Education Leaders | Evidence Informed School Leadership

April was a packed month on the Education Leaders podcast. Five episodes, four guests, and a thread that quietly ran through all of them: the value of small, listened-to, incremental change.Chris Scorer joined me for our monthly live show to make sense of it all. Here's what landed.Listening before leading. Richard Wheadon's episode on his leadership journey hit hardest here. Richard's been honest about arriving at a new school full of confidence in approaches that had worked before, only to find the school wasn't ready to hear them. Chris reflected on his own version of that story from his deputy head days. The lesson Richard pulls out, that the relationship has to flip and you're the one who needs to understand them first, is something most leaders quote at interview but find genuinely hard once the pressure to deliver kicks in.Cognitive load isn't only a classroom concept. Meg Lee's episode on the science of leading drew the parallel cleanly. We'd never overload our students the way we routinely overload our teachers. Chris had sharper questions about where standardisation tips over into removing teacher agency. There's a real risk that well-intentioned alignment becomes content delivery dressed up as consistency.The story I shared that fell apart in real time. I told one from a large primary school I worked in years ago, where they standardised planning to save teacher time. Some teachers delivered the lessons rigidly. Some scrapped them and rebuilt from scratch. Only a handful actually did what the school intended. Good intention, awful side effect. Wise leadership might have started with a consultation rather than an assumption.Curiosity as a North Star. Melati Wijsen, founder of Bye Bye Plastic Bags and Youthtopia, took us across to the Netherlands and Bali. Chris flagged the bit that surprised both of us: Melati's gratitude to teachers who didn't let her off the hook, even when she was already running a charity in her teens. There's a real lesson in how Green School Bali holds structure and freedom together. Her book, Change Starts Now, came out a month before mine and happens to be the same colour, which I'm still slightly bitter about.Vulnerability isn't optional. Julia Bialeski's episode on leading through imposter syndrome went live on Tuesday and is already the most downloaded of the month. Chris and I both copped to feeling it ourselves. Julia's framing of the panic, the public face, and the modelling cost we pay when we hide it from staff and students ties straight back to Richard's journey and to my solo episode on post-decision doubt. The thread underneath all of it: if we can't sit with not knowing, we end up performing certainty instead of building it.Episodes mentionedMeg Lee | The Science of Leading: shaneleaning.com/podcast/154Richard Wheadon | The Danger of Getting Comfortable: shaneleaning.com/podcast/155. Richard's book Learning Habits (Routledge) is well worth your time.Melati Wijsen | How Schools Can Grow Young Changemakers: shaneleaning.com/podcast/156. Melati's book Change Starts Now collects 100 lessons from over a decade on the frontline.Solo | The Science Behind Post-Decision Doubt: shaneleaning.com/podcast/157Julia Bialeski | Leading Through Imposter Syndrome: shaneleaning.com/podcast/158. Julia is also the author of Leading with Grace.Join us liveWe do this on the last Thursday of every month at educationleaders.live. Come and bring your questions. The live chat is genuinely the best part of the show.

Most school leaders have felt it at some point: that quiet, nagging suspicion that everyone else is more capable, better prepared, and more deserving of the role. Julia Bialeski knows it well. In the spring of 2019, she walked into her first principal job with a smile on her face and panic in her chest, presenting excitement to the world while privately wondering when everyone around her would figure out she wasn't good enough. In this conversation, Julia, educator, district leader, career coach, and author of Leading with Grace, talks honestly about why imposter syndrome hits school leaders so hard, why the loneliness of the job makes it worse, and why the profession's retention crisis has everything to do with the leadership models we put in front of the people coming up behind us. Julia shares two practical strategies that have worked for her over years in leadership: a daily learning log that helps you end the day focused on what you gained rather than what you still don't know, and the "smile file", a simple physical collection of notes, cards, and messages that she has carried with her for over a decade and reached for on her hardest days. She also shares the question that changed how she thinks about new roles and challenges: not "am I good enough for this?" but "why not me?" If you've ever sat in a leadership role quietly wondering whether you really belong there, this conversation is worth your time. Resources & Links Mentioned:Julia Bialeski on LinkedInLeading with Grace by Julia BialeskiEpisode PartnersInternational Leaders ConferenceSisi

