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‘Outstanding’ schools – do they have it easier?

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How to structure a difficult conversation for success

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Breaking the glass ceiling of good workshop

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Successful difficult conversations training

Successful difficult conversations

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Breaking the Glass Ceiling of Good

Register here

Transform Your School: A One-Day Online Workshop for Headteachers and Senior Leaders

Hosted by Sonia

When?

Choose from available dates:
- Tuesday, 30 June 2026
- Tuesday, 29 September 2026
Time: 09:30-15:30 (all dates)

Where?

Conveniently delivered online via Zoom.
Save time, reduce costs, and learn together as a team without leaving your school.

What's in it for you?

Join this immersive workshop to uncover the 4 key barriers holding your school back from achieving high performance. Sonia will guide you through practical strategies to overcome these challenges, empowering you to:

1. Identify and address the underlying obstacles to excellence.
2. Implement practical solutions that drive improvement.
3. Create a truly outstanding school that meets the needs of your community.

Do you dream of leading an outstanding school? You’ve come to the right place!

Schools that implement the strategies shared in this workshop are 300% more likely to achieve an ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted rating.

But here’s the difference: we don’t just focus on ticking Ofsted boxes. Instead, we dive deeper to address the real challenges holding your school back, helping you create a culture of excellence that goes beyond criteria—and delivers lasting results.

Ready to transform your school? Let’s get started.

This workshop will empower you to:

  • Understand why high performing teams are the cornerstone of outstanding education
  • Discover proven strategies to overcome the 4 key barriers to high performance
  • Make immediate, impactful improvements with practical, actionable tools

 

Why 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 has she found?

In nearly every case, these schools:

  • Are genuinely outstanding, not just ticking boxes.
  • Offer a rich, broad curriculum that provides a holistic education.
  • Retain staff who are among the happiest and most fulfilled she’s ever met—often working fewer hours than those in ‘Good’ schools.

To this day, Heads Up continues to visit Outstanding schools and consistently finds that they deliver the kind of exceptional education you, as educators, strive for.

So what are these outstanding schools doing differently?

A simple way to assess your team’s performance is to draw three boxes:

  1. Right-hand box: How many superstars are in your team? These are the individuals you’d clone if you could.
  2. Left-hand box: How many people are exhibiting challenging behaviours or underperforming?
  3. Middle box: The remaining staff who fall somewhere in between.

Most schools have the majority of their staff in the middle box.

However, Outstanding schools have over 70% in the right-hand box. If you’re there too, congratulations—you have a high-performing team!

If not, the following challenges might sound familiar:

The four key barriers to high performance:

Unclear priorities for development and CPD: Who in your team should you focus on to maximise impact?

Too many small behaviour issues: These sap time, energy, and focus from what really matters.

Staff resistance to excellence: Some may settle for ‘Good’ when you’re pushing for ‘Outstanding’.

A lacklustre school environment: You know it needs a spark, but there’s no budget—and you can’t quite pinpoint what’s missing.

These challenges keep you stuck in a cycle of managing low-quality problems rather than leading your school to greatness.

That’s why we created this workshop:
Breaking the Glass Ceiling of Good (and our 1-year programme, Journey to Outstanding—more on that later).

Drawing on over 10 years of experience visiting Outstanding schools, we’ll help you and your SLT learn how to overcome these barriers. Together, we’ll create the Outstanding school your children deserve—not just for Ofsted, but for your community.

Ready to transform your school? Join us and take the first step towards excellence.

What you’ll learn:

Register your place

Join Sonia, our expert trainer, at our workshop Breaking the Glass Ceiling of Good.

Join Sonia Gill, Our Expert Trainer, at the Workshop: Breaking the Glass Ceiling of Good

Sonia Gill is a highly qualified teacher with experience teaching every year group from Reception to Year 11. Her passion for leadership led her to the prestigious John Lewis leadership programme, where she successfully managed multi-million-pound business areas, honing her skills in building high-performing teams.

In 2011, Sonia returned to her true calling—education—combining her expertise in leadership with her dedication to transforming schools. Over the past decade, she has visited hundreds of Outstanding schools, studying what sets them apart from ‘Good’ schools. What she discovered might surprise you:

The secret to their success isn’t just a great curriculum or a favourable demographic.

It’s their people.

Outstanding schools create a perfect cultural ecosystem where every single member of staff is aligned with the school’s vision and values. This unity ensures everyone is pulling in the same direction, creating an environment where excellence thrives.

