Professional development, coaching, and consultancy

Author: José Picardo

  • Bridging the gap: How Edtech companies can partner thoughtfully with schools

    Breaking into the education market can be an exciting opportunity for EdTech companies. Schools, after all, are places where innovation, once it takes root, can spread in deep and lasting ways. Yet the realities of working with schools demand a more subtle, more human approach than many anticipate.

    Drawing on years of leadership in schools and consultancy work with educators and organisations, I offer these reflections on how EdTech companies might bridge the gap between innovation and meaningful educational partnership.

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  • Ten Signs of Toxic Leadership—A Self Assessment for School Leaders

    Leadership, especially in schools, is rarely toxic by intent. Most of us step into roles of responsibility with a deep sense of moral purpose — to improve the lives of young people, to shape culture, to build something better. Yet in the noise and haste of modern school life, even experienced leaders can fall into patterns that, over time, corrode trust, hinder initiative, and sap morale.

    This article offers not a diagnosis but a mirror. It’s grounded in the school environment — where I have spent my career — but the signs explored here are not unique to education. They are recognisable across many professional domains and can be adapted by leaders in any setting seeking to build trust and lead with clarity and intent.

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  • Why Every School Needs to Revisit Its Digital Strategy (and a Free Tool to Help You Do Just That)

    Over the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of leading digital strategy in schools where innovation is viewed not as a gimmick, but as a pedagogical imperative. In my role as Deputy Head and digital lead, I have worked to ensure that technology is not merely layered onto existing practice, but meaningfully woven into the fabric of teaching and learning.

    My focus has been twofold: to enhance pupil outcomes through thoughtful digital integration, and to support the professional growth of staff through coaching, collaboration, and sustained development. Throughout, I’ve remained committed to a central question: how might schools harness technology with both ambition and integrity—guided always by purpose, not novelty.

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  • Leadership is a compass, not a crown

    6 Reflections from 12 Years in Senior Leadership

    I’ve never seen leadership as a crown to be worn or a pedestal from which to pronounce. For me, it has always been a discipline rather than a display—a commitment to clarity, an ethic of service, and a quiet, persistent act of navigation through the fog of complexity.

    After twelve years in senior leadership, I remain struck by how often it is less about authority and more about self-awareness; less about certainty and more about learning. These are not leadership “rules,” nor a formula to follow, but rather six enduring lessons—shaped by experience, misstep, and reflection—that have helped me lead with greater purpose, empathy, and effect.

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  • Teaching is for learning, not for show

    Learning is a discreet endeavour. It happens invisibly, in the privacy of students’ minds, and often with little outward sign. This is the central dilemma of teaching: we are tasked with fostering a transformation we cannot directly observe. The classroom may be busy at work, the teaching captivating, the tasks engaging—but are students actually learning?

    This is why lesson planning must be about more than choreography or performance. A good lesson is not one that merely looks effective, but one that is structured to maximise the likelihood that learning takes place. As I’ve argued before, good teaching is grounded in purposeful design, deliberate practice, and cognitive realism.

    So how should we plan and deliver lessons to create the conditions for learning? In the last twenty years of practice, I have settled on the following central tenets as the keystones of good learning:

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