For Heads, Deputies, and senior leaders
Mentoring brings the experience of someone who has stood in the same role, walked through the same decisions, lived with the same isolation. Coaching brings a disciplined process for thinking your own way through to your own answers. Most leaders, at most moments, need a measure of each.
The mentoring panel
Mentoring is led by a panel of current and former Heads of School practising across the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Türkiye, and Azerbaijan. Clients who need a mentor in their region, in their time zone, or with experience of a specific national context are matched to the Head whose career has covered it.
The coaching practice
Coaching is led by Natalia Ambridge, who completed the Cambridge Online Business Coaching Programme at the Møller Institute, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, holding the Association for Coaching Accredited Award in Coach Training. The qualification sits on top of two decades of senior leadership and headship across four countries.
A featured offer
The first year of a headship is the most exposed period in a school leader's career. Decisions arrive faster than the time to think them through. Confidants are few. Mistakes are visible. And the people best placed to help, other former Heads, are usually not in the room.
We have all been Heads. We know which questions arrive in the first year, because we had them. The offer is straightforward: a confidential thinking partner who has done the job, matched to your region and your context, on call across the academic year, in writing and on the phone. Not a fixed agenda. The agenda is whatever the week has put in front of you: the difficult parent, the governor question, the safeguarding referral, the budget paper, the deputy who is struggling, the inspection letter.
Twelve months. A monthly scheduled call. Brief exchanges between calls (voice note, WhatsApp, email) for the unscheduled moments that need a second opinion before the day ends.
Each mentor takes a small number of Heads per academic year. September and January starts.
A regular conversation outside the school, free of internal politics, where the difficult questions can be asked plainly. Often the most useful hour of a Head's month.
For those preparing for the next step, or growing into a wider remit. A mix of mentoring, where the experience helps, and coaching, where the structure helps.
Moving country, moving sector, or moving on. Decisions about what to do next are easier with someone who has made similar ones.
Ninety minutes. One specific question, fully aired. A short written summary of the points agreed and the actions that followed.
A standing arrangement across a term or academic year. Scheduled conversations plus availability for the moments between. Built around the rhythm of the school year.
On confidentiality
Mentoring and coaching conversations sit at the intersection of personal vulnerability and institutional sensitivity. A mutual non-disclosure agreement is signed before the first session of any engagement, covering everything that passes between mentor or coach and client. Where a school prefers that the engagement itself remain confidential, that arrangement is accommodated as standard.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no obligation. We will work out whether this is the right help, and if it is, what shape it should take.
Book a complimentary consultation