The Pruning Principle
$34.95
The Pruning Principle offers a groundbreaking approach to educational leadership, drawing inspiration from horticulture to address the chronic issues of overwork and inefficiency in schools. The authors, Dr Simon Breakspear and Michael Rosenbrock, propose a radical shift from the culture of “doing more” to one of strategic subtraction, arguing that by carefully pruning away non-essential tasks and initiatives, schools can achieve better outcomes with less strain on resources and staff.
This practical guide provides a comprehensive framework for implementing The Pruning Principle in educational settings. It outlines the causes of current challenges, introduces the concept and mechanics of pruning, and offers detailed, actionable steps for creating sustainable work rhythms and decision-making processes. With its focus on achievable improvement and educator wellbeing, this book promises to be an invaluable resource for school leaders seeking to cultivate more-effective and balanced educational environments.
The Connection Curriculum
$39.95
The Connection Curriculum challenges the status quo in education, arguing that a lack of genuine connection is harming students and communities. Drawing on extensive research, Matt Pitman explores the essential role of connection in fostering academic achievement and student wellbeing. Through candid reflections and practical insights, educators are invited to rethink traditional approaches and embrace sustainable strategies for building whole-school connectedness.
Divided into three parts, this book delves into understanding connection, building sustainable practices and maintaining connection over time. It focuses on collective leadership and community engagement to equip educators with the tools and inspiration to embark on the journey towards creating truly connected communities. Whether you are a teacher, school leader or community member seeking to revolutionise your school culture or promote positive change in your organisation, The Connection Curriculum provides the path to make it happen.
Elevated Conversations
$34.95
Elevated Conversations by Dr Simon Breakspear offers a practical toolkit for educators seeking to transform their collaborative meeting times from draining, unfocused sessions into purposeful, energising discussions. Drawing from years of experience working with thousands of educators, Breakspear presents seven field-tested conversational tools designed to help team leaders facilitate more meaningful professional conversations while reducing their preparation workload. The book addresses a common challenge in education: making the most of limited collaborative time when everyone is already stretched thin.
Developed through extensive collaboration with educators and refined through feedback from diverse teaching professionals, this book provides ready-to-use templates and structured approaches that any team member can implement. Rather than prescribing exact content for meetings, this toolkit focuses on powerful frameworks that elevate discussion quality, stimulate fresh thinking, strengthen team connections, and drive practical improvements in educational practice. The book serves as a practical facilitator playbook that transforms the way educators engage in professional dialogue, moving teams from what Simon calls ‘weary talk’ to truly elevated conversations.
School Philanthropy Handbook
$49.95
“Philanthropy responds to a vision more than a need. Its best advocate is the voice.”
A strong philanthropic culture enhances a school’s capacity to provide an exceptional education and improve outcomes for all students. The School Philanthropy Handbook explores the role of modern philanthropy in independent schools and provides a framework to establish an enduring culture of giving that will outlast short-term fundraising tactics.
Gavan Woinarski’s future-focused model of school philanthropy empowers educational leaders to create a compelling vision and bring people together to connect and inspire prospective donors. He offers practical guidance on how to sharpen funding strategies, unify working groups, develop major gift plans, improve database management and practise good stewardship to secure real philanthropic support.
Featuring a wealth of wisdom, tips and templates—with some fascinating stories shared along the way—the School Philanthropy Handbook offers a refreshed look at how schools can embrace a culture of philanthropy that delivers benefits for years to come.
The Connection Conundrum
$42.95
In schools around the world, a crisis is growing: students are disengaging, teachers are burning out, and communities are fracturing under competing priorities. Despite overwhelming evidence that meaningful connection underpins both academic success and wellbeing, schools continue to treat relationship-building as a "nice-to-have" rather than essential work.
Author Matt Pitman calls this The Connection Conundrum – the paradox of knowing connection matters yet consistently prioritising everything else. Like any great endeavour, success in education depends on trust, collaboration, and shared purpose. Pitman shows how educators can navigate the challenges of modern schooling by placing connection at the centre of everything they do.
Written for teachers unwilling to wait for permission to lead change, this follow-up to The Connection Curriculum offers a practical roadmap through the 4Cs – Culture, Communication, Collaboration, and Curiosity – that transform disconnected classrooms into thriving learning communities. Matt Pitman empowers educators to lead from where they are, providing actionable strategies to build relationships, foster belonging, and sustain meaningful connection, even when formal leadership hesitates.
