The Power of Coaching

By Sarah Shine, Vice Principal Primary Campus - Learning & Innovation

"Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them." Sir John Whitmore.

At Alice Smith School, we are building a sustainable coaching culture that empowers every member of our community to live our Community Promise: to be Safe, Kind and Purposeful.

We welcomed James Wright, author of Kid Pro Quo and lead trainer from Culture at Work, to deliver the Performance Coach programme and train colleagues to become course facilitators. Beyond preparing the next cohort of educators and empowering a new group of in-house coach-trainers to sustain this momentum, James also led an interactive parent workshop, “Transform Your Relationship with Your Children.”

The Shift to a Parent-Coach Approach

Four Core Pillars of the Parent-Coach Framework

During the workshop, James Wright broke down actionable tools parents can immediately implement at home:

1. Adopt the parent-coach mindset
   Shift your baseline perspective. When daily behavioural friction arises, look past the immediate frustration and focus on nurturing your child’s long-term capability.
2. Master the praise & challenge balance
   Encouraging unconditional self-worth shouldn't mean removing expectations. The goal is to strike a delicate balance between nurturing emotional safety and maintaining firm boundaries that cultivate confident, resilient young adults.
3. Practice de-escalating communication
   Reframing daily language changes the outcome of conflict. Simple adjustments, such as replacing "Why did you do that?" with "What were you hoping to achieve?" shift the conversation from defensiveness to problem-solving.
4. Apply step-by-step Coaching Frameworks
   Move away from reactive discipline. By introducing structured coaching tools at home, parents can help children reflect on their choices, take ownership of outcomes, and build intrinsic responsibility.

By extending coaching skills training from school leaders and teachers to parents, the Alice Smith School continues to strengthen its coaching culture. When the language spoken in the classroom mirrors the communication used at home, children experience a safe, consistent environment where they are truly seen, supported, and challenged to grow.

You can purchase James’ book on Amazon - link here.