The Thinking Academy

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OUR VISION

Our vision is of a collaborative and creative school system led by curious, compassionate, reflective and resilient School Leaders.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to skillfully listen to School Leaders and model our values to lead with compassion, courage and clarity. Through our range of coaching, training and supervision programmes we aim to:

• Create self-aware and transformational leadership

• Promote well-being both professionally and personally

• Inspire organisational creativity that puts children at the heart of education

• Enable innovation and solution-focussed approaches to leading schools

Our Values-Based Approach

Authenticity

We live our work according to our own values and mission and we encourage you to live to your values. We encourage you to be honest, open and generous. We help you to align your values, aspirations and actions.

TRUST

Trust is the cornerstone of any relationship. Trust is key for collaboration, the open exchange of ideas, and a strong workplace culture. We believe in honest and open conversations and will actively listen to you to promote your thinking and ideas.  We co-create our working partnership with trust as the foundation of our work together.

CURIOSITY

We are deeply curious; we wonder, we listen, we support and challenge. Curiosity leads to the exploration of new ideas and perspectives, which are crucial for problem-solving and pave the way for creativity and innovation. Research has shown curiosity to be associated with higher levels of positive emotions, lower levels of anxiety, more satisfaction with life, and greater psychological well-being.

COMPASSION

We use our compassion, empathy and understanding in every conversation. We recognise that there are many difficulties in education and life. We support you to accept the things you cannot change and enable you to listen to your inner wisdom so you can navigate problems,  and  develop a healthy attitude towards yourself and others.

CONNECTION

Connections have a profound impact on well-being and overall team dynamics as well as organizational success. We see value in connection and explore how we relate: to people, ideas, objectives, perspectives, backgrounds, and values. If you can get your teams and children to relate to each other even a little bit better, you’re already on the way to creating a more connected and happier workplace. 

COURAGE

Courage means bravely to working in ways that take us to new places. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, often it can mean embracing our fears and being brave. Ensuring you feel supported in these situations is something we passionately pursue. Having Courage is also about having confidence in ourselves to try, learn and succeed.

In any and every situation you can apply these values both professionally and personally. We believe in making a difference, ultimately we support development in every person, team and organisation we work with.

OUR TEAM

LEONIE HURRELL

LEONIE HURRELL

Founder and lead coach

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Kim Gammon

KIM GAMMON

Associate Coach

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RACHEL HINGSTON

RACHEL HINGSTON

Associate Coach

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Julian Churchill

Julian Churchill

Associate Coach

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Transforming your leadership, team, and school starts with one conversation.

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LEONIE HURRELL

LEONIE HURRELL

Founder and lead coach

Leonie has always had a passion for learning and supporting others to achieve personal and professional success. As a former Headteacher, she knows the tremendous expectations that can be placed upon schools and their staff. 

Leonie was fortunate to have the opportunity to invest in coaching as part of her leadership development. It was transformational. Coaching enabled Leonie to improve professionally and create positive change for others. managing to successfully balance the demands of an intensive job with a young family and feel far more confident and with energized.

Leonie understands leadership can be tough, but she also knows it can be the most enjoyable and rewarding role you will ever have. Experiencing great coaching reminds us of what we value and why we love what we do. Whatever challenges you face as a leader. Leonie can assure you investing in a coach is the best decision you will ever make.

Kim Gammon

KIM GAMMON

Associate Coach

Kim has always loved teaching and has worked in Secondary Schools as a Subject Leader for over 15 years. As a current practitioner Kim understands the challenges that teachers and leaders face on a day to day basis and believes in the importance of being authentic and true to yourself.

Kim invested in coaching five years ago and has found it invaluable in developing confidence,  prioritising and managing her workload efficiently as well as learning how to get the most out of herself and her team. Kim has implemented and led coaching practice and strategy across her school by providing quality CPD for teaching staff as well as supporting the design of effective coaching systems. 

Kim has completed the Advanced Coaching Programme and the ILM Level 5 certificate in Effective Coaching and Mentoring. Kim knows how empowering coaching can be and understands the value in developing and inspiring fellow educators through coaching conversations..

RACHEL HINGSTON

RACHEL HINGSTON

Associate Coach

Rachel has always been motivated by developing people and workplace teams. She believes this approach is at the heart of enabling both organisations to flourish, and people to realise their fullest professional and personal growth.

Rachel is a School Business Improvement Leader and experienced Executive School Business Manager. After over a decade of leading in the education sector, she understands the challenges and complexities this journey can bring.

Rachel has received coaching as part of her own leadership development and found it to be an inspired process, and one that facilitated extensive positive and lasting change. Having completed the Advanced Coaching Programme, she now holds the ILM Level 5 Certificate in Effective Coaching and Mentoring Practice and believes that coaching is one of the greatest transformative steps you can ever choose to take.

Julian Churchill

JULIAN CHURCHILL

Associate Coach

Julian is a Headteacher of a large primary School in Poole, Dorset and a Specialist leader of Education for behaviour and attitudes.  He has worked in very diverse and challenging settings which have offered  a variety of opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of pedagogy, cognition and how young people in particular, behave. 

Julian has always been a very strong advocate of the self-improving system and empowering those within the organisation to maximise effectiveness and achieve positive outcomes. The improvement has often been successful through the use coaching as a tool for change. Julian has worked to establish coaching cultures in his own settings and across a MAT of thirteen schools. He has enjoyed the challenge of deepening his understanding of how best to help those around him to be solution focussed.

Julian has been accredited through the ILM coaching programme and through securing a masters in professional studies from Kingston University which majored in coaching and mentoring.