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

The human cost of leading schools. We see you, we hear you.

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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Redesigning Accountability: What Happens When You Stop Monitoring Teachers?

When did we decide that more monitoring automatically meant better leadership? In this episode of Being the Head, Jane and Jacqui are joined by Ben Levinson OBE headteacher of Kensington Primary School and author of The Well Teacher.

Together, they challenge education’s deepest assumptions around lesson observations, learning walks, and performance management. Ben shares how moving away from high-stakes surveillance toward trust, professional curiosity, and teacher agency transformed his school into a place where both staff and children truly love to be.

Key Discussion Points

• Accountability vs. Surveillance: Why watching teachers more doesn't make teaching better.

• Moving Beyond the Checklist: Replacing rigid 8-page observation forms with collaborative coaching and honest dialogue.

• Creating a School Everyone Loves to Be In: How staff wellbeing directly drives pupil outcomes and shapes school culture.

• The Well Teacher: Practical ways individual teachers can reclaim agency and passion in their day-to-day work.

• Rethinking Systems: Asking "what do we do, and why?" to redesign physical/emotional health curriculums, CPD, and traditional school routines.

Connect & Follow

• Guest: Connect with Ben Levinson on LinkedIn.

• Hosts: Jane McNally & Jacqui Le Maître.

• Podcast: Follow Being the Head on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for new episodes exploring the human side of school leadership.

EPISODE SUMMARY Leading a school when no one trust you yet. With James Kerfoot.

You walk into a school that is struggling. Everyone knows it, and everyone wants you to fix it fast. But the people you are asking to lead that change don’t trust you yet.

So, what do you do? Move quickly and risk losing your team, or slow down and risk losing the school?

In this episode, Jacqui and Jane sit down with James Kerfoot former headteacher across three secondary schools and current Executive Principal to examine what trust actually looks like when the pressure is high and time is running out. We bypass the superficial answers and confront the structural realities: the flaw of short-term accountability frameworks, the myth of the quick turnaround, and the uncomfortable question every leader must eventually ask: What if the lack of trust in your school is rooted in something you are doing?

KEY THINKING SPACES & HIGHLIGHTS

• The 3-to-5-Year Reality vs. Short-Term Pressure: Why system mechanics push strong leaders away from the schools that need them most, and why true cultural transformation cannot be rushed.
• The "Messy Middle" Phase: Navigating the three distinct stages of turnaround leadership: high pace, the messy middle, and the green shoots.
• The Perception Gap: DfE data shows over 80% of leaders believe their schools are calm daily, while barely 50% of teachers agree. What happens when both realities exist simultaneously?
• Credibility on the Ground: Why leading from behind a desk destroys trust, and why rolling up your sleeves on a rainy Friday afternoon matters more than any PowerPoint presentation.
• The ESP Framework for Courageous Conversations: How to handle necessary, uncomfortable accountability with empathy, clarity, and speed.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS FOR LEADERS

Use these questions to test your own leadership judgment this week:

1. If a staff member disagrees with your direction, are they being heard, or are you simply delaying action while waiting for them to comply?
2. When was the last time you publicly acknowledged a leadership decision that failed, and adjusted course based on staff feedback?
3. Are you carrying responsibilities and decisions that you should be giving away to build genuine agency in your middle and senior leaders?

ABOUT OUR GUEST

James Kerfoot has spent 32 years in education, including 21 years in senior leadership and 13 years as a headteacher across three secondary schools. He is currently an Executive Principal within the Omega Multi-Academy Trust based at Alsop High School in Liverpool, a Level 7 Executive Coach, and an MPQEL graduate.

CONNECT & SUPPORT

• Website & Leadership Offer: Explore the Being the Head Leadership Support and Assurance offer—a structural necessity designed to create thinking space, protect judgment, and provide reflective supervision. Visit standstore https://stan.store/beingthehead
• Community: Follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to ensure more school leaders who are carrying heavy burdens know they are seen and heard.

Being the Head: The Human Cost of Leading SchoolsEpisode

Title: Are You Ready for Ofsted, or Just Good at Preparing for It?

Episode DescriptionWhat if Ofsted sees something in your school that you haven't seen yet? One year into the renewed inspection framework, hosts Jacqui and Jane are joined again by education expert Trevor Davis to move past surface-level preparation and explore what true inspection readiness really looks like.
Together, they dive into the uncomfortable realities of school leadership from tackling persistent absence data and navigating classroom hubs to addressing teacher workload, staff survey trends, and avoiding "strategic delay."

Key Takeaways & Highlights

• Knowing Your Context Beyond Numbers: Why understanding your IDSR, persistent absence trends, and headline data relative to national baselines is your number-one priority.
  
• Typicality vs. Inspection Performances: Why Ofsted looks for everyday reality rather than overnight paperwork or superficial preparation.
  
• Curriculum & Book Scrutiny: What children's books actually reveal about curriculum depth, mastery, and pride.
  
• The Reality of Inclusion & Hubs: A frank discussion on breakout spaces, complex SEND needs, and balancing individual support with classroom learning.
  
• Confronting "Strategic Delay": Why delaying difficult conversations around workload, staff perceptions, or culture only compounds leadership challenges.
  

