I’ve never worked in just one kind of school, for just one kind of community. And that shapes everything about how I see leadership.

In total I led schools for 21 years across three local authorities and a multi-academy trust, navigating seven Ofsted inspections as headteacher, building a new school from scratch in partnership with the Local Authority and Department for Education, and leading a national teacher training partnership with Warwick University. I’ve turned around underperforming organisations, steered teams through significant change, and made difficult decisions about people and performance when accountability was high. It’s a wide range of experience, and it shapes everything I do now.

Leaving headship was a difficult decision – but it was a deliberate one. I wanted to take everything those 21 years had taught me and put it to work for other leaders, across education and beyond. That’s why I founded High Pass Coaching & Consultancy.

This year I’ve had the privilege of working with nearly 50 organisations: primary schools, secondary schools, MAT leadership teams, corporate CEOs and a charity executive. What that breadth keeps reminding me is that the challenges facing a headteacher and a corporate CEO are more similar than either might expect. Clarity of vision, translating strategy into action, building teams that perform under pressure, managing stakeholders through difficulty – these aren’t education skills or business skills. They’re leadership skills.

From a personal perspective, I’ve always loved sport and competed to a decent level. That experience taught me what it actually feels like to be coached. The challenge. The occasional discomfort. The commitment to growth. The breakthroughs. The way a great coach can see what you can’t see in yourself is something I seek to build with every client I work with.

I keep my client list deliberately small because every person and every organisation deserve proper time, proper attention, and a proper relationship.

When I’m not working with clients, you’ll find me with my family, out on my bike with friends, or walking Otis, my whippet – a nod to my northern roots.

If you’re at a point where a frank, experienced conversation about your organisation would be useful — whether that’s about direction, performance, people, or just working out what comes next — I’d genuinely love to have it.

The first conversation is always free.