Education Leaders LIVE | May Reflections

Education Leaders LIVE | May Reflections

From Education Leaders | Strategic School Leadership by Shane Leaning | School Leadership & Organisational Development Coach

May 28, 2026 · 49 min · Episode 162

About this episode

Shane and Chris reflect on the month's podcast themes, discussing the gap between educational ideals and practical realities.

This is a bonus episode. Every last Thursday of the month, Shane sits down with Chris Scorer to pick apart the themes from the month's podcast guests, the stuff that stuck with them, the bits they disagreed on, and where it all leads. If you listen to the main feed, this is your chance to hear those conversations chewed over properly. This month was a big one. Chris and Shane get into four very different episodes and find a thread running through all of them: the gap between what we know we should do in schools and the time and space we're actually given to do it. They start with the new heads, Chris Passey and Sam Crome, and why so few serving leaders feel able to talk openly about the job. Shane makes the case that there's a real, legitimate barrier there, you can't always speak freely when you feel beholden to a school's brand. Chris reflects on the moment he became a deputy head and people simply stopped being honest with him. Then there's Sam's line that keeps coming up: assumptions are the death of good advice. From there it widens out. Is the relentless workload unique to education, or is it just how most of us work now? Shane pushes back on the martyrdom narrative (his…

People in this episode

Host: Shane Leaning

Guest: Chris Scorer

Topics covered

  • education leadership
  • workload in education
  • communication in schools
  • flexible working
  • administrative challenges

Keywords

  • education
  • leadership
  • workload
  • flexible working
  • communication

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