New releases – Amba Press

You've worked hard to get where you are – but what got you here won't get you there. This book is for educational leaders who sense they're stuck in the weeds, overwhelmed by daily tasks, firefighting, and keeping their heads down while others seem to move ahead. Drawing on decades of experience as a teacher, school leader, and leadership coach, Janine Stratford reveals the game-changer that separates leaders who survive from those who thrive: strategic thinking. This isn't corporate jargon or abstract theory – it's a practical blueprint for leading with purpose, direction, and clarity that transforms both your team's success and your career future. Through the Leadership Blueprint framework – Brand, Recognise, Align, Nurture, and Demonstrate – this book shows you how to step back from the busyness, build the culture your team needs to succeed, and position yourself for the impact and recognition you deserve. Packed with real stories from schools across Australia and New Zealand, actionable strategies, and honest insights about what actually works, this is the book that helps you work smarter, lead differently, and create change that lasts. Whether you're an aspiring leader or an experienced one ready for your next step, this is your roadmap from overwhelm to strategic leadership – and from hard work to lasting legacy.

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.

Connecting with Your Students $34.95

Connecting with Your Students is a simple, practical resource for all educators who want to build meaningful relationships with their students while developing essential life skills that drive academic success. This engaging and effective book contains 40 chapters organised across four school terms, each focusing on a different life skill. Teachers can follow the chapters chronologically throughout the year or select specific skills that align with their students' needs. Each chapter features inspiring quotes, student-friendly definitions, ten practical classroom activities requiring minimal preparation, and real-life stories illustrating each skill in action. From organisation and growth mindset to empathy, resilience and gratitude, these life skills form the foundation for both academic achievement and personal wellbeing. The activities foster positive classroom relationships while equipping students with the tools they need to overcome challenges and flourish. Learning these skills will not only help your students navigate the demands of school life but ultimately thrive through the rest of their lives to come.

-16% sale

Creative Activities in Mathematics bundle $125.95 $149.85

Problem-based learning is a powerful alternative to drill-and-practice or skills-based learning, especially within mathematics. The Creative Activities in Mathematics series provides a wealth of investigations and open-ended active learning activities, designed to engage students with mathematics and develop their problem-solving, collaboration and mathematical skills. The three titles in the series provide a variety of class activities suitable for students from lower primary to middle secondary, along with teaching notes and staged lesson plans. Each activity is a whole-class investigation with open-ended answers that takes a particular scenario and develops over multiple levels. This enables it to be used both at different year levels and with students of differing ability in the same class. All activities are firmly grounded in the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics.

The Relational School $39.95

Schools say they value relationships – but do their systems actually support them? This book is for educators who sense the gap between what their school aspires to be and what it feels like to work and learn there every day. Drawing on decades of experience as a teacher, counsellor, and school leader, Sue Chandler offers a clear-eyed look at why well-intentioned relational initiatives so often struggle to stick – and what it takes to build a culture where connection, accountability, and trust aren't just ideals, but everyday practice. Through compelling stories, practical frameworks, and honest reflections, this book introduces The Relational Practice Bridge – a systems-level approach to embedding relational culture across leadership, policy, and daily interactions. Complete with The Relational Practice Assessment Audit Tool, this is not another quick-fix behaviour management model. It's an invitation to reimagine how schools relate, lead, and respond – with clarity, courage, and a willingness to align what we say we value with how we actually work. For educators ready to move from exhaustion to transformation, this book offers both the mirror and the map.

Practical AI Strategies 2 $39.95

Building on the foundation of the bestselling Practical AI Strategies, Leon Furze returns with an essential guide for educators navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI. This timely sequel moves beyond basic implementation to address the critical questions educators are now facing – from rethinking assessment to confronting issues of bias, environmental impact and the human cost of AI development. Leon introduces the Practical AI Process, a structured approach that prioritises pedagogical design over prompt engineering, and presents the innovative AI Assessment Scale. With expanded coverage of multimodal AI technologies including advanced image generation, AI video and voice synthesis, the book prepares educators for emerging capabilities like AI agents and the transformation of the internet itself. Grounded in real classroom applications yet unflinching in its critical analysis, Practical AI Strategies 2 equips educators with both the practical skills and ethical frameworks needed to engage thoughtfully with generative AI – neither dismissing its potential nor accepting it uncritically.

