Articles & blogs on leadership, coaching and education

'Jon is an excellent coach. His calm and reassuring manner puts you at ease and his extensive educational experience means he is well-equipped to support school leaders.'

"As with any "audit" type process there is anxiety and trepidation. Can I go on line as saying any concerns I had were diminished immediately by the warm, disarming nature of [Backdrop]. I found the whole experience enlightening and informative and certainly backed my mantra of "everyday is a school day". Many thanks"

'Jon...has enabled me to be more strategic...and become confident in my abilities to bring about lasting change ... The sessions were welcoming, relaxed and flexible in 'fitting' with my emotions on the day,'

'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.'

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.