Leadership – Page 2

Foreword by Emeritus Professor Frank Crowther, AM. Between the Idea and the Reality is a must-read for educational leaders, drawing on the author’s extensive experience in the education sector and as a professional musician to offer universally applicable insights. Through wisdom from researchers, thinkers, and personal experiences, readers will discover why the reasoning behind decisions matters more than the actions that follow. This is not about ready-made solutions but about engaging in deep, reflective thinking before acting. By synthesising ideas from formal research, literature, intuition, and experience, this book provides a rich understanding of decision-making. It aims to equip leaders with a wellspring of wisdom to navigate the complexities of their most demanding responsibility: making effective and thoughtful decisions. Whether you are a principal, head of department, or aspiring leader, the insights in this book will enhance your leadership journey. Some of the anecdotes will touch your heart as well as challenge your intellect, adding a unique dimension that sets this book apart from other educational leadership literature.

Leading with the Social Brain in Mind $39.95

Leading with the Social Brain in Mind puts relationships front and centre of the important work that educators do. The number and different types of relationships that educators maintain on daily basis can be undervalued and underestimated. Specifically, it challenges system and school leaders to investigate how social brain theory affects the unintended results of collaborative interactions in their own complex organisational environments. Designing environments for collaboration in schools is a complex task and requires a lot of skill, especially in those where many institutional practices and structures are so widely accepted that they are rarely questioned. This book discusses the importance of collaboration in schools, explores silo mentality and asks educators to reflect on how their decisions are impacted by implementation barriers. It is an invaluable read for educators who want to understand associations among cognition, complexity and collaboration in leading change initiatives in schools.

A New Way Forward for Schools $39.95

In an era when schools are drowning in a plethora of latest strategies, compliance measures, and endless data demands, they find themselves constantly chasing the next new thing while struggling to keep teaching and learning as their number one priority. Dr William DeJean is offering a new way forward that these times are calling for. Rather than adding to schools' already full plates, this book cuts through the noise to reveal a simple yet powerful system that helps schools streamline all their teaching and learning efforts, take on new knowledge with ease, and stay laser-focused on making learning stick for everyone. Whether you're a principal, instructional coach or part of a school's leadership team, DeJean doesn't just show you what to do – he shows you how to do it. The result? A new way forward for schools without the overwhelm.

Influence $42.95

Leadership isn't about authority – it's about influence. In Influence, Dr Judi Newman reveals how understanding the brain through a neuroscience lens can transform your ability to inspire, unite and deliver results. Drawing from her PhD research shadowing high-performing school principals, Newman demonstrates that without neuroplastic changes in the brain over time, there is limited learning and behaviour change. This groundbreaking book explores twelve essential leadership attributes and practical influence strategies you can implement immediately. Whether you're a seasoned executive, emerging leader or someone seeking to amplify their impact, Influence offers a unique blend of scientific insights and real-world application. Newman's research shows that the most effective leaders understand how to appeal to our inner motivations through biological processes in the brain. With compelling stories, evidence-based research and actionable tools, this book will help you master the art of influence and become the kind of leader who inspires others to bring out their best performance.

The Virtuous Leader $39.95

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.

Wolf Logic. Play-Based Leadership $39.95

Before wolves hunt, they play. Before they perform, they connect. Before they move, they synchronise. The strongest packs understand something many leaders forget: trust comes before tactics, connection comes before command, and people perform at their best when they feel safe, valued, and part of something bigger than themselves. In a world where leadership is increasingly defined by pressure, complexity, and constant change, Wolf Logic offers a different path. Drawing on decades of experience across education, elite sport, and high-performance environments, Dale Sidebottom, Paul Campbell, and Nick Haywood reveal how the principles that hold great packs together can help leaders build thriving teams, stronger cultures, and lasting results. Through powerful stories, practical tools, cutting-edge research, and the Trust Lab Framework, you’ll discover how to: Build trust before demanding performance Create cultures of belonging and psychological safety Unlock courage, creativity, and resilience in others Strengthen connection without lowering standards Lead teams that don’t just work together they move as one. This isn’t a book about becoming a softer leader. It’s about becoming a better one. Because the leaders who create the greatest impact aren’t those who control people. They’re the ones who create the conditions for people to thrive. The world doesn't need more serious leaders. It needs more human ones.