Instructional Leadership $49.95

Effective instructional leadership doesn't just happen – it's created by design. Research shows it has a greater impact on student outcomes than any other form of school leadership, yet developing this capability remains one of education's most pressing challenges. Instructional Leadership: 15 High-Impact Practices to Develop Instructional Leaders provides a comprehensive framework for building the leadership capability that matters most. Drawing on extensive research and decades of practical experience, Glenn Forbes presents five critical components and fifteen evidence-based practices proven to improve student outcomes. Whether you're a new leader seeking foundational knowledge, an experienced principal developing your team, or a system leader supporting schools, this book equips you with the tools to move beyond administrative management and become an active driver of instructional improvement.

The Leadership Edge $39.95

Leadership in schools goes far beyond titles, and Executive Assistants (EAs) prove it. Working behind the scenes, EAs straddle multiple departments and functions while creating an environment where staff and students can thrive. Few people fully understand the challenges, complexities, and rewards of their work. In The Leadership Edge, Kristine Niven draws on her extensive experience as an EA and founder of EAs in Education to offer insight into a role that is often surrounded with ambiguity in schools and the wider EA community. This book provides practical tips, strategies, and approaches to help EAs develop their personal and professional practice, while posing a fresh perspective on leadership that goes beyond hierarchies and salary brackets. Blending together hard-won lessons from Niven’s personal journey, leadership spotlights, and wisdom from leading thinkers, philosophers and artists, this book offers a roadmap for EAs to discover their own leadership edge.

Humming Along $39.95

‘For the sake of humanity’. It's a simple answer to why someone becomes a Humanities teacher, yet it captures the profound responsibility of educators who shape students' empathy, integrity and capacity to make informed decisions about our world's future. Katrina Davey understands this calling intimately – and she also knows the harsh realities that can undermine it: out-of-field teachers thrust into unfamiliar subjects, departments struggling with minimal support, and the constant battle for adequate class time and respect. Humming Along is Davey's response to the challenges facing Humanities education. Drawing from her successful track record of building thriving faculties, she offers practical strategies that can make teams hum. From helping anxious graduates master multiple disciplines to convincing leadership of Humanities' vital role in developing the ‘heart’ that makes students truly human. With concrete tools for curriculum design, authentic assessment and faculty collaboration, this book provides a roadmap for creating engaging Humanities courses where both teachers and students discover the genuine wonder of exploring our world together.

The Perfect Parent Trap $39.95

You're not failing. You're just caught in a trap designed for struggle. Modern parenting is drowning us. We have more information than ever, yet parents are more anxious, burnt out, and disconnected than they've been in generations. We're told to manage behaviour, enforce rules, and stay in control – but not how to stay emotionally present during meltdowns or manage the old wounds that get pressed when our children's behaviour hooks something deep inside us. After twenty-five years working with families, therapist Lisa Taylor knows the truth: the real problem isn't your child's behaviour. It's the invisible heartprints from your own childhood – the emotional imprints that still shape how you respond when stress runs high and nothing goes to plan. The Perfect Parent Trap offers something different. Not another technique to master, but an invitation to break free from inherited patterns of control, perfectionism, and fear. When you learn to respond to the child in front of you instead of reacting from the child within you, everything shifts. This isn't about doing more. It's about being more present - with yourself first, then with the people you love most. Your children don't need you to be perfect. They need you to be real.

