Leading Well in Polarised Times: Managing Conduct, Culture, and Community

In 2023-24, the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) received over 1,700 referrals for teacher misconduct in England alone.

Meanwhile, hate crime rates—from antisemitism to Islamophobia to transphobia—continue to rise, showing up not only in communities but in classrooms, staffrooms, and around the school gates.

The legal landscape is shifting too, most recently with the UK Supreme Court's ruling redefining “sex” as biological sex under the Equality Act. This ruling has profound implications for how schools navigate staff beliefs, student identities, and community trust.

About the Course:

Leadership in today’s polarised world requires more than compliance with policies or knowledge of procedure.

It demands judiciousness, resilience, and a capacity to hold complex cultural tensions alongside community trust.

This five-session course is designed for leaders navigating staff conduct issues, community conflict, and the broader cultural pressures that shape schools, organisations, and workplaces today.

We provide a framework and practical tools to help you respond thoughtfully and lead confidently through law, policy, emotion, and culture.

This course is not about offering easy answers, but equipping you with the discernment, support, and structure to manage these situations carefully and well.

Programme Structure:

• 5 x 1.5-hour live Zoom sessions
• 7.5 hours of live learning, supported by reading and resources (approx. 1 hour of reading between each session)
• Total commitment: 12.5 hours

Session Dates and Times:

All sessions run 9:30 am – 11:00am GMT:

1. Tuesday 17th September 2025
2. Wednesday 8th October 2025
3. Wednesday 22nd October 2025
4. Wednesday 19th November 2025
5. Wednesday 3rd December 2025

Session Themes (Guided by Our Four-Intelligence Leadership Framework):

• Narrative Intelligence – Learn how to read across law, policy, data, and prevailing cultural narratives to fully understand incidents in context.
• Emotional Intelligence – Explore the emotional labour of leadership, and how relational and somatic awareness inform your leadership stance.
• Liberatory Quotient – Move beyond procedural compliance to repair harm, rebuild trust, and co-create culture in the aftermath of conduct concerns.
• Spiritual Intelligence – Reflect on stewardship, alignment, and purpose in leadership for the long term.

Throughout the course, we will layer in insight from law, HR, and crisis management, ensuring that learning is principled, practical, and grounded in real-life scenarios.

Additional Learning Support:

• Access to a private Slack community for discussion, peer support, and resource sharing.
• Curated reading lists and toolkits for each session, delivered via our online learning platform.
• All Zoom sessions recorded and available on the platform for catch-up or review.

Course Fee:

• £675 + VAT per person.
• You can pay via Eventbrite or request an invoice directly.
• For invoicing, please contact: [insert your email here].

Who Should Join?

This course is for leaders in education and beyond who:

• Are managing staff conduct issues that sit uneasily between policy and culture.
• Need tools for navigating conflict and tension within their organisation.
• Want to build leadership stance that can hold both legal frameworks and human dynamics.
• Seek to lead with confidence, care, and clarity in polarised times.

Spaces are limited to 15–20 participants to ensure focused and supported learning.

Why This Course?

With over 200 sign-ups to our free webinar on this topic, it’s clear that leaders are seeking practical frameworks and peer support to handle these challenges well.
This course offers the depth and structure needed to engage with the real complexity of leading through polarisation, conflict, and culture repair.