How to get your team onside, deliver high-impact feedback and handle even the most challenging conversations with confidence – all while feeling new and like all eyes are on you! Join experienced headteacher Ella Hughes to learn the conversation scripts and tried-and-tested strategies that will turn people management into your greatest strength.
This course flexes to you: select the classes you need most, or join us for all 3.
Why book this course?
- Back by popular demand! 93% of participants rated this course 4+/5 for value and practicality in autumn 2025
- No lectures. No dry videos. Just live, hands-on, social learning
- Learn it. Do it. See a skill live, try it yourself, and get feedback that sticks
- Peers by your side. Headship can be lonely – here, you’re not on your own
- Learn with a practising, experienced leader. Your trainer, Ella Hughes, is a current head with 14 years’ senior leadership experience
Course schedule
Class 1
Wednesday 10 June 2026
4pm to 5.30pm
Live, on Zoom
Build buy-in as you step up
Stepping up above your peers? Or new to your school and gaining trust? Learn how to get buy-in, inspire confidence and soften your sceptics. This class is the ‘people essentials’ for any new headteacher.
Followed by an optional Q&A, from 5.30pm.
Class 2
Wednesday 17 June 2026
4pm to 5.30pm
Live, on Zoom
How to give honest, effective feedback that works
You’ll learn how to give the feedback that matters, without damaging early relationships when all eyes are on you.
Followed by an optional Q&A, from 5.30pm.
Class 3
Wednesday 24 June 2026
4pm to 5.30pm
Live, on Zoom
Difficult conversations
Watch, learn and do – how to lead the most uncomfortable conversations and tackle issues in the moment.
Followed by an optional Q&A, from 5.30pm.
Your expert course trainer
Ella Hughes is the headteacher of a 3-form entry primary school in Manchester, where she leads a large SLT. She has over 19 years’ teaching experience, including 14 years as a senior leader and 7 years as headteacher. Passionate about relationships and leadership, and an ILM-accredited coach, Ella provides coaching for school leaders and has run training for leading education organisations. She is also particularly interested in neurodiversity, as someone who identifies as autistic and has recently been diagnosed with ADHD.
Ella ran this highly rated course in the autumn term and we’re delighted to welcome her back to support and inspire a new set of early career headteachers.
For a quick taster, hear Ella sharing her plan for holding a difficult conversation (1 minute 12 seconds - extract from a recent live class recording).
Who can attend
This course is for you if you’re:
- Feeling new to headship
- Preparing for a new headship role
- Aspiring to headship any time soon
It caters for leaders in all phases and settings.
Already attended one of our people management courses?
You’re very welcome to join us again – for all classes or some! Perhaps you missed a class in a previous run of this course and want to join just that class. Or, perhaps you're keen to take a class again as a refresher. Or, you may have attended our equivalent course for new SLT and are now stepping up into headship. Just choose the class(es) that will add the most value to you now or in the future – whether as a refresher or to learn something new.
This course is exclusively available to The Key's Whole School members.
If you're not yet a Whole School member, find out more here.
More reasons to love this course
Your live classes won't be lectures. Ella will engage the class, invite discussion, prompt peer discussion activities and leave plenty of room for Q&A. You'll learn by doing, with optional practical tasks following classes and regular feedback from Ella and your class peers.
Learning virtually doesn't mean learning solo. This course is designed to be rich in energising interaction between you and your peers – it's your safe space to ask questions and seek peer feedback, and make connections you can lean on throughout your headship career.
Apply what you learn straight away, with practical strategies drawn from expert advice and excellent practice. Adopt the best of what works, for immediate change and lasting impact on your leadership of your team.
Complete your classes and get a certificate of achievement from The Key for your learning record.