The Power of Coaching: how to embed a whole school approach to coaching

I’ve written about the power of coaching on my personal and professional self and how it has helped me grow in confidence over the last few years.

When I talk about coaching, I mean it in terms of its ‘traditional’ sense. Confidential, non directive (unless necessary for the coachee) with probing questions to help the coachee elicit the brilliance within themselves and achieve their goal. There is definitely a place for Instructional Coaching to help teachers develop their pedagogy and practice but at my school, we run this alongside the coaching programme.

Having introduced the coaching programme now across three schools, I have seen first hand the impact it has had in encouraging staff to not only enhance their practice but also enable them to think differently about themselves and others. For some colleagues, it has helped them understand their leadership strengths and areas of development; others have found it a useful space to discuss and solve problems. Coachees have mentioned how effective it was in helping them reflect and improve in and out of the classroom. For many participants partaking in the programme, they wished they could have more time with their coaches because they realised how powerful it had been for them.

So how does one go about setting up a coaching culture in a school?

Firstly, imagine what success will look like when you embed the whole school coaching programme. What do you hope to achieve through the programme? Why is it important and how will it help staff development?

Then flesh out the details of the programme. Who will be entitled to coaching through the programme? Why? Who will the coaches be and how will they be trained? Which coaching framework will you use and why? How will you develop coaches? How will you match up coaches with coachees? How will these conversations be contracted? How frequent will the coaching sessions be? How long will they last? How will you evaluate its impact?

Who?

As the Lead Coach, I knew that I wanted this programme to be open for all staff, both teaching and support. However, to begin, I wanted coaching to be prioritised for staff who came under specific categories because I believed they would benefit from having a coach for their professional and personal development. For example, as part of the coaching programme, the following groups of staff are prioritised for coaching: staff training to be coaches, staff new to the school, staff returning from maternity leave, staff new to a middle or senior leadership role, staff returning from long term sickness and staff on a support plan. Individual members of staff can, of course, request a coach or may be nominated by their HODs or line managers.

When selecting coaches, we were mindful that this would be a voluntary role in the school which would take time. We asked coaches if they would like to be part of the programme and we were transparent about what the role would involve as well as explaining how this would help them have whole school impact. As it was on an opt-in basis, coaches could then decide whether they wanted to be a coach or not. This was incredibly important because we wanted all coaches to be aligned and enthusiastic about the vision and its implementation. And enthusiastic they are!

The MAT wide coaches we have trained this year (around 30 and counting) have different roles and experiences ranging from SLT to the T&L Team to experienced mentors, teachers and middle leaders. They have been fantastic as coaches and have been the main reason for the rapid interest, excitement and uptake of coaching across the school.

To ensure consistency across coaches, we chose the TGROW model/ Andy Buck’s BASIC coaching model as our framework and utilised internal experienced coaches to deliver training across two separate days lasting two hours per session. As part of this training, coaches were additionally expected to partake in a group training session led by and be coached on the programme too. In so doing, we ensured that the coaches not only practised using the coaching framework in the training sessions but also saw it in action and could see how powerful it was because they were going through the programme themselves.

I am aware that all the training and coaching was during the coaches and coachees’ free time. Next time, I will try and ensure that all training sessions take place during school CPD time or INSET days so that it does not take up PPA time.

What, when and how?

As part of the programme, we decided coachees would be entitled to six 30 minute sessions weekly across a term or three 60 minute session fortnightly. This was included in a contract which both coach and coachee signed, which also included that they coach would keep discussions confidential. As part of the session, the coach was expected to support the coachee identify and work towards achieving a short or long term goal.

When matching the coaches with coachees, only myself, the other Lead Coach and my Headteacher know who is on the programme. Coaches are informed about who they are coaching in an confidential email/ private conversation and are not allowed to disclose who it is to anyone else. Although this may seem extreme, it is to ensure confidentiality for the coachee. This enables the coach to rapidly build trust with their coachee so that they can be honest and open. Without that trust and confidentiality, a staff member may be cautious about being honest about their issues and concerns and therefore lead to hindering their success. During the coaching training, confidentiality and trust is impressed upon through the sessions and I believe this confidentiality and trust has been a key reason for the success of the MAT coaching programme.

In the coaching evaluation form, when rating the level of trust the coachee had in their coach, 100% of staff who completed the form said they would rate the level of trust as five out of five. When explaining why, one coachee noted ‘I know that anything that I have said has remained confidential’ while another coachee stated ‘my coach was someone who had credibility but also an overwhelming sense of openness. I felt like my coach was vert trustworthy as they were honest and vulnerable when sharing advice which made me feel as though they were invested in our conversations.’

This feeling of investment is significant in retaining and developing all staff. Through coaching, the coachee feels invested because the coach listens and asks questions rather than directs and tells. Advice is shared only when required by the coachee to move them forward. Even then, the advice is just an option for the coachee to take or leave. On this programme, the goal is driven by the coachee and can include: managing workload, work life harmony, health and wellbeing, building leadership presence, problem solving, developing one aspect of their classroom practice, managing relationships, a whole school project, developing a curriculum etc. By keeping it broad, it’s aim is to elicit the brilliance within the coachee led by the coachee, with the coach listening attentively and asking pertinent questions.

Promoting and evaluating the programme

To continuously keep the momentum going, we have been regularly promoting the coaching programme through word of mouth, briefing, CPD sessions and by sharing the success stories with the permission of coachees. At the beginning of the programme, we had limited uptake and interest, even from colleagues who were on the priority list. Now, we have a waiting list of staff wanting coaching and have had to train more coaches to build capacity.

As with all projects, it’s been important to evaluate the coaching termly so that we can see what is working well and what the training needs may be for our coaches. It has been really beneficial reading the comments to see ways in which we can improve. The majority of feedback had been asking for the frequency of sessions to be increased so they had more time with their coach. One great suggestion was ‘to have the option of longer term coaching rather than 6 weeks intensive. For example one session per half term over an academic year.’ This is definitely something we will implement as part of the model going forward.

What I have loved the most though is listening to colleagues, from new teachers to experienced leaders to support staff, telling us how much they loved their coaching sessions. I have similarly found it rewarding and heartwarming reading the comments on the evaluation forms sent to coachees. Have a read below of some of the comments about how coaching has impacted colleagues who have been coached on the programme:

Leading whole school coaching has been one of the highlights of my role as AHT. It has taken time to train and embed across the school but it has also been an absolute pleasure driving the programme. Its success is integral in ensuring all staff know they are supported and valued so they can be best versions of themselves.

I hope all schools consider have an entitlement to coaching in school because I promise you, it will be transformational for your staff and school.

Yamina @msybibi