That sickly feeling after a tough leadership call isn't your intuition warning you that you got it wrong and this episode explains exactly why. Drawing on Leon Festinger's 1957 work on cognitive dissonance, a 2021 meta-analysis from Hebrew University, and Kahneman and Tversky's research on loss aversion, Shane reframes one of the most common experiences in school leadership: the quiet panic that shows up on the sofa after a hard decision. If you've ever drafted a softening email at 11pm or lain awake running alternate endings, this one is for you. You'll learn why that post-decision discomfort is a receipt, not a warning, proof that your brain is doing the work of committing, not evidence that you chose wrong. Shane also explains why the loudest complaints after a change are predictably loud (loss aversion means losses feel twice as heavy as gains), and why suppressing the discomfort actually makes you a worse leader in the room. The practical takeaway is a single written exercise you can do this week that won't make the feeling stop, but will change what it means to you. Resources & Links Mentioned:Leon Festinger's A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957)Episode PartnersInternational Leaders ConferenceSisi

Melati Wijsen started Bye Bye Plastic Bags at age 12, spoke at the UN as a teenager, and never went to university, yet she is now teaching at three universities and shaping how a generation thinks about leadership and change. This episode is a conversation about what happens when a school genuinely creates space for a student's passion, and what school leaders can learn from one of the most compelling young voices in global education. Melati's journey through the Green School Bali, international advocacy, and her new book Change Starts Now offers a rare window into what education looks like when curiosity is treated as a core subject. You'll hear why Melati believes clarity beats inspiration when building a movement ("Bye bye plastic bags" mobilised an island; "let's change the world" mobilises confusion), and why she burnt out at 16 after saying yes to too many causes. She and Shane discuss the real tension between academic accountability and changemaking and why she argues it doesn't have to be binary. Her practical answer for any leader with a passionate 14-year-old in their school is specific, actionable, and completely free. If you've ever wondered whether your school's systems are growing future leaders or quietly flattening them, this conversation will leave you with a lot to sit with and a few things to act on. Resources & Links Mentioned:Melati Wijsen's websiteYOUTHTOPIA learning platformChange Starts Now by Melati Wijsen (Harper Collins)Melati Wijsen on LinkedInGreen School BaliMealti Wijsen's Instagram

There's a particular kind of leadership trap that nobody warns you about: the one where everything is going so well that you stop noticing why. Richard Wheadon spent the first decade of his career in a high-performing London school where great culture, strong professional development, and collaborative leadership were simply the norm. It wasn't until he moved to a new school in the Northwest that he realised none of it had been accidental, and that his confidence had quietly tipped into assumption. This episode, built around Richard's honest account of that transition and the humbling moments that followed, including a candid conversation with Ross McGill that stopped him in his tracks, is essential listening for any leader who has ever walked into a new context expecting their old success to travel with them. You'll hear why Richard believes the single most important thing a leader can do when they arrive somewhere new is listen before they lead, and why skipping that step cost him time he couldn't get back. Richard also makes a compelling case for blogging as a leadership development tool, not for the audience, but for the depth of thinking it forces you to do. Whether you're navigating a school move, trying to build a culture from scratch, or simply looking for your next challenge, this conversation will give you a lot to reflect on. Resources & Links Mentioned:Richard Wheadon on LinkedInRichard Wheadon's book: Learning HabitsEpisode PartnersInternational Leaders ConferenceTeaching Walkthrus

