Coaching In Education Podcast Series

This is GCI's second virtual visit to Brighton Grammar School in Melbourne Australia in a ‘double header’ episode of our Coaching in Education podcast series. Join us in conversation with the director of instructional coaching Raelene Plozza as we hear more about their well-established coaching culture but this time with a specific focus on Literacy. Listen in as Raelene shares why she considers Instructional Coaching to be the highest impact role of her career in education. This is an episode you’ll not want to miss.

In this first of two episodes based at Brighton Grammar School in Melbourne, GCI is in conversation with Dr Mark Dowley Associate Head of Staff Development and Instruction. Join us as Mark shares the incredible journey of how his school has developed and established a complex and highly effective coaching culture. With a team of fourteen coaches and a healthy mix of coach training from both Growth Coaching International and the Instructional Coaching Group, Brighton Grammar is an excellent example of what can be achieved when theory and good intentions meet reality. Student coaching, peer coaching, training days for parents, coaching in action days for visiting schools. This first of two episodes is a must listen.

Are you an aspiring or emerging school leader? Or are you already in a leadership role and want to expand your reach or maybe consider a move to a leadership role in another school? Maybe you lead an executive team and want assistance in how to best recruit and position your staff? If it’s a yes to any of these then join me in conversation with Amanda Samson of Hutton Consulting Australia and learn about the impact coaching can have on your specific situation. In this episode Amanda shares her journey into education, her passion for supporting and developing school leaders and how the effective use of coaching is central to her success. This is another excellent example of what happens when theory and good intentions meet reality.

Enhancing the quality of conversations in educational communities. A key objective in the work of Growth Coaching International. For many of us we think immediately of adult conversations in staff meetings or board rooms, maybe even in the school corridors but what about conversations at student level? How do we enhance the quality of conversations between our students? In this episode of the Coaching in Education podcast series I’m in conversation with Alison Spence, Principal at Kohia Terrace School in Auckland, New Zealand and we are joined by five of her amazing students who each have been trained as student coaches and are keen to share the impact coaching has had on them.  

In this episode I’m joined by Mark Keenan, Principal of Maraetai Beach School in Auckland, New Zealand. Join me in conversation with Mark as he shares the incredible coaching journey he and his staff and students have been on in the last three years. Mark emphasises the importance of a strategic approach to developing a coaching culture in a school and the need to regularly revisit the question of ‘Why?’. Mark gives us an insight into his theory behind starting small, building trust and relationships and over time generating a curiosity in his staff to guarantee ‘buy in’. This is a perfect example of what happens when theory and good intentions meet reality.

In this episode of the coaching in education podcast series we hear how Paul Bennett, Assistant Principal of Howick College in Auckland New Zealand, upscaled coaching in his school to a very impressive level. Paul shares how his initial attempts 'bombed' but with sheer determination and an eye on the research from schools around the world, he managed to turn things around. Howick College now boasts a coaching system where 12 specially trained coaches support an incredible 134 teachers on a fortnightly basis throughout the school year. Listen to Paul explain their 'Tracking Outcomes' programme, developed in collaboration with GCI, to regularly monitor and evaluate the impact of coaching at Howick. This is a truly inspiring example of what can happen when theory and good intentions meet reality.

In this episode I'm in conversation with Ian Dickinson, Principal of Pigeon Mountain Primary School in Auckland, New Zealand. Listen in as Ian shares many of the wins as well as some of the barriers he has experienced over recent years developing a coaching culture. Join me as I learn how video peer coaching has provided a wonderful vehicle for improving the quality of conversations as the school aims to provide an 'Education with a Heart'.

In this episode I have packed up my microphone, left Auckland, New Zealand and headed across to Queensland in Australia to chat with Janice Lenarduzzi, Deputy Principal at MacGregor State School. Janice shares with us the successes and challenges of introducing a coaching culture in a large state school of over 50 staff and 1300 pupils. Starting out with only two coaches Janice invests time and energy in unpacking what coaching is, succeeds in convincing 50% of the staff to take a risk and sign up and then shares with us the impact coaching has on both teaching practice and pupil outcomes. This story is well worth a listen.

In this episode I talk to Alison Spence, Principal of Kohia Terrace School in Auckland, New Zealand. Alison shares the highs (and lows) of establishing a coaching culture in her school. From a challenging first few years Alison has successfully developed coaching to a level where the majority of her staff are now trained coaches, an amazing sixty students have been trained as coaches and she herself spends time coaching leaders from neighbouring schools in the Kohia community. In Alison's own words Coaching is something we live and breathe at Kohia School. Join us for a truly inspirational story.

