Behaviour, Trust, Transparency: Leading in challenging circumstances

Good Morning!

What does it really take to lead a school through the first year of headship—especially when you inherit significant challenges?

In this episode of Thinking Deeply About Primary Education, I speak with Olivia Dempsey about the tension that defines early headship: making an immediate, visible impact to build credibility, while also making prudent decisions that set up sustainable improvement.

Olivia describes arriving to a school in special measures, with instability in leadership and serious behaviour challenges. Rather than starting with a flurry of new initiatives, she prioritised listening—setting up one-to-ones with staff to understand the “boots on the ground” reality and identify the themes that mattered most. From there, she made a clear strategic choice: improve behaviour as the foundation for everything else, because without safe, calm routines, teaching and learning can’t thrive.

The conversation also explores the unspoken parts of the job: budgets, redundancies, recruitment, safeguarding workload, and the way headship increasingly becomes a community-facing role. Olivia shares how transparency and hands-on leadership helped build trust, and why community networks can be a lifeline when resources are tight.

If you’re starting headship, supporting a school in improvement, or simply curious about what leadership looks like in real conditions, this one offers practical insight—and a lot of honesty.

Hope you enjoy! If you do, let me know what you think.

A link to wherever you get your podcasts…

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Behaviour, Trust, Transparency: Leading in challenging circumstances (in 7 minutes)

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Huge thanks to everyone who shared last week’s episode — it helps us grow our community of thoughtful primary educators. If you’ve got a colleague who likes reflecting on teaching, learning, or leadership, please do forward the link.

That’s all for this week. I’d genuinely love to hear what resonated (or what you disagreed with) — leave a comment wherever you listen, or reply to this email with your thoughts.

Until next time — thank you for being here.