On Character $34.95

What does it mean to live a life of good character? And how do we form such character in ourselves and those we teach? Character is how we live our lives as individuals and in community. It's how we strive to belong, fulfil our potential and do what is good and right in the world. It's how we wrestle with ourselves and the world to make a mark and measure up. Through the metaphor of the stonemason's chisel – making marks that are both distinctive and enduring – Dr Phil Cummins reveals character as the wrestling between who we are and who we might become. Drawing on decades of experience working with schools worldwide, he shows how we are formed through this wrestling, always the wrestling, in a life that might come, in time, to be both worthwhile and well-lived. A person of good character can be seen and recognised as one who pursues what is best, who seeks to know, love and do what is true and beautiful in the world. Yet for all our good intentions, we cannot ever quite be the best versions of ourselves, no matter how much we would like this to be the case. We need relationships of character apprenticeship that show us we are not good enough yet – and then help us to grow. Written with clarity, wisdom and a distinctively Australian perspective on equity and excellence, this essential guide challenges educators, leaders and anyone committed to human flourishing to embrace the formation of character for lives of purpose, integrity and service to others.

-15% sale

Kathy Walker bundle $159.95 $186.85

Do you love Kathy Walker and Shona Bass as much as we do? Get their 3 best-selling books in this bundle.

-16% sale

Leading Improvement series bundle $219.95 $259.80

Get all 4 titles in the Leading Improvement series.

Coming soon

Stop Think Do Social Skills Training $99.95

Stop Think Do is a social skills programme for use in schools with children who have emotional, social or behavioural difficulties that affect their ability to make friends. The Stop Think Do Social Skills Training: Primary Years is suitable for primary school ages students, from 8-12 years of age. Stop Think Do Social Skills Training: Primary Years covers: Why train social skills and emotional intelligence in children? How to apply the program in classrooms with special needs children, for peer mediators, as a whole school, and with parental involvement Social skills lessons for children aged 8-10 Social skills lessons for children aged 10-12 An overview of the traffic light training posters Pre and post program assessments.

Coming soon

Stop Think Do Social Skills Training $99.95

Stop Think Do is a social skills programme for use in schools with children who have emotional, social or behavioural difficulties that affect their ability to make friends. The Stop Think Do Social Skills Training: Early Years is suitable for lower primary school ages students, from 4-8 years of age. Stop Think Do Social Skills Training: Early Years covers: Why train social skills and emotional intelligence in children? How to apply the program in classrooms with special needs children, for peer mediators, as a whole school, and with parental involvement Social skills lessons for children aged 4-6 Social skills lessons for children aged 6-8 An overview of the traffic light training posters Pre and post program assessments.

Coming soon

Cued Articulation $46.95

Cued Articulation helps children to see a sound and hear a letter by the use of easy and logical hand cues. It is used by speech pathologists, speech and language therapists and teachers who find the approach helpful in showing phoneme-grapheme relationships and use it in the classroom to teach children the sounds of speech. The book combines the previously separate Cued Articulation and Cued Vowels in one. It is a full-colour comprehensive description of Jane Passy's methods for teaching speech and language-challenged children and adults how to make the sounds required for articulate speech.

Notebook Notions $39.95

Many teachers don’t see themselves as writers – a disconnect often rooted in their own restrictive school experiences where writing meant following rigid assignments with little room for creative freedom. Yet writing alongside students transforms teaching, allowing educators to demonstrate the authentic struggles and joys of the writing process while building their own confidence with words. In Notebook Notions, experienced educator and writer Alan j Wright shares the lessons learned across a rewarding career, revealing how the simple act of keeping a writer’s notebook can revolutionise both your teaching practice and your relationship with writing itself. Drawing from years of experience as a teacher who writes – and a writer who teaches – Alan offers practical wisdom on launching and sustaining a writer’s notebook practice. From collecting raw ideas and embracing inspiration to moving notebook entries into finished projects, this book provides a clear pathway for educators ready to model genuine writer agency in their classrooms. With warmth and candour, Alan reminds us that becoming a writer requires the same courage as learning to ride a bicycle: you must simply climb on and start pedalling. Your notebook journey begins with daring to fill that first blank page.