The Connection Conundrum is an urgent call to action for anyone who believes schools should put people first – offering the tools to make that vision a reality.
Positive School Culture & Effective Leadership
$34.95
There is a growing body of research concerning the important role of the school principal in cultivating a positive school culture. School culture influences all happenings in a school and therefore impacts on a school community and on an individual's behaviour, expectations and interactions with others. It follows that cultivating and sustaining a positive school culture should be one of the highest priorities for all school principals. To improve schools and student learning, you must first focus on the culture of the school.
Based on Australian author Michael Stewart's groudbreaking PhD thesis, this book explores the journey of a school principal in creating a positive school culture and presents research findings from a case study that explored the cultivation of a positive school culture from the viewpoint of the principal and the various stakeholders within the school. The results from this research indicate that the principal plays a pivotal and crucial role in the cultivation of a positive school culture.
However, the results also demonstrated that the principal cannot do this alone, as many other members of the school community contribute to a school's culture. The principal's success in cultivating a school culture was found to depend upon his ability to unite the school community to work together to achieve the school's goals and vision. Results from the research indicated that the principal needed to use a range of strategies to cultivate and maintain a positive school culture.
The aim for this book is to assist schools in creating positive school cultures. It is designed to provide some assistance for people who wish to make a difference in their own workplace.
Culture of Excellence
$39.95
Culture of Excellence is a blueprint for schools ready to move beyond scattered initiatives, reactive leadership, and the exhausting cycle of “one more thing.” It’s a call to leaders who believe that culture isn’t created by accident — it’s created by alignment, clarity, and deeply intentional practice.
Drawing from decades of global work with schools, this book reveals a simple truth:when purpose is clear and people feel empowered, improvement becomes inevitable.
Inside, you’ll discover a research-grounded, practice-tested framework that helps schools:
Build clarity of purpose and a unifying vision for learning
Strengthen professional trust, agency, and shared ownership
Lift engagement, wellbeing, and achievement through coherent systems
Create rhythms and routines that sustain momentum long after the excitement fades
Lead confidently through complexity, change, and modern pressures
Through compelling case studies, real-world examples, and the Six Aspects of Excellence, you’ll see how schools around the world are building environments where staff flourish, students thrive, and community confidence grows — not through heroic effort, but through intentional design.
This is not a book about managing schools.It is a book about building schools that elevate people.Cultures that endure.Systems that empower.Leadership that lasts.
Culture of Excellence gives every leader — principal, system executive, teacher-leader, or leadership team — a clear pathway for shaping the future of learning with purpose, coherence, and confidence.
If you’re ready to move your school from aspiration to alignment, and from effort to impact, this book will show you the way.
Connecting with Your ... bundle
$89.95
$102.85
Get the three books in this series in this special bundle.
Connecting with Your Kids (published February 2019).
Connecting with Your Teens (published October 2023).
Connecting with Your Students (publishing March 2026).
From Feedback to Advice
$44.95
Most feedback books teach teachers how to give better feedback. This book teaches students how to seek better advice.
You invest hours crafting thoughtful feedback. Students glance at the grade and move on. They skim comments, fix surface details, or don’t engage at all — not because your feedback lacks quality, but because they haven’t learned how to identify what they need or seek the right help.
This isn’t a feedback problem. It’s a capability problem.
From Feedback to Advice shows how to develop students who actively direct their own improvement. Through six progressive stages, you’ll move students from passive recipients of comments to confident seekers of targeted advice. Students who can:
Shift from “Is this good?” to “Here’s what I’ve tried and here’s where I need help.”
Identify learning gaps and present evidence of their attempts.
Request precise advice and act on it.
This isn’t a book about writing better comments. It’s about building advice-seeking expertise, the capability that makes your guidance matter.
When students learn to seek the advice they need, they multiply the impact of your teaching, transforming feedback from a one-way exchange into a genuine partnership for growth.
The Connection bundle
$79.95
$82.95
Grab Matt Pitman's two books in this bundle.
The Connection Curriculum (published June 2024)The Connection Conundrum (published August 2025)
Dr Simon Breakspear bundle
$64.95
$69.90
Grab Dr Simon Breakspear's two books in this bundle.
The Pruning Principle (published 2024)Elevated Conversations (published August 2025)
For educators
By Australian and NZ educatorsFree shipping over $100
For ALL ordersBased in Melbourne
Supporting Australian business