Steven Trotter – Amba Press

The Art of Skimming Stones challenges conventional leadership frameworks, highlighting a crucial gap in their ability to effectively drive improvement. While many models emphasise individual capacities, they often lack practical guidance on implementing these skills for tangible results. In response, Steven Trotter’s SKIM Model offers a clear pathway for school leaders seeking impactful change. Developed through years of school leadership experience, this model emphasises intentional steps, focusing on subtle yet crucial shifts to engage individuals and foster meaningful improvement. By simplifying the complexity of leadership into actionable steps, SKIM empowers leaders across schools to enact positive change and enabling sustained improvement.

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.