From my experience, leaders enlist the services of a coach because they want to improve their situations, improve performance and achieve goals. They may want to learn new ways of thinking and approaching situations, in order to get better results.
Feedback from my coaching has included:
My personal values drive how I work - Trust, Respect, Honesty, Integrity and Joy in service.
I recently retired as a primary school Headteacher after 21 years. I used coaching as part of my role for many years and created a sustainable coaching culture within my school. In 2014, I qualified as a Personal Performance Coach with The Coaching Academy and since then have enjoyed working with individual school leaders as well as Senior Leadership Teams in a number of schools across Birmingham and further afield.
I will focus solely on your situations with the kind of attention and commitment that you rarely experience elsewhere. I will listen to you, with a genuine curiosity to understand who you are and what challenges you face in your day-to-day work as a school leader. Confidentiality is guaranteed. I am equally happy coaching IRL or virtually but my preference is face-to-face.
I coach with joy, with passion and with absolute commitment to the leaders I work with.
As an Accredited Leadership Coach and Facilitator Nicky has worked successfully with leaders at all levels for over 10 years. Having started life in professional services, culminating in running a successful business for lawyers, she has supported clients from a wide range of organizations including Santander, National Grid, HMRC and Aston Martin. Having been a school governor for 8 years she has become increasingly involved in coaching leaders in education including head teachers and member of the SLT.
Using cognitive behavioural coaching techniques Nicky’s specialist areas of expertise include leading through change, stepping up, developing first time and middle leaders, and maternity coaching. Typical topics include raising visibility, developing resilience, enabling others and building confidence. Supporting her coaching practice Nicky runs workshops on managing stress, raising awareness around mental illness at work and mindfulness.
“As a coach I see my job as working with my clients to realise their own potential. I do this by helping you to understand the behaviours that are holding you back and the beliefs that might be stopping you from being at your best. In coaching sessions, through asking relevant and probing questions, and offering candid but constructive feedback I enable my clients to develop their thinking and to really understand how to make best use of their strengths and to work on those areas for development that might be getting in the way.”
Nadine brings almost two decades of experience in education to her work as a leadership coach and school improvement consultant. Having served as a Deputy Headteacher in Birmingham and as Director of the Davies Lane Teaching School Alliance in London, Nadine has led on teacher development, curriculum design and the national school improvement agenda. Her leadership has spanned the DfE school-to-school support offer, Initial Teacher Training and KS2 writing moderation across multiple local authorities. Now an Education Partner at Birmingham Education Partnership, she supports leaders and schools across the city to strengthen practice and raise outcomes through sustainable, human-centred improvement.
What sets Nadine apart as a coach is her unwavering belief that people - not programmes - drive transformation. Her approach is person-centred, intuitive and practical; grounded in the reality of school life yet always oriented toward growth. She creates a reflective space where leaders can think aloud, explore challenge without fear, and reconnect with their core purpose. Her coaching blends insight with compassion, challenge with care. Clients often describe her as “the person who tells you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear” - yet always with warmth and respect.
Alongside her work with BEP, Nadine continues to coach and mentor leaders across the wider sector, helping them to align professional ambition with personal wellbeing. Her coaching offers a rare balance: rigorous enough to sharpen leadership practice, compassionate enough to sustain the person behind the role.
I became a coach because I was a recipient of both personal and professional coaching, and I can say without a doubt from my own experience that coaching can have a powerful, profound, and transformational impact. I am an accredited ILM Level 7 Executive Coach and Mentor, with 25 years’ experience of working in secondary education as a Deputy Head and a middle leader both in the UK and internationally. Having worked in some challenging contexts in the private and public sector, I have used coaching to develop both teams and individuals. With a background in Drama, I bring some of the disciplines of theatre into my work when facilitating groups, coaching senior or middle leaders and NQT’s, using visualisation and theatre techniques to compliment my non-directive style of coaching. My experience in international education has taken me to numerous countries across the globe, learning from the best.
The coaching space is a space for you to have the time to think and reflect on matters that are pertinent to you as a leader, in a non-judgemental, solution focussed environment. My approach is to journey alongside you, listen and understand you, support and challenge you, when appropriate, where you have the time and space to explore the challenges that you face and find the solutions, so that you can be the leader you want to be, knowing that you are making a positive difference in your own life, the lives of your colleagues and the lives of your wider community. I look forward to workingth you.
