Instructional coaching and teacher development programme for school leaders

What is Coaching in Schools?

Coaching in Schools is an instructional coaching training and implementation programme. It helps school leaders define, embed and sustain instructional coaching as part of their wider teacher development strategy.

It supports senior leaders to move from isolated CPD initiatives towards a consistent, school-wide coaching culture that improves teaching over time.

Rather than a one-off training model, Coaching in Schools focuses on implementation, behaviour change and sustained impact across classrooms and teams.

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How instructional coaching improves teaching

Instructional coaching is a targeted form of teacher development that focuses on improving classroom practice through feedback, reflection and practice.

It helps teachers refine specific aspects of teaching, build confidence and develop consistency in their practice over time.

Schools use instructional coaching to:

improve teaching quality
achieve consistent classroom practice
strengthen teacher confidence and capability

How instructional coaching supports teacher development

Through coaching, teachers are able to:

reflect on classroom practice
receive focused developmental feedback
improve specific teaching behaviours
build confidence and consistency

This leads to stronger teaching practice and more sustainable professional growth.

Coaching and performance management

Coaching can be used alongside performance management systems to support meaningful professional development conversations. Rather than focusing solely on accountability, coaching helps shift performance discussions towards growth, improvement and support.

It enables leaders to have clearer, more structured and more developmental conversations with teachers while still maintaining high expectations.

Building a coaching culture in school

A coaching culture develops when reflective practice, feedback and professional dialogue become part of everyday school life.

Coaching in Schools supports schools to:

define what great teaching looks like in their context
train leaders and staff in coaching approaches
embed consistent coaching conversations
align CPD with real classroom practice
build trust and professional reflection across teams

Supporting teacher retention

Coaching can support teacher retention by improving job satisfaction, professional confidence and a sense of growth and progression.

Teachers who receive regular coaching often feel more supported, more capable and more connected to their professional development. This contributes to improved morale and increased staff retention over time.

What Coaching in Schools includes

Coaching in Schools is designed to be practical and tailored to your school or trust. We deliver a structured, in school implementation programme that includes:

leadership training in instructional coaching
support defining great teaching in your context
development of school-wide coaching systems
implementation support for CPD and performance processes
training for teachers and leaders in coaching conversations

Coaching in Schools can support:

quality of teaching
leadership development
performance conversations
teacher retention
school improvement
coaching culture

We have worked with Nadia for the last year to establish and successfully embed a whole Trust coaching programme. The sessions she has delivered to our coaching champions have been enlightening and we have all been incredibly appreciative of the new skills that we have learnt through coaching and more importantly have recognised the impact in terms of developing teachers' pedagogy. Without reservation, I would wholeheartedly recommend and look forward to continuing to work with Nadia In the future.

Anna MackenzieChief Education Director, Northern Star Academies Trust

Nadia is a creative. This, together with her leadership skills and her knowledge pf teaching and learning has allowed us to be more creative in our solutions. Whenever we’ve worked with Nadia there is such energy in the room. With her support we have developed both strategy and operational programmes to put instructional coaching at the heart of our professional development approach. Nadia’s ability to open up avenues of discussion and exploration, constantly challenging you to think again and find out your why, has been pivotal to our work over the last two years. At times, our ‘destination’ hasn’t always been clear but with her skilful coaching, we have loved the journey and been empowered to find our way!

Christine Reynolds Deputy CEO, Oak Learning Partnership

Nadia and her team have been working with our school for over a year now. She has supported and challenged us as leaders and has guided us to develop a coaching approach that fully meets the needs of our 2-19 Special School. She has helped us to balance strategic and operational priorities and to really focus on higher impact activities that make a difference. She fully understands the complexities of the education system and our unique challenges and has worked with us to plan and execute strategies that have helped us to improve teaching and learning and to empower our staff team. We have developed rubrics together that are now followed by all class staff and these have provided real clarity of expectation to support staff to enable our learners to reach their full potential. We are working with Nadia and her team again this year on our identified areas for development. The passion and enthusiasm from the team at Destino shines through in all our communication and we are excited for the next stage of our journey knowing that the team will fully challenge and support us to meet our goals.

Kathryn BryanHeadteacher, Broomfield SILC

Why choose Coaching in Schools

We are experienced coaches and former education leaders who understand both the strategic and practical realities of school improvement. We have worked with schools and trusts to embed coaching approaches that strengthen teaching, leadership and professional culture.

Coaching in Schools is designed to be realistic, implementable and impactful in the day-to-day life of schools.

Ready to transform teaching in your school?

If you are looking to build a stronger coaching culture, improve quality of teaching and develop consistent practice across your school or trust, Coaching in Schools provides a structured way to make that happen.