• 00:00 – Introduction: What if Ofsted notices something you haven't?
  
• 02:04 – Defining Strategic Delay and genuine readiness.
  
• 04:18 – Trevor Davis on the IDSR, headline data, and attendance tracking.
  
• 08:06 – Proving "typicality" and why inspections aren't just paper audits.
  
• 11:13 – Scrutinising books and gathering authentic pupil voice.
  
• 18:51 – Triangulating staff and parental survey data effectively.
  
• 24:27 – Inclusion, EHCPs, and the debate surrounding school hubs.
  
• 33:36 – Navigating teacher workload, culture, and professional expectations.
  
• 43:58 – Eat Your Frogs: Tackling difficult leadership conversations early.
  
• 45:54 – If I Only Knew: Trevor’s core reflections on leadership and Ofsted.
  

Timestamps & Key TopicsConnect & ShareIf this conversation resonated with you, please follow the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It helps us reach more school leaders who may be carrying far more than anyone realises.

Know a colleague who needs to hear this episode today? Share it with them!

Beyond the Crisis: What Trauma Processing Actually Looks Like in Schools

Episode Summary:
When a critical incident occurs, schools are quick to mobilise support but what happens when the initial crisis ends, the support meetings conclude, and everyone else moves on? In this episode of Being the Head, Jane and Jacqui explore the hidden reality of long-term trauma processing in schools.

Joined by psychologist and relational practice expert Charlotte Clarke, this candid conversation breaks down why trauma processing takes years, how unaddressed trauma presents as complex classroom behaviours, and why true relational practice requires safe boundaries rather than removing expectations.
Designed specifically for busy school leaders and educators balancing high-pressure environments with vulnerable learners, this episode delivers actionable, real-world frameworks to help leadership teams support exhausted staff while holding a safe, predictable system for every child.

Key Highlights & Takeaways:

• Supporting Busy Leaders: Practical insights on how school executives and senior leadership teams can accurately profile risk and manage complex behavioural cultures without absorbing system-wide burnout.
  
• The Filing Cabinet & The Apple: Understanding why acute trauma responses can take years to process, showing up as control, escaping reality, and narrative shaping.
  
• Relational Practice vs. Soft Boundaries: Why compassion doesn't mean removing expectations, but creating safety and predictability.
  
• Eliminating Everyday Shame: How removing minor, passive interactions can help vulnerable pupils keep their "filing cabinets" open to heal.
  

• Behavior Profiling Tool & Free Keynotes: Access free resources and behavioral profiling tools to support school casework at www.wenavigatetogether.com
  
• Let Us Navigate: Learn more about Charlotte's consultancy, training, and school leadership support at www.letusnavigate.com
  
• Connect with Charlotte Clarke: Connect directly with Charlotte on LinkedIn
  

Never Miss an Episode:
If you found value in today’s episode, please consider following or subscribing to Being the Head on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite platform. Leaving a quick review or sharing this episode with a fellow school leader helps us reach more educators navigating the real, human cost of leadership!

Episode Title: What Kind Leadership Really Looks Like Under Pressure (with Joanna Povall)

Episode Description: Can you still be a kind leader when you have to hold the line, challenge poor performance, or navigate high-pressure workloads? In this episode of Being the Head, Jane and Jacqui dive deep into the reality of school leadership when capacity is low and expectations are high.
They are joined by Joanna Povall Principal of Wales International School, TES International Principal of the Year 2024, and author of Kind Leadership: Leading Schools with Empathy, Honesty and Impact. Joanna dismantles the myth that kindness is just about "being nice" or avoiding tough conversations. Instead, she breaks down how true kindness relies on clarity, courage, and accountability introducing her award-winning CHASE framework.

Key Takeaways:

• Nice vs. Kind: Why "nice" keeps the status quo, while "kind" addresses issues directly and protects children and staff.
  
• The CHASE Framework: How Communication, Honesty, Accountability, Self-Esteem, and Ego form the foundation of sustainable leadership.
  
• Managing Ego: Why ego is the most underestimated element in school leadership and how it gets in the way of culture.
  
• Leading Through Pressure: How to navigate difficult conversations without damaging confidence or avoiding personal discomfort.
  

• Connect with Joanna Povall on LinkedIn.
  
• Grab a copy of Joanna's book, Kind Leadership: Leading Schools with Empathy, Honesty and Impact, on Amazon or direct from Crown House Publishing.
  

• 00:00 – The reality of kindness when holding the line
  
• 03:21 – Teacher workload data & leadership pressure
  
• 06:16 – Defining Kind Leadership: Nice vs. Kind
  
• 13:05 – Navigating difficult performance conversations with clarity
  
• 19:44 – The CHASE Framework (Communication, Honesty, Accountability, Self-Esteem, Ego)
  
• 34:37 – Why Ego is the biggest trap for school leaders
  
• 41:52 – If I Only Knew: Advice for new headteachers
  

• Connect with Joanna Povall on LinkedIn
  
• Order Joanna Povall's book: Kind Leadership: Leading Schools with Empathy, Honesty and Impact (Crown House Publishing | Amazon)