Strategic Schools
Get simple and practical ideas to enhance your educational leadership in under 20 minutes. Join educational researcher and author Dr Simon Breakspear as he shares key insights and practical tools that can help you to find greater focus, flow and impact in an increasingly overwhelming educational landscape.
Each year Simon Breakspear works with hundreds of schools and thousands of educational leaders. He received a degree in Psychology from The University of NSW, a Master of Science from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Education from The University of Cambridge.
Podcasting since 2023 • 27 episodes
Strategic Schools
Latest Episodes
Ep. 27: Working at a Natural Pace
In this episode, Simon explores why effective school improvement isn’t about going fast or slow - it’s about finding a natural pace. Drawing on lessons from fitness and recovery, he unpacks how leaders can tune into their team’s capacity, avoid...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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8:27
Ep. 26: Streamlining Improvement Plans through Pruning
Many school improvement plans are overloaded from the start. In this episode, Simon explores how to integrate The Pruning Principle into your planning cycle - by subtracting before you add. Learn how to reduce unrealistic commitments, embed sub...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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8:53
Ep. 25: How to find 1 additional week per year
By trimming just one hour of meetings per week, you could reclaim a full work week each year. In this episode, Simon explores how small shifts in meeting cadence, duration, and structure can unlock major time savings and boost focus. Learn how ...
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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8:02
Ep. 24: Embracing Personal Pruning
In this episode, Simon shares why the best place to start pruning isn’t at the system level - it’s in your own life. From deleting unused apps to unsubscribing from email lists, he offers practical, low-stakes ways to reclaim clarity and focus....
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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14:17
Ep. 23: The Sunk Cost Fallacy
In this episode, Simon Breakspear unpacks the sunk cost fallacy - a powerful cognitive bias that keeps educators clinging to ineffective programs simply because they've already invested time, money, or energy. This hidden trap can block the str...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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8:23