Shaping Peer Influence in Schools (with Anne Morris)

Episode Overview

Schools spend vast sums of money on new interventions, guest speakers, and external resources to influence student behaviour and engagement. But what if the single most powerful source of influence is already sitting in your classrooms, completely free and largely unharnessed?

In this episode, Jane and Jacqui are joined by Anne Morris—former secondary maths teacher and founder of Yippee Yap and PeerScrollernto interrogate the role of near-peer influence in education.

Peer influence doesn't ask for permission; it happens every day in every corridor, classroom, and playground. The question for school leaders isn't whether it exists, but whether the system is brave enough to shape it. We discuss shifting from "treating pupils as passive recipients" to "creating structural agency," managing the perceived risks of student-led influence, and why true cultural shifts require slowing down and noticing what's already in the room.

Key Thinking Points in This Episode

• The Influence Dynamic: Who actually holds more sway over a 13-year-old’s daily behaviour the adult at the front of the room, or the 16-year-old sitting next to them?

• The High Cost of One-Off Interventions: Why high-priced external speakers often create moment-in-time emotion rather than long-term, sustainable behavioral coherence.

• Systemic Trust vs. Risk Aversion: Why secondary settings often lose the cross-year leadership models common in primary schools—and how fear of risk prevents leaders from giving young people genuine responsibility.

• The Dual Benefit: How near-peer mentoring and structured interaction build work readiness, belonging, and identity for the older peer just as much as the younger one.

Headlines from the Head: Questions for Your Leadership Team

Take these three questions into your next SLT meeting to test whether peer influence in your school is structural or informal:

1. Where is positive peer influence already happening organically in our school? (Don't invent a new scheme—notice where it already lives).

1. Where are young people currently treated only as recipients of decisions when they could be active contributors?

1. What is one micro-opportunity we can create this week for older students to support younger ones without needing a 40-page implementation plan?

Connect & Resources

• Website: Explore Anne’s work on PSHE, personal development, and peer influence at www.peerscroller.com and www.yippeeyap.com.

• LinkedIn: Join Jane and Jacqui on LinkedIn to continue the conversation on the structural realities of school leadership.

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A note for school leaders:

If this episode brought a specific colleague to mind someone carrying heavy systemic pressure or grappling with culture send it to them today. Sometimes the support we need isn't another checklist; it's knowing we aren't the only ones navigating the difficulty.

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Episode 8: The Decisions Nobody Sees: The Hidden Weight of School Leadership

Hosts: Jacqui Le Maître & Jane McNally
Series: Being the Head: The Human Cost of Leading Schools

There are decisions school leaders make every day that nobody sees. They don't see the conversations leading up to them, the internal trade-offs, or the 3:00 AM self-interrogation over whether you got it right.

In this episode, Jacqui and Jane strip away the romanticised myths of leadership to examine the invisible burdens carried behind closed doors. From saying no to genuinely good ideas due to hidden operational costs, to making HR decisions where every outcome hurts a human being, this is an unvarnished look at what happens when ethical responsibility meets systemic strain.

This isn't a 5-step guide to painless decision-making. It is an honest reflection on why leadership feeling uncomfortable doesn't mean you've made the wrong call, and why leaders cannot be expected to carry this weight alone.

What We Unpack

• Saying No to Good Ideas: Why turning down great initiatives is often harder than rejecting bad ones and how to evaluate the hidden human and operational cost.
  
• The Complexity of "Relational" Leadership: Why kindness isn't about avoiding uncomfortable conversations, but giving clear, definitive clarity.
  
• The "Teflon & Rhino Skin" Paradox: Navigating personal accountability while enforcing non-negotiable standards for pupils who only get "one shot" at their education.
  
• Hiding Behind Complexity: Distinguishing between genuine uncertainty and using "complexity" as an excuse to delay uncomfortable leadership action.
  
• Decisive Without Certainty: Why confidence and certainty aren't the same thing and how to own mistakes without eroding trust.
  