In this ‘re-launch’ episode of the Coaching in Education podcast, GCI Managing Director Chris Munro introduces our new podcast host Richard Reid and interviews him about his own coaching journey. As you will hear, Richard is a school leader who has experienced and witnessed the benefits of coaching in school settings. Richard continues to work as a Principal in County Down, Northern Ireland and is a podcasting enthusiast in his ‘spare’ time. He brings the warm and humble perspective of teacher, Principal, coach and mentor to his new role hosting our podcast series.

“Effective communication is an essential skill for a fulfilled life, and we can’t teach it to students if we don’t know how to do it ourselves.” In this podcast, Leigh Hatcher interviews Dr Jim Knight about his new book, Better Conversations Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected. He is joined by Gray Ryan, our Senior Consultant based in Victoria. Jim explores the beliefs and habits that are necessary to promote better communication leading to positive change. Gray talks about the benefits of better communication and how our new program, Better Conversations, is based on this book.

In this podcast, Leigh talks to John Campbell, GCI Executive Director, on the topic of schools as conversational communities. John talks about conversational contexts in schools and where the coaching style conversation could make a difference.

Do students have the emotional intelligence to coach their peers? And what would some of the other key considerations be for schools interested in implementing a student peer coaching program.  In this short interview, we talk to Ben Calleja, Co-Director at GCI WA, SA & NT, who explains what others have found in this exciting new area of coaching.

Over the last 18 months GCI Director, Annette Gray, helped initiate and embed a coaching culture to improve safety at Laing O’Rourke, a multinational construction company. Laing O’Rourke is a quite a different setting to the education sector that GCI mostly works in. But in this conversation, Rob and Suzy share a lot of transferrable insights for educators. Listen to how taking a different approach to safety and changing the conversation to be more solution-focussed has helped Laing O’Rourke. In this podcast, Rob Mitchell, Coaching Lead at Laing O’Rourke and Suzy Ivy, Training Coordinator at Laing O’Rourke share the impact coaching has had on their organisation.

Growth Coaching International (GCI) is excited to announce a new partnership with Dr Jim Knight and the Instructional Coaching Group (ICG). This partnership will enable GCI to deliver the world-leading instructional coaching programs to educators in Australia and New Zealand. In this interview, we talk with Jim about his work and what he’s discovered in over twenty years’ of studying professional learning.

Staff and students at Santa Maria College in Western Australia are encouraged to focus on growth. In this interview, Anthony Phillips and Shani Andrews share practical implementation tips and discuss the significant benefits of the Teacher Growth and Development Framework (GROW) program, a program designed to develop a culture of improvement with coaching and feedback in education.

Schools are complex environments faced with unique issues. In order for staff and students to flourish, relationships within the school need to be really highly connected. Hale School in Perth WA has embraced coaching as a platform to enable people to connect more deeply, to talk about professional practice and to be able to rely on one another's opinions when challenged with complex issues.  In this interview, Richard Goater, Director of Staff Development, explains how Hale uses a coaching approach to enable a platform for trust, development and growth

Peter Macbeth is passionate about building belief in young people. At the core of this drive to meet the needs of young people in their context is the focus on building relationships and on good communication, something which can be challenging in the far-flung areas of the Far West of New South Wales, Australia. In this interview, Peter explains how coaching has become a key strategy in the way in which they build the capacity, cooperation and confidence in the Far West.

Change happens from very small steps - those small steps can make a huge impact. This is a follow-up interview with Elena Joli, a science teacher who went to Antarctica to help make an impact on climate change and in the process discovered a new, more personal understanding of the concept of ‘leadership’.  You will hear how Elena, with the encouragement of coach Annette Gray, dared to step out of her comfort zone and explore her own resourcefulness, taking her transformation beyond the experience of the journey itself. 

Exposing graduate teachers to models of good practice involves navigating along the conversational continuum between mentoring and coaching. This is a school-based story about how using a blended approach to mentoring and coaching, as needed, supports beginning teachers. In this interview, Sue Richards, a former school leader with 40 years’ experience and current GCI coach, explains how she changed her default approach from mentoring beginning teachers to coaching them, allowing them to take greater ownership of their practice development and maintain their energy and enthusiasm for their important role.