When Coaching Becomes One More Thing

Photo by Myles Bloomfield on Unsplash

Coaching has enormous potential in education. Few people who have experienced high-quality coaching doubt its impact. It can sharpen practice, build confidence, and create space for professional dialogue in a system that rarely slows down.

Yet in many UK schools, coaching struggles to take root. This isn’t because teachers resist learning, or leaders lack good intentions. More often, the problem lies in the surrounding conditions that make it harder, not easier, to sustain.

Coaching thrives in psychologically safe environments. But it’s often introduced alongside observations or appraisal targets, blurring its purpose. Teachers then wonder: support or surveillance? Without clear boundaries between development and judgement, trust erodes and conversations lose power.

When schools lack agreement on what excellent teaching (or coaching) looks like, sessions drift to isolated tips, stylistic preferences, or unfocused feedback. Coaching becomes something “done to” teachers rather than built with them.

Workload is education’s persistent barrier. Coaching needs protected time to reflect, practise, try again. Squeezed into free periods, cancelled for cover shortages, or piled onto existing duties, its impact fades. The unintended message: it matters, but not enough to prioritise.

Many juggle teaching, leadership, and coaching without structural support. Mid-career teachers, who often hold big responsibilities while questioning sustainability and purpose, feel this acutely. Supervision for coaches themselves? Rare.

Experienced teachers don’t automatically make great coaches. Skills like deep listening, powerful questioning, goal-clarity, and trust-building demand deliberate practice and feedback. Yet roles get assigned quickly, with scant preparation, often confused with mentoring or line management.

These challenges mirror a pressured system. But they also point somewhere hopeful: coaching can’t just be another programme. It needs cultural embedding: time, clear purpose, investment in people.

The real question isn’t does coaching work. It’s: under what conditions can it genuinely flourish?