The Practice Circle: Developing coaching skills through collaborative supervision

The Challenge: 

School leaders and teachers are constantly solving everyone else’s problems – leading to decision fatigue, isolated teams, and systemic burnout.

The Solution: 

The Practice Circle is a monthly, in-person twilight forum designed to build internal coaching capacity while providing vital professional supervision. 

How it Works:

The Practice Circle is a group coaching format that equips the group members with simple coaching techniques and puts them instantly into practice to provide group supervision. The group becomes the coach. In the session we unpack a live professional challenge. Through a structured “double-loop” framework, participants split their time between:

• Case supervision: exploring complex, messy real-life school problems and issues to find breakthrough solutions
• Live skill-building: practicing coaching skills and frameworks and mastering the art of questioning and active listening
• Group dynamics: enabling the group to become the coach and developing a strong group dynamic.

The Impact: 

The Practice Circle enables teachers and leaders to move from ‘fixers’ to coaches, staff feel supported through peer supervision, and participants develop practical coaching skills to bring into school, maximising their impact, improving communication and elevating practice.