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.

Mindful Assessment $39.95

Mindful Assessment redefines how we think about teaching, learning, and assessment in the modern classroom. In this insightful and practical guide, Lee Crockett and Andrew Churches reveal how true learning begins when teaching becomes a response to students’ needs—rather than an end goal in itself. Grounded in six essential fluencies—core skills every learner needs to succeed in today’s complex world—Mindful Assessment provides a clear pathway for aligning teaching and assessment with inquiry-based and project-driven learning. Through practical examples, rubrics, and classroom-tested strategies, Lee and Andrew show how to move from grading tasks to cultivating growth. Both visionary and actionable, Mindful Assessment equips educators with the tools and mindset to create classrooms where mindfulness, feedback, and continuous improvement drive authentic learning.

Agents to Agency $44.95

Agents to Agency is a compelling, practice-driven guide to transforming learning by empowering learners to take true ownership of their growth. Drawing on decades of work with hundreds of schools around the world, renowned author and speaker Lee Crockett reveals proven strategies for shifting the responsibility for learning from teachers to learners—creating classrooms where curiosity, autonomy, and agency thrive. With clear explanations, insightful reflections, and real-world examples, Agents to Agency shows you exactly how to cultivate the mindsets and practices that foster genuine learner agency. Each chapter breaks down complex ideas into practical steps you can apply immediately, helping you transform both teaching and learning. In the final chapters, Lee introduces a series of practical continuums—powerful tools for guiding, facilitating, and measuring the progression of learner agency in any educational setting. The result is an inspiring and actionable roadmap for every educator ready to move from simply managing learning to truly empowering it.

Growing Global Digital Citizens $39.95

Growing Global Digital Citizens is a practical and visionary guide to transforming education through the principles of ethical and empowered participation in the digital age. Drawing on years of collaboration with schools around the world, Lee Crockett and Andrew Churches present a clear and actionable pathway for cultivating students who think critically, act responsibly, and contribute meaningfully in an interconnected world. This essential guide demonstrates how schools can move beyond traditional acceptable-use policies to embrace a culture of ethically driven digital citizenship. With practical strategies, resources, and assessment tools, the authors show how to embed global digital citizenship across every level of schooling—from elementary through secondary education—and extend it to educators and the wider community. Grounded in real-world practice and focused on developing the skills and mindsets essential for the 21st century, Growing Global Digital Citizens equips teachers and leaders to inspire a generation of learners ready to shape a more connected, compassionate, and responsible world.

Future-Focused Learning $39.95

Future-Focused Learning is the definitive guide to transforming today’s classrooms into thriving, future-ready learning environments. Drawing on years of work with schools across the globe, renowned keynote speaker Lee Crockett distils his experience into ten powerful shifts of practice, designed to help educators move from good teaching to truly exceptional learning. With practical clarity and a focus on immediate impact, Lee introduces simple microshifts you can apply right away, regardless of your curriculum or teaching style. These proven strategies make it easy to create more student-centred, inquiry-driven classrooms that foster authentic learning for every kind of learner. Packed with over 50 classroom-tested examples, Future-Focused Learning provides educators with a clear roadmap for implementing change at any scale. You’ll also discover the six essential fluencies—core skills that empower students with creativity, critical thinking, and adaptability in an ever-changing world. From project-based learning and essential questions to STEM education and digital fluency, Lee offers a compelling vision of what learning can—and must—become. Future-Focused Learning is both a practical handbook and an inspiring call to action for educators ready to build classrooms that prepare students not just to learn for the future, but to shape it.

-17% sale

High School Success bundle $500.00 $599.00

Update your library with this collection of all our best-selling high school success books. Twenty books in total.

-12% sale

Simon Breakspear ALL bundle $99.95 $112.80

Get all 3 titles by Dr Simon Breakspear Teaching Sprints (published by Corwin in 2020)The Pruning Principle (published 2024)Elevated Conversations (published August 2025)