Leading schools doesn’t mean forgetting about the people.
Practical tools and lessons learned the hard way. For subject leads, aspiring principals, and heads of school.
Who this is for
Subject and middle leaders
Leading a team for the first time while still teaching a full load.
See toolsAspiring and new principals
When you are stepping up and want to get the human side right from the beginning.
See toolsHeads of school
Seeing the whole board: budgets, timetables, pathways, and people.
See tools
Tools for the real work of leading a school
Practical tools I’ve built along the way. Each one started as something I needed in my own school. Most are free; the bigger ones that run on their own servers are paid.
Behaviour toolkit
Tiered strategies for 18 common classroom behaviours, with step-by-step guidance and editable Word templates.
- 18 behaviours
- 31 strategies across three tiers
- 52 editable Word templates
Department budget
Plan your department’s budget, log every purchase, and always know what’s committed, spent and left. Sends your head of school a quarterly return.
- Ready-made Excel formulas
- School and subject budget lines
- Warnings before you overspend
School finance
Set every department’s budget and bring their quarterly returns into one dashboard: who’s over or under, when money is spent, and how it supports your strategic plan.
- Up to 30 departments, EY to HS
- Spending patterns and big-ticket items
- Spending by strategic priority
Staffing planner
Work out how many teachers each team needs next year, from your grades, subjects, class sizes and timetable, for primary, secondary or a whole school. Hire enough people and no more.
- Homeroom classes and specialists
- Levels, languages and combined grades
- Part-time staff, responsibilities and assistants
Leading change
Answer 16 quick statements about a change you’re leading and find out where it’s most likely stalling, with practical next steps and editable templates.
- A 10-minute check, on phone or laptop
- Guides for all eight steps
- Six editable Word templates
EAL toolkit
Practical vocabulary and grammar strategies for students learning English, filtered by proficiency band, stage and setting, with printable strategy cards.
- Filter by band, stage and setting
- Share a filtered list with staff
- Subject grammar profiles
ParentMeets
Online booking for parent-teacher conferences, classroom visits, concerts and trips, with permission slips built in. Families book on their phone and every list builds itself.
- Try the live demo, no sign-up needed
- English and Chinese for families
- Your school’s logo and colours
Why I started Human Principals
When I became a principal, I often needed help, and I was lucky to be able to rely on some truly excellent practitioners when I did. I have also had the opportunity to learn how not to do things, either by getting them wrong myself, or by seeing others who were lacking in leadership skills get it wrong themselves.
Human Principals is the collection of my learnings: practical tools built from real work in schools, most of them free to use and adapt for your own setting. Where possible, I will try to bring in the fantastic school leader who taught it to me, so you can learn from them too.
There are also lots of other great resources out there, and I’ll link to them wherever they’re the best option. This isn’t meant to replace them. It’s meant to be a good place to start. And I hope it helps.
What Human Principals stands for
People before paperwork
Systems exist to serve students and staff, not the other way around.
Honest about mistakes
The most useful lessons come from what didn’t work. I’ll share mine.
Practical over theoretical
Everything here should be usable on a Monday morning.
Get in touch
A question, an idea for a tool, or a story you’d like to share? I read every message.