Thinking Space vs. Advice: Why headteachers don't need quick fixes; they need protected spaces to test their judgment.

1. What am I actually deciding? (Are you solving the root problem or reacting to surface noise?)
   
2. Who is affected beyond the person standing in front of me?
   
3. What am I avoiding simply because I don't want to disappoint someone?
   
4. Do I genuinely need more information, or am I postponing an uncomfortable choice?
   
5. Who can I think this through with? (Not someone to fix it, but someone to challenge my thinking.)
   

• Connect on LinkedIn: Join the ongoing discussion with Jacqui and Jane on LinkedIn.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqui-l-605ba150/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-mcnally-746ab762/

Episode 7 Beyond the School Gate: Are We Preparing Children for a World That No Longer Exists with Chris Wilkins?

In this episode of Being the Head, Jacqui and Jane sit down with Chris Wilkins Director of Standards at St Gregory’s Catholic Academy Trust, former Executive Headteacher, and Ofsted Inspector to address the structural disconnect between schools, employers, and an AI-driven economy.

While schools frequently speak about raising aspirations, many pupils particularly those without professional networks at home leave education without understanding what career paths actually look like or why classroom learning matters for their future. This conversation explores how leaders can move beyond tokenistic "aspiration weeks," integrate career context into everyday curriculum, and navigate the shift toward EdTech and AI without surrendering leadership judgment or overloading staff.

Key Takeaways

• The Aspiration Disconnect: Aspiration weeks and one-off employer visits often operate as tick-box exercises. Meaningful career awareness needs to start early from Reception through Key Stage 2 to spark curiosity and build social capital for children who lack professional networks at home.
• Context Over Compliance: Pupils engage more deeply when classroom learning is explicitly linked to real-world applications. Connecting daily subject knowledge to future career pathways gives learning a clear purpose without adding extra curriculum burden.
• AI as an Operational Support, Not a Leader: AI tools and EdTech should relieve administrative strain such as summarising meetings or aiding design rather than driving curriculum choices or replacing professional leadership judgment.
• Employers Need Core Capabilities: Employers consistently report skills shortages. Beyond basic literacy and numeracy, they need young people with strong interpersonal skills, curiosity, adaptability, and the confidence to communicate with adults.
• Systemic MAT Leverage: Multi-Academy Trusts are uniquely positioned to build central partnerships with local employers, universities, and industry projects, taking the administrative burden off individual headteachers.

Timestamps

• 00:00 – Introduction: "Who gets to see what's possible?" The gap between school gates and the workplace.

• 02:48 – Guest Welcome: Introducing Chris Wilkins and the current reality of youth employment.
• 04:50 – The Employer Skills Shortage: Why career education needs to start in primary school, not at age 14.
• 07:30 – AI & EdTech in Schools: Using technology as an operational leverage point while retaining professional leadership direction.
• 10:10 – Beyond Tokenism: Why "Aspiration Weeks" fall short and how to embed career context daily.
• 14:23 – Levelling the Playing Field: Supporting pupils who lack professional networks and social capital.
• 17:21 – Reciprocal Partnerships: What schools give to employers (Developing Experts case study).
• 20:17 – What Employers Actually Need: Core human capabilities, interpersonal confidence, and adaptability.
• 26:53 – EdTech Discernment: Distinguishing between workload-reducing tools and passive screen time.
• 33:48 – Culture Over Burden: Practical ways headteachers can leverage local goodwill without adding staff workload.
• 40:28 – The MAT Role: How trusts can centrally curate employer relationships to eliminate silos.
• 41:28 – If I Only Knew: Reflections on context, equity, and lifting children out of cycles of deprivation.
• 44:39 – Thinking Space Question: A final challenge for school leaders.

About Being the Head

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Being the Head Leadership Support and Assurance provides a structured space for headteachers, executive heads, and trust CEOs. We protect professional judgment and advocate for wellbeing as leadership infrastructure not an add-on.

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