Coming soon – Amba Press

What kind of leader are you when no one is watching? The Virtuous Leader makes a compelling case that effective leadership is, first and foremost, a moral activity, and that competence without character is never enough. Drawing on decades of experience leading some of Australia’s most respected independent schools, Dr Timothy Wright and Clive Logan argue that the leaders who earn lasting trust and create genuinely thriving organisations are those who do not merely hold good values, but who live them, consistently and habitually, until virtue becomes reflex. Grounded in the rich tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas and brought to life through honest reflection and real-world experience, The Virtuous Leader explores the virtues that matter most for leaders navigating the complexity of schools and organisations today: practical wisdom, love, courage, truthfulness, justice, humility and hope. This is not a book of quick fixes or leadership slogans. It is a thoughtful, searching guide for leaders willing to examine their own motivations, confront their blind spots and commit to the slow, worthwhile work of becoming the kind of leader others are proud to follow.

Building Schools for Boys $44.95

What does it take to build a school that forms good men? Building Schools for Boys offers a compelling and practical framework for educators committed to this question. Drawing on decades of global research and real-world school leadership, Dr Phil Cummins and David Atkinson argue that character is not an add-on to a boy’s education – it is the whole work. Grounded in the conviction that boys thrive when they belong, fulfil their potential and learn to do good in the world, this book challenges schools to move beyond narrow academic measures and build cultures of intentional character formation. Spanning six key dimensions of school life – contribution, hope, intention, expectation, value and experience – the book weaves together research, practical frameworks and rich case studies from outstanding schools across Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Whether you teach or lead in a boys’ school, a co-educational school or are interested in what education for young men can and should be, Building Schools for Boys offers both the rationale and the roadmap for schools where boys become the good men the world needs.

Stretch $39.95

Middle leaders are the engine room of school improvement – yet they are too often underprepared, overstretched and under-supported. Stretch: Navigating Pressure and Impact in Middle Leadership is a practical guide for middle leaders navigating the demanding space between classroom and boardroom, between doing and leading. Drawing on decades of real-world leadership experience, Steven Trotter offers honest, research-informed insights into the pressures that define middle leadership, and the strategies that make those pressures manageable, meaningful and ultimately transformative. Structured across three parts, Stretch moves from the lived realities of middle leadership – cognitive load, time pressure, emotional intelligence and role ambiguity – through to six concrete levers for elevating leadership practice, and finally to a set of reflections for leaders building toward the future. This is not a book of tidy answers or one-size-fits-all solutions. It is a guide for leaders willing to pause, reflect and grow – because when the stretch is understood and embraced, it becomes the very engine of lasting impact.

Behaviour Is Not the Whole Story $39.95

When challenging behaviour appears in a classroom, an early years setting, or a care environment, it draws immediate attention. But what is visible on the surface is rarely the whole story. Behaviour Is Not the Whole Story is a practical, grounded guide for educators, leaders, and teams who want to move beyond reactive responses and build behaviour support that is informed, consistent, and sustainable. Drawing on extensive field-based experience across early years, schools, and OSHC settings, Kelly Oldfield offers a wider lens on behaviour – one that looks beyond the visible act to the regulation, communication, environment, adult responses, and systems that shape it. Packed with practical tools including reflection prompts, practice scenarios, and ready-to-use frameworks, this book helps educators and leaders ask better questions, build stronger systems, and create settings where young people can genuinely thrive. This is not a book of quick fixes or one-size-fits-all strategies. It is a thoughtful, realistic guide for people who understand that stronger outcomes for young people come from strengthening the adults, environments, and systems around them.

Practical AI Strategies 2 $39.95

In the two years since the publication of Practical AI Strategies, generative AI has changed beyond recognition. Chatbots still dominate everyday use, but the industry has moved on to agents and complex systems with AI at the centre. Our questions have changed, too. It is no longer about which tool to use or how to write a better prompt. It is about hallucinations and bias, environmental cost and deepfakes, the human labour hidden behind AI systems, and how to redesign assessment so that students are actually learning. This book is the critical guide educators need for this next phase. Dr Leon Furze returns with his trademark blend of practical advice and unflinching honesty, drawing on his PhD research and years of work alongside classroom teachers. He covers how generative AI actually works, how to choose and evaluate platforms wisely, how to rethink curriculum and assessment, and how to build genuine critical AI literacy in students and staff. Practical AI Strategies 2 is essential reading for educators looking to move beyond chatbots and prepare both themselves and their students for the near future of AI.

