I help international schools fix teacher training, recruitment, and leadership.

With 25+ years in education across Asia, I know what schools, teachers, and unis really need. I connect the dots between policy, strategy, and people — and get things moving.

Let's talk if you want to grow your teacher pipeline, build smarter CPD, or expand in Asia
.
My passion is to drive educational innovation, harnessing technology to enhance online and offline learning experiences. I hold an NPQH, a PGCE, and an M.Ed in Educational Leadership and Administration.

We also provide academic support to students planning to attend boarding schools in the UK, US, and Australia and help UK schools enter and succeed in the Chinese market.

John Woodberry

The best international schools don’t obsess over results. They obsess over teachers.

Because when teachers thrive,
students do too.

But too many schools get this backwards.
They focus on:
• Inspection reports
• IB scores
• Marketing brochures
• Campus upgrades
Important?
Yes.

But none of those create a great school.

Great schools are built when leaders:
Pay great teachers properly. Talent retention beats constant recruitment.
Protect culture fiercely. One toxic adult can damage an entire staff.
Create psychological safety. Teachers innovate when they feel safe.
Cut unnecessary meetings. Time is a teacher’s most valuable resource.
Promote leaders, not managers. Schools grow when leadership spreads.
Listen to the quiet voices. Some of the best ideas come from introverts.
Be kind to people. Tough on problems. Relationships sustain schools.

Because in the end:
Students don’t experience strategy.

They experience teachers.

And teachers experience leadership.

Founder @ Red Dragon Education | International Teacher Training

It’s not about being in more meetings.
It’s about deciding which rooms genuinely need you.
The moment that clicks, the workload drops — and your impact rises.

In international schools, it’s easy to default to being the Doer.

Stepping into behaviour issues.
Solving timetable conflicts.
Responding to parent emails.
Jumping into operational detail.

Then you move into Manager mode.

Driving accountability.
Running meetings.
Monitoring performance.
Translating strategy into action.

But the real shift is becoming the Leader.

Setting direction for the whole school.
Building systems that outlast you.
Developing middle leaders.
Protecting time for strategic thinking.

If your calendar is full of updates and operational check-ins...

You’re probably operating below your level.

The hardest transition in school leadership isn’t capability.

It’s restraint.

Choosing not to be in every room —
Only the ones where your presence changes the outcome.

Look at next week’s calendar.

Are you leading the school...

Or managing the day?

Curious — where are you operating right now?

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Need to make a move?
Get in touch: https://linktr.ee/pgce

Not sure about your next move in 2026? 
Get in touch: https://linktr.ee/pgce

Want to lead others and get a great job? 
Get in touch: https://linktr.ee/pgce

Unsure where 2026 is heading for your teaching career? Internationally recognised teacher training might be the leverage you’re missing. https://linktr.ee/pgce

If 2026 feels vague, that's a signal, not a problem. 
Upskilling through international teacher training creates that. https://linktr.ee/pgce

Still seeking clarity on your next teaching move in 2026? 
QTS gives you control, not hope. https://linktr.ee/pgce

2026 won’t magically sort itself out. 
International teacher training is how smart teachers open doors globally. https://linktr.ee/pgce

Many teachers drift into 2026. The smart ones prepare. The International PGCE and QTS pathways matter. https://linktr.ee/pgce

Uncertain about your next step? 
Teacher training isn’t a detour; it’s a multiplier. https://linktr.ee/pgce

2026 rewards qualified, mobile teachers, not wishful thinking. 

International training changes the game. https://linktr.ee/pgce

If career momentum matters to you in 2026, invest in training that schools actually respect. https://linktr.ee/pgce

The question isn’t where you’ll be teaching in 2026. It’s whether you’ll be qualified to choose. https://linktr.ee/pgce

2026 rewards qualified, mobile teachers, not wishful thinking. International training changes the game. https://linktr.ee/pgce

PHASE Conference Presenter

TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment

We offer a range of online courses designed to enhance the qualifications of aspiring teachers and leaders. In partnership with leading universities, we provide pathways for careers in international education.
IPGCE / IQTS / QTS / PGCE / MA Leadership / MA Education / NPQs

Helping teachers get qualified through the partner universities: IPGCE, IQTS, MA, QTS Assessment Only and IQTS. We've worked with over 1000 teachers to realise their dreams of finding a great job.

Co-Founder

Set up the company and worked with a range of local and international schools in providing education solutions including:

- Tutoring
- Academic support 
- Revision courses
- A-level lessons and examinations 
- Professional teacher placement 
- School tours
- Boarding school advice
- Entrance exam preparation

Founder

Director

My main focus was to help with the students' academic achievements across the secondary school. I was helping grow the school from 200 to 1200 students in 5 years of service. After joining the school I quickly assumed more responsibility and helped lead a tutor group team of 15 staff. 