I am an associate certified coach who is passionate about supporting people to manage the pressures of leadership roles, juggling the demands of being a working parent, overcoming imposter syndrome, and achieving their potential. I work in partnership with people to understand their challenges and provide a safe space to explore how they can improve their professional and personal lives using coaching tools and techniques. I previously worked in the private sector for over 22 years, 12 of which were in senior leadership roles. I am now a full-time coach as well as a mum of two primary school aged children.
I am a professional ICF ACC qualified coach. I help new and experienced leaders to develop their full potential, by fully using their unique strengths, values and personality. This means leading and not just managing, being open and engaging with their teams and colleagues, and releasing their own creative energy to become trusted and inspirational leaders. I also help people who are struggling with confidence, anxiety, frustrations, or unbalanced lives. I spent over 20 years in senior leadership and director roles in business and I am a former school governor. I live in the east midlands with my wife, and have three children and three grandchildren.
A transformational leader and role model Sarah has a wealth of experience in leadership at all levels. As a former Assistant Chief Fire Officer within the West Midlands Fire Service and the first female operational strategic manager she worked within the busy metropolitan conurbation where she developed a deep understanding in leading the people strategy.
Sarah has a passion for making a very real difference within Inclusion, Equality and Diversity. She has been recognised nationally for her work in driving and improving the Inclusion agenda and for her influence as a positive role model.
With individuals and teams being at the heart of any organisation Sarah understands the importance of culture and leadership and the essential part that coaching has to play. This ethos starts with the ability to understand yourself through self-awareness, your teams and the organisation that leads to a positive impact on culture and performance. Through a supportive coaching style her focus is to enable individuals to better understand themselves, build confidence and resilience, self-belief and awareness, realise their potential, understand leadership styles and the impact on culture, understand barriers and influences, and the importance and balance of wellbeing.
Sarah is currently coaching a vibrant and diverse range of individuals and would love the opportunity to coach others in realising their personal or professional goals and potential for the future.
I am a former primary headteacher with over 20 years’ experience in a variety of school contexts and have worked as a leader in both UK and international schools. I have turned around a failing primary school and re-built a new school under the Priority School Build initiative. I have a Master’s in Education in Leadership and Management and the National Professional Qualification for Headship. I have expertise in working in challenging context not least in urban areas of economic disadvantage and poverty and have a wealth of experience in supporting creativity, optimism, and robust systems to enable positive school cultures to grow and thrive.
I have been a mentor and coach within a variety of forums including LA advisory panels, the SSAT leadership programme, Warwick University and across a local Academy Trust. The focus of my work is building capacity for managing complex and challenging contexts, relationship and working with ambiguity and change.
My style combines challenge with empathy and support. I am clear sighted and pragmatic with a sensitive, intuitive approach. I understand the isolation of many senior managers and the range of challenges and complexity they face. I am particularly interested in working with those facing change or transition, who want to manage better their professional demands in a way which does not compromise their physical and mental health and personal wellbeing.
Our work together will be about supporting you and will be tailored to your context. It will provide challenge, clarity, and fun, so that you and your team can do the work that has impact and meaning.
Curiosity, Creativity and Appreciation of Beauty
Integrity, Connection and Authenticity
I assist people, schools and communities in improving their mental fitness, emotional intelligence and performance.
I am an ICF ACC accredited coach and consultant with a background in education. For over 20 years I have been specialising in the creative arts and social/emotional education working both here in the UK and Australia. As a consultant I now help schools and organisations promote and embed a culture of wellbeing and positive mental health through strategy consulting, coaching and education. As a coach I facilitate positive change, strengthen resilience and improve performance. I am a curious, creative coach, holding space for challenging cognitive conversations yet also providing a more holistic approach by incorporating the power of the breath, imagination and play. As your coach I journey alongside you, actively listen and understand you, support and challenge you and seek solutions by exploring your challenges. Together we explore, identify and clarify, increase self-awareness, uncover unhelpful patterns and work towards your goals.
Essentially I create spaces to listen. I believe listening is a fundamental and underrated skill for life and in business, essential to us all. When we listen well, we develop stronger relationships. we become better leaders, better parents, coaches and humans.
I work with people from all walks of life including and not limited to leadership, senior management, teachers, parents and young people. Whatever role you play my intention remains the same; to provide holistic, impactful and sustainable discovery and growth in the direction of health and success.
Until March 2021 Helen was Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Aston University, a role she held for ten years. She is now Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management in Aston Business School. Helen is a Principal Fellow of Advance HE, and a National Teaching Fellow. She is a trained executive coach, and her recent research, policy and consultancy work involves helping organisations align their workforce, structure, and systems with their strategy, employability and skills development, and closing the degree attainment gap. Helen was awarded the OBE in 2011 for services to Higher Education.
