E40. Conversations in Education: With the Messy Bits Left in with Simon Botton

What does it really take to lead a school and what keeps people going?Simon Botton is an executive headteacher in South Gloucestershire, leading two primary schools and serving as Head of Inclusion for a seventeen-school multi-academy trust. He has been a headteacher for nearly twenty years and is the author of Head Teachering: A Practical Guide with the Messy Bits Left In.Simon wrote the book because he was concerned about a profession telling its story badly, editing out the doubt and difficulty, and in doing so, making headship feel unattainable for those considering it. This conversation is the antidote to that: grounded, honest and quietly hopeful.Together we explore:Why Simon wrote Head Teachering and the question the book is trying to answer.The edited certainty of leadership culture online and why leaving the messy bits in matters.Moral purpose as the thing that sustains and what Simon means by measuring success in decades.Isolation in headship: what it looks like when leaders retreat and why connection is not optional.The wellbeing realities of twenty years in the role - compartmentalising, exercise and the difference between long hours and productive ones.Coaching new heads through overwhelm - arriving with no trust in the bank and learning to live with the chaos long enough to address it.Whakapapa: the Māori concept Simon draws on in his final chapter about legacy, responsibility and what we pass on.What would it mean to lead in a way that still matters fifty years from now?