What happens when school leaders refuse to put a ceiling on what children can achieve?
Most heads aren't short on effort when it comes to attendance.
The harder truth: so much of it often rests on one or two people — and when that's the case, it never feels steady, however hard everyone works.
That's the work I do. I run a funded Senior Attendance & Leadership Resilience Check for headteachers and trust leaders in complex schools.
It starts with a short strategic assessment. For eligible schools, it opens into a full process:
- On-site school visit
- Detailed, school-specific report
- Follow-up strategy session
- Practical leadership tools for a clear 90-day plan
Typically valued at £1,000 — currently funded for eligible schools.
Apply here → https://atrejwhi.formester.com/f/hwL9GCyin/
In this episode of Headship After Hours, Paul Collin is joined by Professor Dame Alison Peacock, founding CEO of the Chartered College of Teaching, for a conversation about leadership, high expectations, research, school culture and creating schools built around possibility rather than limitation.
Alison traces her journey from the classroom to taking on her first headship in a school in special measures — and eventually to founding leadership of the Chartered College of Teaching.
One idea has remained consistent throughout that journey: moral purpose.
Alison shares why she has challenged assumptions about fixed ability throughout her career and why leaders need the courage to ask whether the language, structures and expectations within their schools are expanding children's possibilities — or quietly restricting them.
In this episode:
- Taking on a school in special measures
- Leading through moral purpose
- Why Alison challenged ability grouping and fixed expectations
- Research-informed school leadership
- Creating a genuinely listening school
- Pupil voice and democracy
- Oracy, cognition and learning
- Why potential shouldn't be treated as fixed
- Making school “irresistible”
- Attendance, belonging and anxiety
- Designing environments around possibility
- Why culture must include staff as well as pupils
- Holding high expectations without compromise
- The language adults use about children
- Why headteachers shouldn't carry leadership alone
Alison also shares the story of a young pupil who profoundly influenced her thinking about possibility and expectations — reinforcing her belief that when someone genuinely believes in a child, extraordinary things can happen.
Towards the end of the conversation, Alison offers a particularly important message to headteachers:
Don't think you've got to do this on your own.
Leadership can become isolating. Strong schools are built collectively.
🎙️ Headship After Hours — honest conversations about leadership, education and the realities of leading schools.
00:00 – Building a Listening School
01:00 – Introducing Dame Alison Peacock
02:12 – Why Alison Challenged the Status Quo
05:05 – Taking on a School in Special Measures
12:34 – Leading From Moral Purpose
15:38 – The Child Who Changed Alison's Thinking
20:24 – Why Schools Need to Listen to Pupils
23:11 – Oracy, Cognition & the Research That Matters
27:23 – Rethinking What Educational Success Looks Like
31:49 – How Would Alison Design a School Today?
36:21 – Why Belonging Is Foundational
38:08 – High Expectations Without Compromise
43:24 – The Language That Limits Children
45:54 – Alison's Advice to Headteachers