The School Leadership Juggle $39.95

In The School Leadership Juggle, Andrew Oberthur offers a lifeline to educators and school leaders grappling with the intricate balancing act of modern primary school education. Drawing upon his extensive background in education, Andrew provides a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted world of primary school leadership, emphasising the practical tools and strategies necessary for success. This book not only equips educators with evidence-based techniques for curriculum design, classroom management, and more but also places a strong emphasis on self-care and collaboration, recognizing the emotional toll of the profession. The School Leadership Juggle is a beacon of guidance and inspiration for anyone navigating the challenging and rewarding journey of primary school education.

Leading Professional Learning $54.95

Today’s school leaders are faced with the increasingly daunting task of leading their schools to improve, to innovate and to become ever more responsive to change. There are many resources to help schools to engage with improvement frameworks, but few that directly address the complexity of the challenges that inevitably arise along the way. Based on extensive research in the field, including the outcomes of a five-year project on school improvement and professional learning in Australia and New Zealand, Leading Professional Learning: Practical strategies for impact in schools identifies the challenges that school leaders face when leading professional learning and development in their schools as part of an improvement agenda. Renowned professional development expert, Helen Timperley, has collaborated with a team of prominent authors, including Fiona Ell, Deidre Le Fevre and Kaye Twyford, to uncover the reasons underpinning these challenges and to provide practical strategies on how to address them. Case studies, excerpts from real teachers’ experiences and step-by-step examples of useful strategies, including the spiral of inquiry, give school leaders the tools they need to tackle complex challenges in teaching, learning, curriculum delivery and pedagogical practice in both primary and secondary settings. Leading Professional Learning: Practical strategies for impact in schools is a hands-on resource for school leaders to identify specific professional learning and development issues that accompany the learning and change process and to overcome them in their schools.

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.

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.

Leading Professional Conversations $69.95

School leaders face complex challenges, that typically have multiple causes and often persist despite everyone’s best attempts to address them. Addressing complex challenges requires juggling both the big picture, and the specific parts of the challenge. Without a roadmap, this process is fraught and unlikely to succeed in improving outcomes. In order to make a difference, schools need adaptive expertise; a skill which can be learnt through professional conversations and inquiry. In Leading professional conversations, Emeritus Professor Helen Timperley deftly outlines the key enablers for effective professional conversations – relationships, resources, processes, knowledge and culture – which support teachers to be independent learners and result in positive impact on educational, social and emotional outcomes for students. Featuring examples from real conversations between school leaders and educators, and practical templates which can be adapted to suit the contexts of your school, Leading professional conversations is the school leader’s guide to thinking and acting evaluatively, knowledgeably, metacognitively, collaboratively, responsively and systematically, to engage in deep professional learning and genuine improvements in practice. Download the supplementary digital resources here.

Teach, Lead or Leave $39.95

After twelve years as a principal, Jenny Cole walked out mid-meeting and never returned. That spectacular moment of burnout taught her everything she needed to know about the impossible choices facing educators today. Teach, Lead or Leave is the honest, practical guide for every big-hearted teacher and leader who's ever whispered, 'How much longer can I keep doing this?' This isn't a book about convincing you to stay or go – it's about helping you make a conscious, informed decision that aligns with who you are and what you need to live a deeply satisfying life. Through personal stories, research-backed frameworks, and real experiences from educators across Australia, Jenny offers six distinct pathways forward. Whether you choose to stay and reshape your role, step into leadership, pause to rest and reset, pivot sideways within education, ease out with grace, or leave entirely, this book provides the clarity and courage to move from restlessness to intentional action. Complete with reflective prompts, practical tools, and frameworks for understanding your values, strengths, and purpose, Teach, Lead or Leave is the coaching conversation every educator deserves when facing one of the most important career decisions they'll ever make.

