For school boards and leadership teams
Strategic advisory for UK independent and 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 proportion of ISI-inspected schools meeting all the Standards fell from 89.5 per cent in 2023-24 to 84.4 per cent in 2024-25, and ISI asks for the single central register and the school's safeguarding information at the start of an inspection. The statutory duty library behind our own compliance platform runs to 170 separate duties, close to thirty of them written policies, and the people responsible for them are stretched.
Education Options puts a named senior practitioner on the work. 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 partner with us to reach students and schools the right way, and school groups and education foundations engage us for diagnostic and design work at network scale. That work sits under Institutional and University Partnerships.
Services
Three 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.
Inspection readiness
Preparing schools for ISI and BSO inspection, and for CIS and COBIS accreditation. Mock evaluation against the relevant framework, gap analysis, and a prioritised readiness plan. Led by Sarah Zarzo.
The inspection-readiness review is a defined engagement: a point-in-time review of your statutory policies, single central record, safeguarding arrangements, publication duties and governance evidence, over two to three days, remote and on site as the school requires. It concludes with a written report of findings and priority actions, delivered within ten working days.
The review supports your preparation; it does not and cannot guarantee any inspection outcome.
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 compliance and governance, for Heads of England independent schools, academies, and British international schools. 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 written proposal. Where the school requests it, the non-disclosure agreement covers the existence of the engagement itself, not only its contents.