Evergreen Blog

How clarity, consistency and constructive challenge can make a difference to pupils’ experiences

This week, I have been privileged to work with a group of middle leaders, full of commitment and loyalty to their school and keen to make a positive difference to the life chances of the young people they serve.

Middle leaders occupy a fascinating, and sometimes challenging, position in schools. They are expected to translate whole-school priorities into departmental practice, lead and develop colleagues, maintain high expectations and, ultimately, improve outcomes for pupils. Yet they often do this while managing the daily demands of teaching, responding to competing priorities and navigating the expectations of both senior leaders and their own teams. Having worked with school leaders for many years, I have seen just how influential effective middle leadership can be. I have also seen how easily middle leaders can become overwhelmed by operational demands, leaving insufficient time and space for the leadership that makes the greatest difference.

So, what does it mean to lead with purpose?

Leadership is more than management

Management matters. Schools need effective systems, clear processes and consistent routines. However, leadership requires something more. It involves creating a shared sense of direction, developing others and establishing a culture in which colleagues understand not only what is expected, but why it matters. Middle leaders are particularly important here. They are the bridge between a school’s strategic ambitions and what pupils experience in classrooms every day. An important question for any middle leader is: If our departmental leadership is effective, what difference should pupils notice? This moves the conversation beyond completed actions, meetings and monitoring activities towards the impact of leadership.

Culture is created through everyday behaviours

School culture is not simply what is written in a vision statement or improvement plan. It is reflected in the conversations, relationships, expectations and behaviours that colleagues experience every day. Schools often demonstrate extraordinary teamwork when preparing for an important event. Colleagues work together, share responsibility, demonstrate enthusiasm and take pride in their contribution.

The challenge is sustaining that same collective commitment in everyday practice.

What would happen if the collaboration, energy and shared ownership evident during a successful school event became part of the routine culture of every department?

Middle leaders have an important role in modelling the behaviours they wish to see. Their language, responses to difficulties and willingness to focus on solutions all influence the culture of their teams.

Clarity before accountability

When teams are not functioning effectively, it can be tempting to focus immediately on individual performance. However, it is worth first considering whether everyone understands the goals, their responsibilities and the processes needed to achieve them.

The GRPI model offers a useful framework for examining team effectiveness through four elements:

• Goals: Do we have a shared understanding of what we are trying to achieve?
• Roles: Does everyone understand their responsibilities?
• Processes: Are our systems and ways of working effective and consistent?
• Interpersonal relationships: Do trust, communication and professional relationships support our work?

This encourages leaders to look beyond individual behaviours and consider the conditions that enable teams to succeed. It also provides a helpful starting point for distributing leadership. Delegation is not simply allocating tasks. It involves developing ownership, providing support and establishing clear expectations for reviewing progress.

/From assessment to action

One of the most important responsibilities of middle leaders is ensuring that assessment information informs improvements in teaching. Schools collect considerable amounts of data. However, the value lies not in the volume of information collected, but in what happens next.

Consider a set of examination scripts revealing a recurring misconception. The leadership response should go beyond identifying a weakness or asking teachers to improve results.

Instead, a purposeful sequence might be:

LOOK → DIAGNOSE → ACT → CHECK

First, examine what pupils’ work or assessment responses reveal. Next, identify the underlying knowledge gap or misconception. Then, consider the teaching response. Does something need to be retaught? Would a different explanation, model or scaffold help? Is targeted professional development required? Finally, establish how the impact of that response will be evaluated.

This is where middle leadership connects curriculum, assessment and professional development. It also ensures that monitoring is developmental rather than simply an exercise in checking compliance.

Clarity is kindness

Effective middle leadership requires both encouragement and constructive challenge. These are not competing responsibilities. A leader who avoids difficult conversations may inadvertently allow inconsistent practice to continue. Equally, challenge without trust, clarity or appropriate support can undermine professional relationships.

The most effective conversations combine clear expectations with curiosity. Rather than beginning with judgement, leaders might ask:

What did we agree? What have I noticed? Why does this matter for pupils? What might be getting in the way? What support would help?

Such conversations create opportunities for professional accountability without losing sight of relationships and development.

Keeping the focus on what matters

One of the challenges of school improvement is the temptation to do too much. Improvement plans can become crowded with initiatives, actions and monitoring activities. Middle leaders can find themselves trying to implement everything, sometimes without sufficient clarity about priorities. Purposeful leadership requires choices.

• What is the most important improvement needed in pupils’ learning?
• What evidence supports that judgement?
• What will the team do differently?
• How will we know whether it has worked?

