We talk about defensiveness in leadership as though it is a problem to be managed. A response to be controlled. Something to notice in yourself and smooth over before anyone else notices it too. But I think defensiveness is more interesting than that. And in school leadership particularly, it is worth paying much closer attention to what it is actually telling you, because it is almost always telling you something specific, and something useful, and something that arrives, fr

You've probably spent more than you'd like to admit trying to fix your board relationship. Let's be honest. There's the governor training. The governance review that promised to clarify roles and responsibilities. The consultant who came in, observed a meeting, and produced a report that everyone agreed with and nobody acted on. The away days that felt productive at the time and changed nothing by the following term. Then there's the hours. The late evenings and Sunday aftern

If your relationship with your governing board isn't working as well as it could, it probably isn't new. Most difficulties in board–headteacher relationships build slowly over time - through small misunderstandings, untested assumptions, and habits that once felt manageable but no longer are. You might notice it in small ways: meetings that feel effortful rather than energising, decisions that take longer than they should, or a sense that you're managing the board rather than