LM Coaching and Leadership

28/08/2026

Leadership Courses!

You got the promotion. Now you have to line-manage the person who covered your PPA and knows what you're like on a bad Friday.

Nobody warns you about this bit.

In 24 years in schools I watched more new leaders come unstuck over the friendship than over the workload. They either go stiff and formal overnight — which everyone clocks by Wednesday — or they stay one of the gang and then can't say the hard thing when it's needed.

There is a third way, and it's a sentence. Say it out loud in your first week: "I'm going to get this wrong sometimes, and I'd rather you told me than went quiet." Then, the first time you have to ask something of a friend, name it: "This is me asking as the leader, not as your mate." It feels clumsy. It works, because it takes the guessing out.

Stepping up this September?

My Leadership courses or coaching are built for exactly this part of the job — the human part nobody trains you for: https://www.lauramasson.co.uk/education

Explore comprehensive educational resources, courses, and books for parents and educators rooted in 24 years of classroom and leadership experience.

12/08/2026

After the test, what next?

That’s tonight’s filming — the final lesson in the mock-test module of the 11-plus series I’m recording while working abroad this summer.

It’s a question children are rarely asked. The adults debrief the paper — what came up, what slipped, which mark got away — while the child wants to know one thing: are you still pleased with me? Answer that first. The paper can wait until Tuesday.

Schools sit with the same question in August, about the year just gone. And if part of your “what next” was booking an outside trainer for September INSET, and it quietly dropped off the list in the end-of-term rush — that happens every year, and it is fixable.

I’m back in the UK in September, delivering INSET across the South East and Manchester, with a small number of dates still open. If it would take one job off your list, get in touch.

What’s the “what next” your setting is sitting with this summer?

10/08/2026

The week I was promoted to middle leader, my closest friend on the staff stopped telling me things.

Not out of spite — she just wasn't sure what I'd have to do with what she said now. Nobody warned me that the job changes the friendships before it changes anything else, and I handled it badly: I pretended nothing was different, dodged every hard conversation for a term, and called it kindness. It wasn't. It left her guessing.

After years in schools I found only one thing that works: say it out loud, early. "Some weeks I'll be your colleague, some weeks I'll have to be your leader — and I'll always tell you which one is talking." It feels awkward for thirty seconds. It saves a year of second-guessing on both sides, because the strain was never the friendship. It was the ambiguity.

Stepping into middle leadership this September — or leading an early years team for the first time? My Middle Leader and Early Years Leader courses are built for exactly this shift: https://www.lauramasson.co.uk/education

Explore comprehensive educational resources, courses, and books for parents and educators rooted in 24 years of classroom and leadership experience.

09/08/2026

You didn't delegate it. You handed over the job and kept the worry — and now you're doing both.

In 24 years in schools I did this constantly. I'd ask someone to run the reading intervention, then checked the timetable, then "popped in", then rewrote the letter to parents at nine at night. It looked like support. It was me refusing to let go of a single decision, and quietly teaching a capable colleague that her judgement wasn't trusted.

Here's the fix, and it takes one sentence. When you hand something over, say out loud what the person gets to decide and what the limits are. "You choose the groups, the timings and the resources. Come to me if it costs more than fifty pounds or if a parent complains." That's it. Named decisions, named boundaries — and then leave it alone.

If you're reading that thinking every decision in the building still lands on your desk, that's the pattern Survive to Thrive is built to break — twelve weeks of coaching for heads, deputies, trustees and nursery owners carrying the building:

Explore leadership coaching, consultancy, and professional development for educational leaders. Tailored support to enhance school and trust performance.

06/08/2026

If you lead an early years setting from inside the ratio all day, you're not leading it — you're keeping it staffed.

I say that with love, because I did it too. In 24 years in early years and primary, the best practitioners I promoted all made the same mistake: they treated staying in the room as loyalty. Leadership happened in stolen minutes at nap time, and the things only a leader can do — watching how transitions actually run, coaching the newest member of staff, spotting the child nobody has flagged yet — never happened at all.

