Leading Forward
Lead with clear purpose. Give your team direction. Bring people with you.
A six-hour leadership development program for established middle and senior educational leaders.
Purpose. Direction. Impact.
Your team needs to know what it is working towards, why that matters and how its work contributes to the school’s wider direction.
Leading Forward helps you develop the leadership approach to make that happen.
Through practical activities, reflection and discussion, you will explore how to identify a meaningful direction for your team, connect it to the school’s priorities and involve your people in creating a shared vision.
Drawing on Janine Stratford’s book, Leading for Tomorrow, Today, the program brings together leadership identity, purposeful contribution, team alignment, leading change and demonstrating impact.
You will leave with a practical framework, tools to use with your team and an individual Leadership Action Plan to guide your next steps.
Does Your Team Have a Clear Direction?
You can be responsive, hardworking and supportive of your team while still finding little time to consider where you are leading them.
The daily demands are real. But so is your responsibility to give the team a clear purpose, connect its work to the school’s priorities and help people understand the contribution they can make.
That requires you to look beyond your own area, recognise where your team can add value and establish a direction worth working towards. It also requires you to involve people in shaping the vision, build their commitment and support them through the changes ahead.
This is what it means to lead strategically.
Leading Forward helps you understand and practise this approach, so that purpose and direction become part of how you lead every day.
What Will You Learn?
Leading Forward gives you an approach to leading with purpose and direction, supported by practical tools you can use in your school.
By the end of the program, you will be better able to:
Define your leadership brand and build trust.
Identify where your team can add value to the school’s priorities.
Establish direction and create a shared vision with your team.
Lead change by building commitment and capacity.
Demonstrate progress and impact through evidence and communication.
Your individual Leadership Action Plan will capture what you want to strengthen and how you will begin applying your learning.
What Will Your School Gain?
Schools need leaders who can connect the school’s direction to the work of their teams – and help people understand their part in achieving it.
Leading Forward develops leaders who are better equipped to:
Connect team priorities and decisions to the school’s broader direction
Communicate a clearer sense of purpose and direction
Make more intentional use of their leadership time and attention
Move beyond reactive problem-solving and lead more proactively
Strengthen ownership and accountability within their teams
Build team capability rather than becoming the person who carries everything
Identify evidence of progress and communicate their team’s contribution
Return to school with a focused Leadership Action Plan
The learning supports a more connected approach across the school, with teams working towards a shared direction.
The Learning Journey
Purpose. Direction. Impact. The three milestones of this journey.
Leading Forward is structured around three essential leadership questions.
Together, these three elements help leaders connect who they are, where they are heading and the difference they intend to make.
Take the Learning Back to Your Team
Leading Forward is designed to turn reflection into action.
Throughout the program, you will develop an individual Leadership Action Plan to guide how you apply the learning in your school.
Your plan will capture:
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the leadership behaviours you want to strengthen;
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an emerging educational focus to explore in relation to the school’s priorities;
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the conversations needed to clarify direction with your line manager and team;
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how you will involve your team in creating a shared vision;
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ways to build commitment and support people’s development;
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how you will recognise progress and assess impact.
You do not need to arrive with a defined leadership challenge or project. The learning, reflection and conversations will help you recognise where your leadership needs to focus.
You will leave prepared to continue that thinking with the people who will help shape and deliver the work.
Melbourne – In Person
Tuesday 17 November
Time: 9.00am – 4.30pm AEDT
IBIS, 297 Springvale Rd, Glen Waverley, VIC
Investment: $780 (incl GST) AUD
Registration closes: 10 November
Car parking is included in registration fee.
Online – live and interactive
Wednesday 25 November
Time: 9.00am – 4.30pm AEDT
Participate online from your own space
Cost: $690 (incl GST) AUD
Registration closes: 18 November
Your workbook, book and resource pack will be posted to you before the program.
Who Is Leading Forward For?
Leading Forward is designed for established middle and senior educational leaders who want to strengthen how they give their teams purpose and direction.
It is particularly relevant if you want to:
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connect your team’s work more clearly to the school’s priorities;
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involve people in creating a shared vision;
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strengthen your ability to build commitment and lead change;
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make more purposeful decisions about your leadership time and attention;
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understand and demonstrate the contribution your team makes.
The program is equally relevant for experienced leaders who want to refresh their approach or strengthen how they lead their current team.
Who attends?
- Heads of Department and Heads of Faculty
- Year Level and Pastoral Leaders
- Directors and Deans
- Assistant and Deputy Principals
- Curriculum and Learning Leaders
- Administrative and professional-services leaders
- teaching and non-teaching staff responsible for leading teams or significant areas of school life
Participants should ideally have at least 12 months’ experience in a leadership position.
What Is Included?
6 hours of facilitated professional learning
A comprehensive participant workbook
An individual Leadership Action Plan
A copy of Leading for Tomorrow, Today
Practical frameworks and reflective tools
Opportunities to learn with educational leaders from other schools
A Professional Learning Certificate
Extend Your Learning with Leading for Tomorrow, Today
Leading Forward draws on the Leadership Blueprint Model introduced in Janine Stratford’s book, Leading for Tomorrow, Today: School Leadership with Purpose, Alignment and Lasting Impact.
Each participant receives an individual copy of the book as part of the program.
The book extends the learning beyond the workshop, providing an ongoing resource to support reflection, discussion and the practical application of the Leadership Blueprint Model.
Together, the program, workbook and book provide participants with resources they can continue using long after the workshop concludes.
Why Learn with Janine Stratford?
Janine Stratford is a highly experienced leadership coach, facilitator, speaker and author who specialises in developing educational leaders.
A former Deputy Principal, Janine understands the complexity, competing priorities and relentless pace of leadership within schools. Her programs combine this firsthand understanding with insights gained through thousands of hours of coaching educational leaders across Australia and New Zealand.
Janine is a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation and a Certified Professional Behavioural Analyst. She was named one of The Educator’s Most Influential Educators in 2024.
Through Coaching Focus, Janine supports leaders to become clearer about who they are, lead their teams more intentionally and create a contribution that is visible, valuable and aligned with the needs of their schools.
Leading Forward brings together the leadership challenges Janine sees most frequently in her coaching work and the practical framework explored in her book, Leading for Tomorrow, Today.
What Educators Are Saying
“We realised how reactive we had become in our roles and a jolt to getting back on track has been achieved. Thank you.”
Regional Principals, New Zealand
“Clarifying my educational focus has enabled me to set more intentional goals that align closely with the school’s and my team’s priorities.”
Assistant Head of Year, Queensland
“I need to reclaim my own leadership brand and this program has provided me with the tools to do that.”
Deputy Principal, New South Wales