Teaching Grammar F–6 $39.95

Grammar is one of the most important and least understood areas of primary teaching. Many educators entered the profession with little formal grammar training, only to find themselves navigating a curriculum that draws on two distinct and sometimes confusing approaches. Teaching Grammar F-6: A Year-by-Year Resource for Building Teacher Knowledge cuts through that confusion with clarity, warmth and practical purpose. Written by a curriculum expert with decades of experience supporting classroom teachers, this book builds confident, working knowledge of both traditional and functional grammar so that teachers can teach it meaningfully rather than simply manage it. Structured year by year from Foundation to Year 6 and aligned with the Australian Curriculum: English Version 9.0, the book gives teachers exactly the grammatical knowledge they need for their year level, without unnecessary complexity. Each chapter unpacks the relevant content descriptions and elaborations, explains the key concepts in plain language, and shows what this looks like in real classroom practice. Whether you are new to grammar or returning to it after years of uncertainty, this book offers the confidence and clarity to make grammar a genuinely powerful part of your students' learning.

Hey. How Are You, Actually? $34.95

Some days you really are fine.And some days you say you're fine because it's easier than explaining what's actually going on.This book is for those other days. You already know how to be a good friend. When someone you care about is having a hard time, you know how to listen, how to be kind, how not to make things worse. Hey. How Are You, Actually? is about turning that same kindness toward yourself — because you deserve it just as much as they do. Inside are twenty small things you can do, most of them only a few minutes long, for the moments that really happen. When your brain won't switch off at night. When you're waiting outside the exam room feeling sick. When a friendship fades and nobody says why. When everyone else seems fine and you're not so sure you are. Nothing you have to believe in. Nothing you have to be good at. Just small, real things that help. One gentle question runs through all of it: what would you say to yourself if you talked to yourself the way you talk to your best friend? Whatever you're carrying right now, you don't have to carry it alone. You can just start here. For the grown-up reading this book blurb Written straight to teenagers, grounded in real research, and small enough to use on an ordinary day. No pressure. You might find a few of the practices are exactly what you needed too.

Making the Most of Your Learning Environment $49.95

The spaces where we teach are more than containers for learning. They are active and influential forces shaping how students engage, think and grow. Yet most teachers have never been supported to evaluate whether their spaces are actually working, or shown how to make them work better. Making the Most of Your Learning Environment: A Guide for Teacher-Led Evaluation of Spaces and Practices changes that. Drawing on nearly two decades of research by the Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN) across Australian and international schools, Wesley Imms and Julia Morris offer a practical, step-by-step guide to help teachers and school leaders assess their spaces with confidence and purpose. Structured around a clear evaluation template, the book walks educators through every stage of the process, from identifying a focus and writing a question through to collecting and analysing data and sharing findings with others. This is not a book that tells teachers what a good learning environment looks like. It is a guide to helping them work that out for themselves, in their own context, using research-informed approaches proven to work in real schools. For any educator who believes that space is part of their pedagogic toolkit, this book is the missing resource.

Dare to Think! $44.95

In an age of artificial intelligence, standardised testing and information overload, the ability to think – truly think – has never been more important or more neglected. Dare to Think! is a passionate, practical and deeply philosophical inquiry into what thinking actually is, why it matters, and how educators can deliberately create the conditions for it to happen in their classrooms. Drawing on nearly three decades in the classroom and a rich tradition of philosophical inquiry stretching from Aristotle to Wittgenstein, Andrew Rogers argues that too many students have been trained to remember and reproduce rather than question, wonder and reason, and that this is a problem educators have both the power and the responsibility to address. Structured as a genuine inquiry rather than a prescriptive manual, the book draws on philosophy as both its method and its message. Rogers uses philosophical tools to define what thinking actually is, expose the imposters that masquerade as it, and make the case for dialogue, curiosity and reasoning as the foundations of genuinely transformative education. He writes as a co-inquirer alongside the reader, sharing what has worked, acknowledging what remains uncertain, and consistently inviting educators to reflect on and reshape their own practice. For any teacher who has glimpsed that rare classroom moment when students are genuinely alive with ideas, this book offers a clear and compelling path toward making it happen every day.

Lean Monitoring $34.95

Leading school improvement means navigating long stretches of uncertainty between launching a strategy and seeing results. Too often, school leaders find themselves in what Dr Simon Breakspear calls the messy middle: too far in to stop, but too far from the end to know if they are on track. Lean Monitoring: How to Know if What You're Doing is Actually Working is a practical guide to closing that gap, helping school leaders build simple, sustainable habits for tracking progress during improvement work rather than waiting for end-of-year data that arrives too late to act on. The first book in the Agile School Improvement Series, Lean Monitoring introduces one of three core practices at the heart of Simon's approach to leading change in schools: staying oriented during the journey rather than hoping things are heading in the right direction. Drawing on a decade of work alongside more than 5,000 school leaders across multiple countries, Simon offers clear frameworks and ready-to-use tools including the Impact Canvas, Data Capture Card and Insight Protocol, giving leaders the confidence to make better decisions mid-course and keep improvement moving forward.

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