What if the principles that help students learn could also transform how you lead? This episode explores the powerful concept of the "science of leading" with Meg Lee, co-founder of Learning Science Partners and an internationally recognised advocate for evidence-informed teaching and professional learning. Meg explains why our leadership moves often fail when we act on "brittle knowledge," just enough understanding to be dangerous, instead of fostering the deep, flexible understanding needed to navigate complex organisations. This is a critical conversation for any leader feeling the tension between urgent action and sustainable implementation. You'll learn how core principles from cognitive science, such as cognitive load, prior knowledge, and effortful thinking, directly apply to leading schools and systems. Meg, a 30-year public education leader, author of Mindsets for Parents, and US ambassador for researchED, shares practical strategies, including how to simplify your school's focus, make small incremental moves in the same direction, and build a shared language for change that honours your team's experience. If you want to move beyond initiative fatigue and lead change that lasts, this episode provides the evidence-informed framework you need.Resources & Links Mentioned:Connect with Meg LeeLearning Science PartnersEpisode PartnersInternational Leaders ConferenceTeaching Walkthrus

Shane and Chris are back for this month's Education Leaders Live, recording from Shanghai and Newcastle respectively, to unpack some of the biggest themes from recent episodes.The conversation kicks off with the backstory behind Education Leaders itself. How it started as a hobby podcast called Travel Ed, what redundancy taught Shane about building a business, and why the "build it and they shall come" approach is terrible advice for anyone thinking about going independent.From there, they get into Dr Chris Baker's brilliant work on poor proxies for leadership. What does it actually look like to lead well? Is visibility the same as effectiveness? And why did a child once assume Chris Baker was the new headmaster based entirely on his trench coat?They also dig into the CPD problem. Shane shares results from a LinkedIn survey where only 1 out of roughly 100 school leaders said external workshops had genuine impact. That leads to a proper debate about where responsibility sits when training doesn't stick, and what providers should be doing differently.Plus: the guilt of not looking busy, why teachers have the rolliest eyes of any profession, Chris's story about Rob Coe walking into his conference session, and what's coming up next on the podcast.Episodes referenced in this conversation:The Work Behind Education Leaders: shaneleaning.com/podcast/151Poor Proxies for Leadership with Dr Chris Baker: shaneleaning.com/podcast/152Parent-Driven School Storytelling with Selena Boyd: shaneleaning.com/podcast/148What Actually Works in Teacher Development: shaneleaning.com/podcast/153

England spends £1 billion a year on teacher professional development, yet a poll of school leaders found that just 1% said it led to lasting change in practice. This episode examines why that gap exists, drawing on a landmark 2025 report from the Teacher Development Trust, which surveyed over a thousand teachers and leaders across England. The findings are stark, but the patterns, as Shane argues, are universal and if you lead a school anywhere in the world, the problems will feel familiar. You'll learn about the significant perception gap between what leaders think CPD achieves and what teachers actually experience, why the formats schools rely on most (workshops, online modules) are the least effective, and what the evidence actually points to instead. Shane shares five practical steps leaders can take right now, from closing the feedback gap with staff to investing in coaching and peer observation. Perhaps most urgently, the data shows a direct link between poor professional development and teacher retention and what kind of CPD would genuinely make teachers more likely to stay. Resources & Links Mentioned:Education Leaders IntensiveEpisode PartnersInternational Curriculum AssociationTeaching Walkthrus

How do we truly know if someone is a good leader? If your school relies on visible presence, constant busyness, or even a certain "look," you might be measuring the wrong things. In this thought-provoking episode, Shane is joined by experienced educator and leadership development specialist, Chris Baker, to explore the concept of 'poor proxies' for leadership. Inspired by Rob Coe's work on poor proxies for learning, Chris explains how schools often mistake correlated behaviours for the causal impact of effective leadership, potentially undermining leader well-being and organisational success. You’ll learn to identify common poor proxies like visibility, busyness, and confidence, and discover a more impactful framework for evaluation centred on two questions: "How does this leader make people feel?" and "What does this leader enable people to do?" Chris provides a practical, immediate action plan, advising you to audit your school’s leadership frameworks, recruitment processes, and development programmes for hidden proxies. If you want to move beyond superficial metrics and cultivate leadership that genuinely empowers your team, this conversation is an essential starting point. Resources & Links Mentioned:Connect with Chris BakerRob Coe's work at Evidence-Based EducationLeadership Launchpads by Chris BakerEpisode PartnersInternational Curriculum AssociationTeaching Walkthrus