Today I return home to pack, ready to fly to Dubai tomorrow. My alarm is set in good time to get ready for my 4.45 a.m. taxi. It has been a busy day – a productive day – spent with my colleagues in the School Coach management team, discussing next steps en route to recruiting a school for a one-year project, beginning in September 2009.

But what is School Coach? I agree to answer this question as succinctly as I can as part of the materials which will in time be shaped into the School Coach website (at http://www.schoolcoach.org.uk/).

Drawing on everything that we have already written about School Coach, as well as on all the learning we have had through our initial project, I make my first attempt to introduce School Coach:

Coaching is a powerful vehicle for positive change. School Coach, the most powerful coaching vehicle in education in the UK, exists to help professionals in UK schools to help themselves, making progress towards compelling goals whilst liberating the full potential of school teams.

At School Coach we believe every child deserves an outstanding education, one which enables each child to identify and develop his or her unique talents and which lays the foundations for a happy, healthy and successful life. We believe that professionals in education want to give children this education.

School Coach brings together teams of outstanding coaching professionals to support teaching professionals in UK schools. Working in coaching partnership with project teams in client schools, our one-year projects are shaped to help client teams make accelerated progress towards defined and compelling goals. In addition, working together in this way helps our clients to connect with and leverage their full potential whilst strengthening the coaching skills of everyone involved.

I know that we will review and refine this brief introduction. For now, though, it is enough to have made a start – to have outlined an introduction which is already available, via this posting, to coaching colleagues and to client schools. It’s time to press “publish”. It’s time to pack.