Leading Improvement for Gifted and Talented Students $64.95

School leaders are tasked with assisting students to make the next steps in their learning journeys, regardless of the students’ starting points. For students who are struggling, the next steps are often clear, but for students who are achieving beyond the expected level it can be difficult to know how best to challenge them. Leading improvement for gifted and talented students provides a framework for a set of high-impact strategies that individually and together can be the focus of improving high-level outcomes for gifted and talented students across the school. Professor John Munro brings his considerable experience to this complex problem, addressing the theoretical understandings of how high-ability students flourish and the practical requirements of meeting the needs of these students in today’s classrooms. Key chapters discuss what high ability looks like, what high-level outcomes are, how to identify students who display high-level outcomes in fields beyond literacy and numeracy and how school leaders can equip their educators with the ability to differentiate both the curriculum and their teaching. Topics such as twice-exceptional students, classroom culture, students from diverse backgrounds and social and emotional wellbeing are also addressed as part of a whole-school strategy for enhancing educational provision for high-ability students. Leading improvement for gifted and talented students is an essential evidence-based resource for all school leaders who wish to ensure that every child achieves their full potential.

Leading Improvement in School Community Wellbeing $64.95

More than ever before, the wellbeing of students, staff and the school community must be a priority for principals and school leaders.Leading Improvement in School Community Wellbeing provides a framework for a set of high-impact strategies that individually and together can be the focus of improving wellbeing across the school. The book provides school leaders with key research-based school improvement practices, authentic case studies in the form of principals’ reflections, and, crucially, practical explanations outlining how to choose a particular practice and how to successfully embed or implement that strategy within the school. Asking ‘What’s happening?’, ‘What’s working’? and ‘What’s next?’, the three parts of the book provide tools to assess the school community’s wellbeing strengths and needs; to determine actions required to improve student and staff wellbeing; and to effectively implement wellbeing strategies across the school for the benefit of the entire school community.

Implementing an Effective Teaching Feedback Program $34.95

Providing effective feedback to teachers is critical in improving teaching standards and student performance – but how can we deliver this feedback in a way that does not lead to misunderstanding, animosity or the undermining of teachers’ professionalism? To assist schools in ensuring that any feedback provided to teachers is both accurate and constructive, Implementing an Effective Teacher Feedback Program presents the Pirozzo Process: a step-by-step method for building a sustainable, low-cost teacher feedback program that can be implemented in any school. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to one of the seven steps of the Pirozzo Process: Find your philosophy of leadership Create a Time Allocation Inventory Build knowledge of unit planning Learn to use a variety of thinking tools Develop conflict-resolution skills Launch an effective teacher feedback program Apply four strategies for providing effective feedback

Leading Improvement in Literacy Teaching and Learning $64.95

School leaders have ready access to assessment data, motivating efforts to improve literacy outcomes of their students, but it can be difficult for principals to decide how to achieve these goals within their school’s existing strategic plans and policies.Associate Professor Robyn Cox brings her decades of experience in language and literacy education to this handbook for school leaders. The book supports principals’ understandings of the intricacies of teaching literacy and the best ways to improve practices and subsequent outcomes in each school’s unique context.With an opening chapter focusing on using and interpreting evidence, Associate Professor Cox outlines strategies for addressing the key areas of oral language, grammar and writing, vocabulary and early reading as well as providing advice around diagnostics and tailored intervention for students who require further support. She includes reflections from school leaders on each topic and pays particular attention to the needs of students from non-English speaking backgrounds.Leading improvement in literacy teaching and learning provides a framework for a set of high-impact strategies that individually and together can be the focus of teacher professional learning, school improvement and student literacy achievement.

