Backdrop Leadership Coaching

Services We Offer

Welcome to Backdrop Leadership Group

When I left my role leading schools, I wanted to use my leadership experience to support leaders in all all sectors, including education, charity and business, to achieve their aims, goals and potential through high quality consultancy, coaching and mentoring.

Our approach is grounded in ethics, respect and a genuinely non‑judgemental way of working. We put you and your workplace firmly ‘centre stage’, ensuring that your needs shape every step we take together. Our role is not only to support you now, but to strengthen your confidence and capability so that you and your organisation continue to thrive long after our work is complete.

This commitment matters because I’ve too often experienced the opposite in the education sector: approaches that felt disempowering, directive or disconnected from real needs. I knew things had to change, and our work reflects that belief.

So, I have created a team of coaches, mentors and education consultants who put you ‘centre stage.’ Who help you to deliver your professional/personal aims or goals and to achieve your potential. In doing so, supporting an organisation on its journey.

At Backdrop Leadership, we specialise in comprehensive coaching, mentoring and training services designed to empower schools, businesses and charities. Our expertise in executive, leadership and team coaching, as well as school consultancy, SEN reviewing and SENDCo mentoring, enables organisations to achieve sustainable growth and excellence.

What I am most proud of, however, is that we maintain our humanity and give our advice as if we had to do the work, applying our understanding of the pressures of life and leadership in the work we do.

We’d love to discuss your needs; so that we can be one step closer to helping you to discover the solutions to your challenges.

We just want to help you to achieve your potential.

Jon Gibson, Director, Executive Coach and Lead Consultant

Executive Coaching & Mentoring Services

We provide coaching, mentoring and training that will enable you to build solutions and grow your business, school or charity.

Leadership Coaching

Education Consultancy

Our education consultancy team offer services that have impact and longevity. We work with all sectors of education and have experience working with state level projects, national education focused charities, many MATs and hundreds of schools.

Education Consultancy

Health & Wellbeing Coaching

Alongside our work with institutions, we also offer a broad programme of wellbeing and coaching support for individuals within a business or educational setting.

Wellbeing and Personal Coaching

Meet the Team

Take a moment to meet our highly qualified and experienced team of consultants, coaches and mentors. Everyone within our team displays empathy with drive and understanding with humour when working with you, basically, they’re human, just like you.

Backdrop’s team

UpAGear Executive Coaching

We are proud to be accredited UpAGear Executive Team coaches. We use this proven method and it’s app to support and challenge your team to exceed and thrive.

Wellbeing and Personal Coaching

Resilience Training for Professionals. for Parents and Young People

Build confidence, reduce stress, and help adults, parents and students thrive with practical, evidence‑based resilience training. Discover how these empowering workshops can strengthen wellbeing and support success for every stage of life.

Resilience Training

Get In Touch

Have Some Questions?

Almost everyone can benefit from coaching or mentoring.

If you are ready to set yourself professional or personal goals, want to make a positive difference in your life (at work or at home) then the coaching and mentoring team can help you.

The short answer is yes.

The Backdrop team have a wide range of experience in mainstream, independent and special schools and have supported hundreds of settings.

Whatever your issue, we will introduce you to the right person for your needs. Contact us for an initial chat

See ‘Get in Touch’ at the top of the page.

As you’d expect, the exact cost depends upon the service you need, but we will endeavour to work to your budget.

Please contact us and we will discuss your needs and give you a great cost effective quote.

'Easy to talk to but equally we feel challenged which is a good thing! The strategic plan has given us a clear structure'

- Principal - SEN Setting

'Excellent analytical support from an engaging and incisive consultant. We have already improved the accountability of HR in the workplace as a result, so that we can be sure targeted funding is used to raise student outcomes.'

- Secondary SENCO

'[Backdrop} has provided me with valuable guidance in how to raise the attainment of PP children in our school. [The] advice has been incredibly important in shaping our PP policies and plans, giving us a solid base on which to build on."

- Primary Assistant Headteacher and PP lead

Following our positive Ofsted inspection in 2017 we were keen to continue to drive improvements, especially to have a cohesive system in place to develop our strategic aims and development plans across education, therapy and care provided at St Rose’s for students with physical disabilities and complex health needs. Jon was recommended as someone who might be able to support us, and we were lucky enough to engage his services in 2018. At the beginning he listened to what we wanted and was able to translate our thoughts into a Strategic Plan and corresponding development plans. This has grown over the last 5 years and we now have a clear process that our self-evaluation feeds into as well as performance reviews for all staff. He has helped us to work with education, therapy and care staff to quality assure our offer. As well as this he has helped us to focus our governance and has provided support and training to our governing body. Jon has supported us to keep up to date with changes in legislation and continues to suggest ways that we can make improvements. He continues to challenge us during each visit and there is no doubt that the quality of what we do has improved as a result. This was borne out in a recent care inspection when we received outstanding for leadership and management. We appreciate the approach he takes which is collaborative and non-threatening and supportive, allowing us to develop processes and strategy.

- Principal

'Our day with [Backdrop] was very useful and has left us with a clear plan regarding our next steps. [Their]work has underpinned much of our recent self-evaluation but added an expert view on how to move things forward. Advice and strategies shared to date have been very useful and [Backdrop] was supportive and thought provoking throughout his visit. We very much look forward to the opportunity to work with [Backdrop] in the future.'

- Headteacher, Middle School