For school boards and leadership teams
Strategic advisory for UK independent schools and British international schools
Inspection readiness, statutory compliance, governance, and learning design. Delivered by a panel of current and former Heads of School. Every engagement opens with a complimentary consultation.
Book a complimentary consultationIndependent and international schools are operating against a tightening regulatory backdrop. The 2026 ISI toolkit moves the Single Central Register into the first hour of inspection. Ofsted's 2026 framework makes statutory compliance an explicit focus. ISI compliance fell from 89.5 to 84.4 per cent in the last reporting cycle. Schools are carrying thirty-plus statutory policies, and the people responsible for them are stretched.
Education Options provides a senior, named pair of hands. Natalia Ambridge leads the practice, with Sigve Austheim, Sarah Zarzo, Hasan Hasanov, and Bartola Mavrić bringing specialist expertise from international school leadership across the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kenya, China, and Egypt.
The same discipline scales beyond a single school. Universities, school groups, and education foundations engage us for diagnostic and solution work, recruitment and market-entry strategy, and representation, including positioning for English-taught degree programmes. That work sits under Institutional and University Consultancy.
Services
Two areas of practice. Tap any card to open a complimentary consultation.
Regulatory and compliance
Annual Policy Compliance Audit
A bespoke audit of the full statutory policy suite, tiered from a desk-based audit through to a full policy suite refresh, with a report at every tier. Led by Sigve Austheim.
Rate card available on request.
Inspection readiness
Preparing schools for ISI, BSO, COBIS, and CIS inspections. Mock evaluation against the relevant framework, gap analysis, and a prioritised readiness plan. Led by Sarah Zarzo.
Governance
Strategic input for boards on structure, decision-making, succession, and Head appointment processes. Led by Natalia Ambridge.
Learning design
STEAM design
Whole-school STEAM integration as an operating model, not a bolt-on. Specialist engagement led by Sarah Zarzo.
Inclusive education and UDL
Universal Design for Learning frameworks, inclusive education strategy, and student support department design. Specialist engagement led by Bartola Mavrić.
Wellbeing and Pastoral
Whole-school wellbeing and pastoral systems for students and staff, designed into the operating model rather than added on. Specialist engagement led by Natalia Ambridge.
Leadership development
Mentoring for new Heads
A confidential thinking partner for the first year of headship, matched to your region and context and on call across the academic year. The first year shapes the headship that follows, and supporting a new Head well through it is among the soundest investments a school can make. Led by a current or former Head of your choice.
Leadership and professional development
Leadership growth and whole-school professional development: training, teacher development programmes, and capacity building for staff and middle and senior leaders. Led by Hasan Hasanov.
Mentoring and Coaching
One-to-one mentoring and coaching for school leaders, across leadership development and the wider questions of direction, balance, and how the role sits within a life. Led by Natalia Ambridge and Joseph Russell-Bishop.
Companion platform
The Head's Companion
The Head's Companion is our software platform supporting headteachers across every aspect of compliance and governance, for independent schools in the United Kingdom and internationally. It brings the statutory policy suite, inspection readiness, and governance oversight into one place, so heads stay on top of it day to day, not only at the point of an engagement.
Try the platform today - The Head's CompanionHow engagements work
Every engagement opens with a complimentary thirty-minute consultation. We then issue a written scoping note, a mutual non-disclosure agreement, and a fixed-fee or retainer proposal. Where the school requests it, the non-disclosure agreement covers the existence of the engagement itself, not only its contents.
Schools that prefer to see fee structure before booking a consultation can request the rate card by email.