Ecosystem Leadership $39.95

The role of a school principal is an extremely challenging one. Principals are required to be educators, business managers, strategic planners, counsellors and most importantly, leaders. While there are professional development opportunities and short courses available for aspiring principals, many principals work their way up to the role without receiving any formal training in the specific skills required to successfully lead a school and its community. Neil Barker argues in Ecosystem leadership: an approach for schools that in order to improve school leadership and subsequent student outcomes, principals and leadership teams need to better understand how to lead together; to be intentional about the school’s leadership and to methodically and deliberately develop a collective leadership approach. Based on the organic and interconnected ecosystems found throughout the natural world, Ecosystem leadership provides practical, hands-on activities and templates to assist school leaders in developing collective leadership skills and practices. The book sets out 5 key leadership elements for school leaders to address: context, vision, processes, focuses and impact. Ecosystem leadership provides a collaborative, self-improving approach to leadership that is systematic, integrated and comprehensive. It describes a system of leadership that is fit for purpose, based on a school’s unique context, and always with improving student outcomes at the forefront.

Leading Learning and Teaching $59.95

The core purpose of schools and educators must be the successful facilitation of teaching and learning – and to do this effectively, teachers must also be leaders. In Leading Learning and Teaching, Stephen Dinham follows up the success of How to Get Your School Moving and Improving with an authoritative, in-depth examination of the field of instructional leadership. Building on extensive research in Australia and around the world, Leading Learning and Teaching examines the importance and impact of instructional leadership. Key themes include successful change management, the effectiveness of teacher professional development and the importance of evidence and the use of data. Examining current international contexts of educational theory, policy and practice, Dinham presents strategies, agendas and direction for enhancing the capabilities of individual educators, teaching teams, schools and systems. He brings together essential research and understandings of leading teaching and learning, and the role of instructional leadership in promoting quality teaching and enabling student learning.

A Commitment to Growth $44.95

A Commitment to Growth: Essays on Education is an edited collection of materials that Geoff Masters has published over the last seven years, including the ground-breaking Reforming Educational Assessment (Australian Education Review; No. 57). This collection is mostly comprised of shorter pieces such as the influential Five challenges in Australian school education and other essays and posts relating to themes of: effective use of assessment; focus on growth and progress; and school and system improvement. The four sections of the book are: Part 1: ‘Big Five’ Challenges in School Education. Part 2: Is School Reform Working? Part 3: Reconceptualising Educational Assessment. Part 4: Schools as Learning Organisations. The editors have drawn on this body of writing by Professor Masters in an attempt to tell the story of these past seven years. If the beginning of this story was the publication of Reforming Educational Assessment: Imperatives, principles and challenges (AER 57), the release of the report of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools, might be seen as the end of the beginning. With a greater understanding and emerging consensus of the challenges, implications and needed approaches, the next chapter in the story must focus on what Masters has called ‘the hard work of improvement’.

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.

-4% sale

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)

-8% sale

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)

-16% sale

Leading Improvement series bundle $219.95 $259.80

Get all 4 titles in the Leading Improvement series.

Leading Improvement in Mathematics Teaching and Learning $64.95

School leaders have ready access to assessment data, motivating efforts to improve the numeracy outcomes of their students, but it can be difficult for principals to decide how to achieve these goals within their school’s existing strategic plans and policies. Emeritus Professor Peter Sullivan brings his decades of experience and research in mathematics teaching and education to a carefully curated selection of proven practices and effective approaches that will help primary and secondary school leaders empower teachers and achieve improved numeracy outcomes for their students. With links to high-impact teaching strategies and the OECD’s Future of Education and Skills 2030 framework, the book gives school leaders insights into professional learning opportunities and practices that can align improvement visions and goals with effective classroom approaches. Quality learning experiences, lesson structure, learning sequences, classroom culture, collaborative planning and effective teaching are addressed in ways that will help school leaders improve not only students’ numeracy and mathematics outcomes, but also their critical and creative thinking skills, enabling classroom learning to be transferred to real-life contexts. Leading improvement in mathematics teaching and learning provides a framework for a set of high-impact strategies that individually and together can be the focus of teacher professional learning, school improvement and student numeracy achievement.

Search Amba Press

For educators

Free shipping over $100

Based in Melbourne