So here's a small job for this week: book one protected hour out of ratio, and give it a name. Not "admin" — something specific, like "I'm watching how lunch runs in the toddler room." Tell your team what it's for, so it reads as leadership rather than skiving. And if one hour is truly impossible, that's a staffing problem to raise, not a personal failing to absorb.

Stepping up in early years — or into middle leadership — this September? My Early Years Leader and Middle Leader courses are built for exactly this shift: lauramasson.co.uk

Explore comprehensive educational resources, courses, and books for parents and educators rooted in 24 years of classroom and leadership experience.

05/08/2026

Quietly, for September: a few autumn INSET dates remain, South East and Manchester. If booking an outside trainer slipped off your list in the end-of-term rush, my inbox is open.

03/08/2026

The settling-in advice most settings send parents in September arrives about three weeks too late.

In 24 years in early years and primary, I noticed the children who settled fastest weren't the boldest ones — they were the ones whose parents knew what to do at the door. A quick goodbye, the same words every time, no hovering at the window. But we usually tell parents this in week two, once the tears have already set in and the habit has formed.

So here's an August job that costs nothing: send your new families one short, plain message this week. What drop-off will actually look like, what to say at the door, and that wobbles are completely normal — theirs and their child's. Parents aren't anxious because they don't care; they're anxious because nobody has told them what good looks like. Tell them now, while there's still time to practise, and you'll halve the tears in week one.

I've done part of the job for you — there's a free parent guide on my website, along with a plain-English funding breakdown you can share too: https://www.lauramasson.co.uk/free-resources

Download free practical resources for parents on child development, education, and early learning. Helpful guides and tips for supporting your child's growth.

01/08/2026

Two weeks into the holiday, most heads I know are still waiting to feel like themselves again.

That is normal, and it takes longer than anyone admits. But it is also where a particular question tends to surface, usually somewhere in the second week: am I just tired, or am I done?

Twenty-four years in schools taught me you cannot answer that in August. Exhaustion lies. It makes the whole job look like the wrong job.

What helps is a quieter question — not “do I want to leave?” but “which parts would I actually miss?” Write the list properly. If it is long, and it is about children and staff and the good days, you are tired. If it is short and mostly about the salary, that is different information, and it deserves thinking about now rather than being buried until half term.

Either way, it is a hard thing to work out on your own.

I offer a free 25-minute discovery call — former head, no sales pitch, just an honest conversation: DM me!

Schedule your consultation with Laura Masson for leadership, education, and personal development guidance. Book now for expert coaching and resources.

30/07/2026

Tomorrow, The Children in Front of You — book four in my Advice from the Frontline of Education series — goes live on Amazon.

The writing is long finished.

This book is about the advice that I wish someone had handed me at the start.

Not theory from above — the practical kind, learnt beside the children. The settling. The families. The days nothing goes to plan. From experience and research around children from 3 months to 16 years old.

So - to all of my qualified practitioners and educators - if you could hand your newly qualified self one sentence of advice, what would it be?

What's your sentence?

And then please go and tell all your friends about this book! I am really proud of it.

27/07/2026

Four days.

On Friday 31 July, book four in my Advice from the Frontline of Education series goes live on Amazon: The Children in Front of You.

Every framework, tracker and intervention I've ever used ended at the same door — the child in front of you. The two-year-old who only settled when someone hummed. The “behaviour problem” that turned out to be glue ear. Data describes cohorts; only attention describes children.

Release week Mondays are less glamorous than they sound. This morning's reel filmed by ten, then a launch list that mostly says “check everything twice”.

Tonight the countdown pauses for our phones-away family catch up chat (we are all in different parts of the world so it is even more non-negotiable.

Practitioners and leaders: tell me about a child who changed how you see all children. What did they teach you?