the outstanding education that you, as educators, strive for.
So what are these outstanding schools doing differently?
A quick and easy way is to draw three boxes. Then ask yourself:
- How many superstars are in your team? The ones you would clone if you could! That number goes in the right hand box.
- Now think of the opposite, how many people are exhibiting challenging behaviours or under performing? That number goes in the left box.
- The number you have left of your total staff goes in the middle.
Most schools have the majority of people in the middle.
Outstanding schools have over 70% in the right hand box. If you do too then you have a high performing team.
If you have less than that, the challenges below might sound familiar.
Four key barriers to high performance:
Who in your team should you prioritise for development and CPD?
Too many small behaviour issues that sap time and energy
Staff not on board with you pushing for excellence, they’d settle for good
The school environment needs a spark, but there’s no budget for it and you can't quite put a finger on what’s needed
These challenges hinder you from creating your Outstanding school, you spend more time managing rather than leading, dealing with low quality problems.
Which is why we created this 1 day workshop Breaking the Glass Ceiling of Good (and our 1 year programme Journey to Outstanding, more on that later).
Using our 10+ years of experience walking into Outstanding schools we are able to help you and your SLT learn how to overcome the challenges, so you can create your Outstanding school, for your children, not Ofsted!
What you’ll learn:
| 09:30 – 10:00 | Welcome & self-assessment |
| 10:00 – 10:40 | The challenges of school life that stop your school from excelling, and how to come overcome them |
| 10:40 – 11:15 | How you can identify and grow excellence within your team |
| 11:15 – 11:30 | Break |
| 11:30 – 12:20 | How to have successful difficult conversations to stop those poor behaviours |
| 12:20 – 13:00 | Break for lunch |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | How to inspire and align your team to settle for nothing but excellence |
| 14:00 – 14:10 | Break |
| 14:10 – 14:25 | How Heads Up supports schools remove the barriers that stop them from being Outstanding |
| 14.25 – 14.55 | How to shape your environment to reinforce excellent behaviours and performance |
| 14:55 – 15:30 | Wrap up |
Join Sonia, our expert trainer, at our workshop Breaking the Glass Ceiling of Good.
Sonia Gill is a qualified teacher and has taught from reception up to year 11, before she was selected for the John Lewis leadership program where she led many multi-million-pound business areas.
Sonia returned to the field of Education in 2011, to combine her skill in creating high performing teams with her passion for education. Sonia has visited 100’s of Outstanding schools over the past ten years to learn and understand what they do differently when compared to Good schools, and has learned their secret and it’s not because they have a great curriculum or a great demographic.
It’s because they have great people, with every single member of staff aligned with the school’s vision and values to create a perfect cultural ecosystem – resulting in everyone pulling in the same direction.
Don't just take our word for it! Here's what leaders say:
FAQs
Lol! We get it, but school leaders love our training because we’ve made it better by being on zoom. It’s very interactive, you don’t have any travel costs and it means more of your SLT can be part of the training which means it has great impact. This day always gets great feedback and attendees are pleasantly surprised by how well it works online.
No, it’s such an interactive day we don’t record it because not everyone wants to be filmed.
Yes, you’ll be sent these before the day.
One ticket gives access to up to 6 of your SLT. Additional places can be purchased.
You’ll receive them shortly after the training.
Sometimes the confirmation emails can be caught in junk folders – please check yours. If you are having trouble receiving the details, please contact [email protected]