For School Leaders · thinkchat
The school reflects your actions.
Are you being intentional?
These questions are not about your vision statement or your strategic plan. They are about what is actually happening in your school, in the decisions you make, and in the conditions you are or are not creating for the people in your care. Answer honestly, not aspirationally. The more truthful you are, the more useful your result will be.
There are no right answers here. Only honest ones. These questions help you hear it more clearly.
How to answer
1
Rarely or not yet
2
Sometimes, in some moments
3
Often and with intention
4
Consistently, it's part of who I am
Your progress0 of 20 answered
C
Pillar One
Culture: whether the school you are leading is the school you believe in
Head
I can name the things that are actually shaping the culture of my school right now: the stories being told, the behaviours being rewarded, the voices being centred, and the ones being quietly overlooked.
Heart
The teachers in my school feel genuinely safe to tell me the truth. Not the version of the truth they think I want to hear, but what is actually happening in their classrooms and in their lives as educators.
Hands
I am aware of how my own cultural background, my assumptions, and my blind spots are shaping the culture of my school. I actively seek perspectives that challenge my own rather than waiting for them to surface.
Head
The school I am leading is genuinely responsive to the cultures, languages, and identities of every learner in it. This is not a policy statement. It shows up in how we teach, what we celebrate, and whose knowledge we treat as worthy.
Heart
When I walk into a classroom, teachers feel energised rather than evaluated. My presence in the school creates conditions for learning, not conditions for performance.
A
Pillar Two
Agency: how much genuine freedom you have, and how much you are passing on
Heart
I am honest with myself about how much genuine agency I have from my board, my network, or my system to make the changes I believe in. I know where my real boundaries are, not just where I assume them to be.
Hands
Teachers in my school have genuine agency over their professional learning and their practice. They are not implementing my vision. They are building their own, within a shared framework we have developed together.
Head
I notice when I am making decisions that should belong to teachers or learners. I actively redistribute authority rather than holding it at the top because it feels more efficient or more safe.
Heart
I am actively working within my system to expand the conditions for genuine change, even when the board, the network, or the wider system is pulling in a different direction. I use the agency I have rather than waiting for more.
Hands
The agency I model as a leader trickles directly into classrooms. I understand that if I do not have genuine independence in how I lead, teachers will not feel genuinely independent in how they teach, and learners will not feel genuinely independent in how they learn.
R
Pillar Three
Roles: what your daily presence says about what you believe learning is for
Head
I see myself as a learner. Not just in name, but in practice. I am regularly in situations where I do not know the answer, and I let the people around me see that.
Hands
The structures I have built or inherited in my school, the timetable, the assessment system, the reporting cycle, the physical spaces, reflect a set of values about what learning is for. I know whose values those are and whether they are still the right ones.
Heart
My staff meetings look like the learning I want to see in classrooms. They are not information deliveries. They are designed experiences where teachers think, question, and leave changed in some small way.
Head
I have genuinely shifted my identity from manager to designer. My job is not to run a school efficiently. It is to create the conditions in which extraordinary learning becomes possible for every person in the building.
Hands
When traditional systems in my school are not serving learners well, I have the courage to name that and the will to change it. I do not preserve structures out of habit, comfort, or fear of what the board or community might say.
E
Pillar Four
Experiences: what your decisions about budget, hiring, and time say about what you value
Heart
I can point to specific decisions I have made about budget, time, or hiring that sent a clear message about what I value. Not what I say I value. What the money and the calendar actually say.
Head
The professional learning I resource and prioritise is connected directly to the learning happening in classrooms. It is never an event separate from the real work. It is designed to change what happens the following Monday.
Hands
The incentives in my school, bonuses, recognition, positions of responsibility, the things I celebrate publicly, reward the educators who are doing the most important work, not just the most visible work.
Head
I think about the kind of school my decisions are building over time, not just the outcomes we are producing this year. I make resourcing and hiring decisions with a ten year horizon in mind, not just the next inspection cycle.
Heart
I want every learner who passes through my school to leave more independent, more curious, and more capable of shaping their own life than when they arrived. That ambition sits above every other metric I am asked to report on, and it shapes every significant decision I make.
Ready to find out?
Once every question is answered, your result will show you exactly which pillar is calling for your attention right now.
Please answer all 20 questions to see your result.
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Your Head, Heart, and Hands signals
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