Worked in both the secondary and primary section of the school in the following disciplines as a classroom teacher:
- Geography
- PE
- Science 
- Economics

Deputy Head of School

Working across the high school in Geography and PE

Head of Geography

Most leaders don’t need another framework.
They need emotional control.
Every time there’s pressure, we rush to:
• OODA Loop
• DMAIC
• 5 Whys
• First Principles
• Decision Trees
• Six Thinking Hats

We collect frameworks like trophies.

Meanwhile...

Under pressure, you don’t rise to your frameworks.

You fall to your emotional maturity.

I’ve seen principals with every model memorized...

…who still snapped in meetings.

I’ve seen leaders trained in Six Sigma…

…who still made fear-based decisions.

Pressure doesn’t test your knowledge.

It tests your nervous system.

Frameworks are useful.

They only work after you regulate yourself.

Before you pull out a decision tree, ask:

→ Are you calm?
→ Are you reacting… or responding?
→ Are you protecting your ego or solving the problem?

No model fixes a triggered leader.

Emotional discipline does.

What has pressure revealed about your leadership?
👇

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International teachers don’t grow from theory.
They grow from their mistakes.
Yet we design PD like this:

📚 Theory
📚 More theory
📚 Even more theory

Workshops.
Frameworks.
Models.

All safe.

All tidy.

But the real progress?

It happens when:

• A lesson bombs.
• A classroom strategy flops.
• A parent's email goes wrong.
• A cultural misunderstanding forces reflection.

International schools say we value growth.

But do we actually create space for failure?

Or do we just celebrate polished success?

If we want stronger teachers, we need fewer perfect slides...

And more honest conversations about mistakes.

What's one teaching mistake that made you better?

Your 1:1 isn’t supportive.
It’s surveillance.

If it starts with:
“What’s the update?”

If you’re checking your phone.

If you cancel it the moment things get busy.

That’s not mentoring.

That’s monitoring.

And your staff can feel the difference.

In international schools we talk about:
Wellbeing.
Coaching.
Professional growth.

But then we turn the one protected space for trust
into a performance audit.

Try this instead:

Start with wins.
Protect the slot.
Name one blocker.
End with one clear next step.

If your 1:1 feels tense,
it’s not the workload.

It’s the way you’re leading it.

Over the past 3 days, I had the pleasure of meeting many incredible leaders. What sets #LYIS apart is its inclusivity and openness — not just words, but lived values.

Happy International Women’s Day.

Terri Pham, M.Ed. Tammy Lewis Bui, Andrea Stanberg, Maria Knox, Haena Seongsin Kim, Rowena Minney 🚀,  Donnah Ciempka, Lisa Thorpe, Amulya Malaki, Shaina Neal M.Ed, Martina Meneghetti, Grainne O'Reilly O'Reilly, Sophie Brandsar M.EdLead  M.Ed Lead, Christine Carey

I once sat in the public gallery at Parliament.
And listened to Tony Benn speak.
He commanded the floor.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this speech would stay with me for years.

Not because it was loud.
Not because it was political theatre.

But because it was principled.

Tony Benn spoke about power — and who it truly belongs to.

He asked questions that still echo today:

• What power have you got?
• Where did you get it from?
• In whose interests do you use it?
• To whom are you accountable?
• And how can we get rid of you?

Sitting there, I realised something:

Leadership isn’t about authority.

It’s about accountability.

Years later, those questions still guide how I think about business, public service, and responsibility.

Some speeches fade.

Some shape you.

This one did both.

What’s a speech or moment that has stayed with you?

“Just be kind.”
That’s the advice given to school leaders.
But kindness, on its own, is not leadership.

In international schools, kindness without standards creates:

• Confusion
• Inconsistency
• Culture drift
• Quiet resentment

Real leadership isn’t soft.

It’s clear.

It’s holding people accountable — fairly.
It’s making tough calls — transparently.
It’s protecting students — unapologetically.

The best school leaders I’ve seen aren’t “nice.”

They’re kind and courageous.

And courage is what makes kindness credible.

If you lead a school:

Are you protecting harmony...

Or protecting standards?

Everyone talks about the cost of hiring teachers.
Hardly anyone talks about the cost of losing them.
Yes, recruitment is expensive.

Ads.
Interviews.
Onboarding.

But the real cost is invisible.

When teacher turnover is high:

Students lose continuity.
Teams never fully come together.
Leaders spend months recruiting instead of improving learning.

And something deeper slowly disappears.

The culture.

Because great schools aren’t just systems.

They’re communities.

And communities are built on relationships.

Relationships take time.

Some staff turnover is healthy.

But when it becomes constant, schools stop growing — they start resetting.

Again and again.

Retention isn’t just an HR issue.
It’s a lesson not learnt issue.

Leading Reason a teacher/leader leaves an international school?

Add others below in comments

Excellent session with Donnah Ciempka on the role of trust in school communities. Trust remains one of the most underestimated drivers of school culture. 

When it is strong, everything moves faster. 

When it is weak, every decision becomes harder.

Always valuable to learn from the experience of others.

