Heart, Soul, and Relentless Purpose: Leading something that Deserves Your Best

Leadership in education isn’t just a job. It’s a calling – one that demands every part of you. To truly serve a school as its headteacher, you must invest your heart and soul into being the leader your community deserves. Anything less won’t do.

I’ve always believed that to lead well, you must live by your moral compass. For me, that’s always been that “They won’t CARE what you say until they know that you CARE,”
That means being honest, even when it’s hard. It means staying loyal to your values, to your team, and most importantly, to the children. It means showing humility – acknowledging when you don’t have all the answers and when others around you do. And above all, it means listening. Truly listening.

Not everything people share with you can be actioned, but everything can be acknowledged. That’s how trust is built. It’s how people begin to believe again in a collective future worth working toward.

When I first walked into our school less than two years ago, we were facing significant challenges. But from day one, I refused to see any problem as unconquerable. Instead, I grounded myself in what matters most – children’s learning and wellbeing. That became the heartbeat of everything. The decisions, the strategy, the conversations. We rebooted culture; enforced high expectations; replaced excuses with solutions; and prioritised regular coaching and feedback to improve teaching and learning.
And slowly, we started to turn things around.

It didn’t happen because of me alone. It happened because of us – staff, families, community, and our trust. We rallied around a shared vision. We committed, together, to giving every child the education they deserve. We didn’t settle. We didn’t shy away from hard truths. And we never let go of that deep, burning passion to make it better – for all.

This job is hard. Some days, it feels impossible. But if you stay rooted in what matters, the impossible starts to shift. Things begin to move. Hope takes hold. And what remains, long after the long nights and difficult decisions, is a shared hunger – a relentless drive to keep pushing standards higher and higher.
For me, it always comes back to the children. Every action, every plan, every challenge we face must pass that test: does this serve our children well? If the answer is yes, we press on. If not, we rethink.

So to anyone leading a school, or aspiring to: be brave enough to care deeply. Show up with your whole heart. Listen even when you’re tired. Lead with your values and never lose sight of the reason you began this journey in the first place.
Because when you give everything to this role with honesty, humility, and passion, what unfolds is powerful. What grows is lasting. And what changes, most of all, are the lives of the children who needed you to care all that much.