At this workshop, Sonia will share the insights and strategies she’s gathered from these top-performing schools, helping you and your team break through barriers and achieve the same level of success.

Ready to transform your school? Join us and discover how to build a team that drives outstanding outcomes.

Don't just take our word for it! Here's what leaders say:

A really inspiring day and it was so useful that my whole SLT could be on the event together. The group breakout rooms were excellent and meant that we could be really productive in our conversations whereas if we had been mixed schools I don't think we would have got as much from them. The day flew by which is always the sign of an excellent course! The course has really enabled me to get my whole SLT on board with my vision and desire to move our school forward, it has brought us together in that mindset.... and now the hard work begins!
S Hayes, HeadteacherSt Paulinus Catholic Primary School
A super professional, inspiring and strategic day that really gave my team and I some things to think about. The structure and cohesiveness of the day worked really well and the break out rooms were an excellent addition.
P Philips, HeadteacherEast Wichel
It was a really useful and different perspective on outstanding that looked beyond "Ofsted" as a measure and focused at the heart of a school's culture and its ability to develop the day to day high performance that gets outstanding by default. Really refreshing and thought provoking.
S Askey, Senior LeaderNorth Cestrian School
The team really enjoyed the session and have developed better understanding of how to develop the academy. We achieved more today that in a number of SLT meetings.
V Richmond, HeadteacherOasis Academy Skinner Street
The time to discuss in breakout rooms was so valuable. It meant that we were able to create action plans in the moment and are leaving today with a clear idea of what is going to be done next. We found the grid task useful for mapping out staff and prioritising who we need to start moving. Thank you for an excellent day of training. The time passed really quickly because the training was engaging.
W Weyland, HeadteacherFrith Manor Primary School
We have absolutely loved every aspect. The way in which Sonia has made us feel part of the day through an online conference has been amazing . This is the most involved we have felt in a leadership conference. Instead of leaving with a huge to do list we have clear action points and key areas on which to focus which we are so grateful. We know exactly where to start. So thank you
Anon
Really clear, concise and to the point - no waffle! Excellent delivery and engaging.
A MorisMorehall Primary and Nursery
A very useful session Sonia, thank you. It is productive to have something explained to us and then given the time to discuss it as a team and plan ahead in the moment.
P CandyWordsworth Primary School
Excellent communication and service (courtesy call day before to check we had everything to join etc). Great to have slides to print before course. Appreciate the flexibility to allow our team to divide and attend on two different dates. A really useful day which helped us clarify our thinking and realise why we were feeling how we feel following working so hard to secure ‘good’. Thank you!
Anon
Such a thought provoking day. Time was allowed to reflect and discuss as well as excellent advice. It is so reassuring to hear that being outstanding is not just about data.
Anon
I read Sonia's 'Journey to Outstanding' book during the first national lockdown in spring 2020 and used a lot of the ideas to formulate the 'culture triangle' that I launched at our two schools when I took on the Exec Head role in September 2020. Revisiting the key messages around culture was really useful.
Anon
The 'bite size' approach was appealing: a selection box of ideas to play with, enough to get you thinking in each case but with clear room for further progression.
Anon
Definitely the best CPD I have had for a very long time, possibly ever.
Anon
It provides the SLT and other members of staff with the opportunity to evaluate their roles in the schools and work on school improvements. It gives Staff an opportunity to realise that they have a role they must full fill to improve teaching and learning
Anon
09:30 – 10:00 Welcome 
10:00 – 10:40 The glass ceiling of ‘good’ & how to break it & self-assessment
10:40 – 11:15 Tool 1: How to quickly grow excellence in your team
11:15 – 11:30 Break
11:30 – 12:20 Tool 2: How to have successful difficult conversations
12:20 – 13:00 Break for lunch
13:00 – 14:00 Tool 3: Quick ways to create a more powerful vision
14:00 – 14:15 Break
14:15 – 14:50 Tool 4: The secret clues that give away how good your school is
14.50 – 15.30 Wrap up
 
Please complete this form to obtain your ticket.
 
Your ticket is priced at £360 (ex-VAT) each. Your ticket allows up to 6 people from your school or organisation to attend.
 
Select the date you wish to attend.
 
 
Contact name (event information and invoice will be sent to this person)
 
 
We need a bit of information about your school / organisation
 
 
Which date do you want to attend?
 
 
Please check the boxes below *
 
 

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]

Join Sonia for the workshop