Speaking at the UK ICF Conference in May 2020

It was one of my goals for 2020 to speak about the power of coaching in education at a Conference. I was thrilled when I and my two colleagues, Louise Gohr and Dominic Curran, were selected to speak at the ICF UK conference in London. Then Covid 19 hit and I thought my plans were dashed.

However, the conference went ahead on a virtual platform instead of in person and it proved to be better than we expected. I’m quite sure we were able to reach far more people with our talk than if we’d been delivering in person in London.

The theme of the Conference was The New Reality and our slot was on the 3rd day. We spoke about the power of coaching in education and showcased the work we’d done in our schools over the last 3 years. We also talked about the power of connection and how from a small connection between 2 Headteachers, our coaching work had strengthened relationships across schools, communities and business. We also shared how coaching principles had supported us during the challenging times of Covid 19 and helped us think about what our new norm would look like.

However things change following the measures we’ve had to take during this time, we know that coaching can, and should, play a huge part in our education system to support and develop teachers, parents and pupils.