At Big Education, we are committed to an ambitious change agenda – we want every child to experience an expansive education, what we call an education of the head, heart and hand. We know this will take focused, collaborative work, to generate new ideas, create new solutions and pilot alternative approaches. 

To create this reality, we know that skilled leadership is critical. Leadership which brings out the best of every team member, which prioritises relationships and has skillful approaches to getting things done. This can be a daunting prospect, as we juggle all the priorities in a school. 

The good news is that these skills can be taught and can be learnt – and we can help! This rich, evidence based approach is what we call The Big 8. We are very pleased to be working in partnership with Connect Academy Trust to deliver the Big 8 in Plymouth. Connect is a values led and growing Trust based in Devon.

The Big 8 is what we call our leadership foundations – a set of behaviours, mindsets, cultures, and approaches. The work draws on insights from psychology about how we develop and manage relationships, and is informed by client-centred coaching approaches which focus on empowering positive action.  It supports your development in some of the tricky aspects of being a leader; giving people feedback, managing conflict and challenging underperformance. Your learning on this course will help ensure you fully engage with the diversity of your team and enable you to embed a culture where every voice is heard.

Through a combination of online learning and deeply interactive time in person, we will support you to lead people and teams in a way that empowers, enables and inspires others to find solutions and new thinking, so that, together, we can move to help more children have a bigger and better education. 

What you will gain from this course;

• You will learn both the theory, research AND of course, practice that underpin these. 
• You will be challenged to think about how these do and don’t play out in our own contexts. You will be challenged to think about the role you play in this, developing you to look inwards before looking outwards.