This 8-week, personal-learning course is for those most able to lead cultural change within education.
It’s suitable for you if you’re in a senior position in education such as a School Principal, Executive Leader of more than one school or if you’re working with schools in a senior advisory position.
Sessions are live and online and last 2 hours each. There’ll be opportunities for virtual networking and ongoing support between the sessions.
This programme:
- Is drawn from extensive evidence-based practices and exercises which support personal, interpersonal and organisational change;
- Will have a strong focus on the application of the practices to real-life leadership issues, as well as from your own experience;
- Includes evidence-based mindfulness practices and exercises, cognitive-behavioural techniques, and practical applications designed to help you navigate the delights and difficulties of educational leadership. This includes understanding the causes of stress, burnout and anxiety, how to build healthy resilience and, in turn, how this can have a positive impact on your own well-being, your educational organisation communities and your school culture.
- Is underpinned by a Theory of Change that aims to generate sustainable effects on interpersonal relationships, impact positively on staff well-being, recruitment and retention, and lead to a school culture that is kinder and more compassionate whilst still maintaining high standards of achievement for all.
- Supports you in developing skills and understanding to support your own well-being, and to explore how your leadership practice of leadership, role and mode of operating might affect positive change within the broader context of your organisation.
Re-engage with your core purpose and put the heart back into your leadership.
In this course, you’ll learn how to:
- Address your core challenges as a leader with understanding, compassion and care.
- Stabilise attention, to recognise mind-wandering and moments when we slip into ‘autopilot’.
- Recognise patterns of reactivity and how this can result in keeping us stuck in distress.
- Cultivate resilience for yourself, your staff and your students, addressing the emotional impact of leading and working in schools.
- Remain balanced, more able to shift your perspective, handle the daily ups and downs of leading and keep a healthy boundary between home and work.
- Manage stress, uncertainty and self-doubt, by learning to recognise patterns of thinking and ways of working that can support you.
- Bring a sense of care and kindness to yourself in those moments of distress and reactivity.
- Step back in more challenging moments so that we can see it more clearly, and respond with a greater sense of perspective.
- Apply what you’ve learned into your everyday life.
- Re-engage with your core purpose and put the heart back into your leadership.
What to expect on this course
The 2-hour sessions are online and take place weekly over an 8-week period.
They will involve a mixture of theory, practice and discussion, learning from each other’s ideas and experiences. You’ll be encouraged to apply your learning in your everyday life, between sessions. As a result, week-on-week, you’ll develop understanding and skills to support you in strengthening your presence and creating a culture in which all can thrive and flourish.
The themes explored include:
- The Authentic Leader: Waking up from Autopilot
- The Attentive Leader: Keeping the Body in Mind
- The Thoughtful Leader: Mindfulness in Daily Life
- The Courageous Leader: Relating Differently to Thoughts And Worries
- The Balanced Leader: Turning Towards Difficulties
- The Compassionate Leader: Practising Kindness to Self And Others
- The Appreciative Leader: When Did You Stop Dancing?
- The Leader for Life: Mindfulness for Life and Work
You’ll have access to an online resource folder which includes recordings of guided practices and exercises, and a course handbook. There’ll also be access to research evidence, articles and other resources to support your learning.
The 8-session programme is led by experienced mindfulness teachers with many years’ extensive experience of working within the education system in the UK and internationally. They’re particularly aware of the significant and growing demands on school and college principals and leaders of broader educational organisation.
Full course dates
Each online session runs from 16.00 – 18.00 (UK time)
- Thursday 1 May 2025
- Thursday 8 May 2025
- Thursday 15 May 2025
- Thursday 22 May 2025
- One week break
- Thursday 5 June 2025
- Thursday 12 June 2025
- Thursday 19 June 2025
- Thursday 26 June 2025
- Thursday 3rd July 2025 – Please reserve this date in the unlikely event that your teacher may need to reschedule a session.
What you can do after this course
Once you’ve completed this course, you might choose to explore mindfulness further through taking part in an 8-session Mindfulness for Life course.
You might also want to join our Live Online Meditation sessions to maintain your practice or one of our monthly day or half-day retreats (Day of Practice).
Please note: This course does not train you to teach mindfulness programmes. If you’re interested in training to teach with Oxford Mindfulness, you can find out more about this here
Entry criteria – who can apply for this course?
You can apply for this course if you:
- Can commit to attending all 8 sessions of the programme.
- Have both the time and motivation to dedicate up to 20 minutes of personal practice each day.
- Are over 18 years of age.
- Have access to suitable technology (laptop/PC), a strong and stable internet connection, a private space and the technical ability to join an online training programme via Zoom, with your camera on.
- Are able to speak and understand the English language (both spoken and written) to a level where you can fully take part in the course without the need for additional translation support.