A small number of carefully selected, evidence-informed actions, implemented consistently and reviewed thoughtfully, may achieve more than a lengthy list of competing priorities.

Importantly, middle leaders cannot do this alone. Senior leaders must provide clear strategic direction, appropriate support and the conditions in which middle leaders can exercise professional judgement.

A final reflection

Leadership is not measured simply by how busy we are, how many meetings we hold or how many actions we complete. It is reflected in the difference we make to others. For middle leaders, that difference can be seen in colleagues who feel supported and challenged, teams that work with greater clarity and consistency, and pupils whose learning experiences improve.

Perhaps the most valuable question for a middle leader to ask is:

What will be different for pupils because of the way I lead?

And, just as importantly:

What will I do next to make that difference happen?

Evergreen Leaders Ltd supports schools and leaders through coaching, consultancy and leadership development. Drawing on over 30 years of experience in education, including 13 years as a headteacher, Evergreen combines practical school improvement expertise with a reflective, evidence-informed approach to developing leadership.

Sustainable Leadership, Lasting Impact.

This week, I’ve been on both sides of feedback. Giving it, receiving it, and reflecting on what makes it genuinely useful. Much of my week has involved visiting classrooms, observing teachers and offering developmental feedback. It is always a privilege to see teachers at work, recognising their strengths and exploring how they might develop their practice further and always remembering what a challenging, rewarding role it is. I bring experience, professional knowledge and an external perspective to my consultancy. I am aware, however, that I also bring my own assumptions and biases. That’s why I believe feedback should be a discussion, grounded in evidence and with an understanding of context.
This morning, the roles were reversed when I met with my Cambridge tutor to receive feedback on my first MSt essay. Returning to academic study after 30 years has been a big step, and I admit I was nervous. It reminded me of October 1993, when, as a new undergraduate at the University of Birmingham, I received some rather blunt but incredibly helpful feedback from a professor about my academic writing. He was clear about what wasn’t working, explained why and showed me how to improve. Thirty-three years later, I still remember that conversation. This morning’s feedback was similarly valuable. There were areas to improve, of course, but my tutor made the complex feel straightforward and I left the call feeling encouraged, clearer about my next steps and motivated to learn.
Clarity is kindness. But clarity alone isn’t enough.
Being on the receiving end reminded me how vulnerable feedback can make us feel, even when we have actively sought it. It made me think about the teachers I’ve worked with this week. Did they feel understood? Was I clear? Did they leave knowing how to move forward? And motivated to try the things I had suggested? I certainly hope so. It also made me reflect on the distinction between feedback, advice and direction. In coaching, we seek to create space for others to think. In consultancy, we are often asked to offer expert judgement. Both require listening, understanding and respect. Coaching skills are so valuable when I am in the consultancy role.
After more than 30 years in education, I’m still learning. And perhaps that’s the point. The thing about good and useful feedback in my opinion, is that it isn’t just the opportunity to share a judgement or demonstrate knowledge, it is about helping someone move forward.
What has made feedback particularly valuable for you?

Two weeks after posting about going “back to school” after a 30-year break from studying I was thinking about how pleased I am to have made the leap back into academia. Our first residential week at Cambridge was a wonderful experience with a lot of learning, a lot of thinking, and the unexpected pleasure of reconnecting with my student self.

One of the highlights was meeting such an interesting group of fellow students, like-minded professionals from diverse backgrounds, some with familiar connections to UK education and others from industry and many from all around the world. There is something very valuable about learning alongside people who bring such different experiences and perspectives.

The academic content was inspirational. Module one is all about psychology and its application to coaching, some familiar ideas, but at greater depth and many new concepts to consider. I’m already reflecting on how this learning can deepen my own coaching practice. It has challenged me to think more carefully about some of the theory underpinning what happens in a coaching conversation and why it works.

And today I reached another milestone, I submitted my first assignment. It was a critical review of research by Terblanche, Van Heerden and Hunt (2024), exploring the use of an AI chatbot as an assistant to a human coach. What particularly interested me was that the research wasn’t about AI replacing the coach. Instead, it considered what might happen when AI is used alongside human coaching.

Reflecting on the study prompted some questions, not only about AI, but about what makes coaching effective in the first place. The working alliance, the relationship between coach and client. Starting to think about the quality of the research evidence, and what we can reasonably conclude from it has been interesting too.

It has certainly made me reflect on the place of AI in coaching. Perhaps the more interesting question isn’t simply, “Could AI replace a coach?” but “How might AI add to what happens between a human coach and client?” Plenty more to think about, both as a student and as a practitioner.

And, in the spirit of the assignment, I’ve added a little AI enhancement to this post…I wonder if you can spot it?