#LYIS #ISPHanoi

Yesterday, a mechanic fixed my car... and didn’t charge me.
No invoice...No payment request...Just a note.

It said:
"I knew you had to take your kids to school early tomorrow.
I didn’t want you to be without a car.
Message me when you see this."

That’s it.

No pressure.
No demand for payment.

Just trust.

It made me think about something bigger.

Economists talk about “high-trust societies.”

Places where people assume others will do the right thing —
even when no one is watching.

Where deals move faster,
communities feel safer,
and businesses grow stronger.

But those societies don’t appear magically.

They’re built through small acts of trust, repeated thousands of times.

Like a mechanic fixing a car before asking for payment.

He didn’t just repair a vehicle.

He invested in trust.

And trust compounds faster than any marketing strategy.

To that mechanic in KL — thank you.

You reminded me that the strongest businesses
are built on something simple:

Trust first. Money second.

Ambition is a problem in international schools.
Not because it’s bad.
Because it makes many people uncomfortable.

I’ve noticed a pattern.

The more ambitious you are in an international school...
the more you get “managed.”

You’re told to:
“slow down”
“be realistic”
“fit the culture”

But let’s call it what it is:

👉 A system that rewards stability over excellence.

7 frameworks every international school leader should know in 2026.
Not from education.
From leadership and organizational psychology.

Yet they can transform how schools lead, collaborate, and grow.

Here are a few that I keep coming back to:

1️⃣ Start With Why (Simon Sinek)
If your team can't explain why your school exists, alignment becomes impossible.

2️⃣ The 70–20–10 Learning Rule
70% learning from experience
20% from coaching
10% from training

Most schools still invest almost entirely in the 10%.

3️⃣ The Trust Triangle
Trust is built through:
• Authenticity
• Logic
• Empathy

Remove one, and leadership credibility disappears.

4️⃣ Tuckman’s Team Development Model
Forming → Storming → Norming → Performing → Adjourning

Many leaders panic during storming.
But conflict is often the gateway to high performance.

5️⃣ The Johari Window
Great teams surface blind spots through feedback and openness.

6️⃣ Energy vs Impact Matrix
Not every struggling staff member needs support.
Sometimes the issue is fit, not effort.

7️⃣ The RAPID Decision Model
Clear decisions require clear roles:
Recommend • Agree • Perform • Input • Decide

Without this, schools drift into endless meetings and unclear ownership.

International schools are complex organizations.

Sometimes the best leadership tools come from outside education.

𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁?

Stop leading your school like a farmer.
International schools aren’t corn.
They’re complex ecosystems.

The farmer's mindset sounds wise:

Be patient.
Nurture quietly.
Accept the seasons.

But here’s the problem.

Schools don’t have the luxury of waiting for “next season.”

Parents won’t wait.
Boards won’t wait.
Enrollment won’t wait.

In international education, you don’t just water and hope.

You design the climate.

You remove toxic soil fast.
You change what isn’t growing.
You act before the storm hits.

Patience is important.

But passive leadership is expensive.

The best international school leaders don’t just nurture.

They build.

They intervene.

They decide.

And sometimes?

They replant the entire field.

What kind of leader do you aspire to be?

1100 educators in one place.
All focused on one thing in Bangkok:
better outcomes for students.

Delighted to be at EARCOS in Bangkok — easily one of the best teaching and learning conferences in the world.

Educators from across Asia are here sharing ideas, challenges, and best practices.

This is what great professional learning looks like:

• open conversations
• practical strategies
• global perspectives

If you're here too, come say hello.

And if you want a free mug,
you’ll find us at Booth 10 ☕

Always great to connect with fellow educators.

Most schools think teachers leave for better pay. They don’t.
Salary gets them in the door.
Leadership and culture decide if they stay.

You can offer:

• Professional growth
• Work-life balance
• Competitive packages

But if leadership is inconsistent, unclear, or political...

None of it matters.

Teachers don’t quit countries.

They don’t quit students.

They quit leadership.

And here’s the uncomfortable part:

Schools that blame “market conditions” often have an internal culture problem.

Strong leaders create stability in unstable regions.

Weak leaders create turnover in perfect markets.

Vote in the poll.

But I’m more interested in this:

What’s the real reason teachers leave your school?

Let’s talk honestly.

Most aren’t burned out because of teaching.
They’re burned out because of all the distractions.
I am the world's worst at faffing about doing everything except work. 

Data.
Emails.
Admin.
Reports.
Meetings.
Meetings about meetings.

Some days it feels like there’s no time left for actual teaching.

So here are 8 ways international school teachers can stop “faffing about” and focus on what really matters:

1️⃣ Deep Focus
Block 30–90 minutes daily for uninterrupted planning or grading.

2️⃣ Self-Motivation
Reconnect with why you became a teacher in the first place.

3️⃣ Prioritization
Do the highest-impact task first, not the easiest one.

4️⃣ Proactive Communication
Clarify expectations early with colleagues and leadership.

5️⃣ Adaptability
International schools change fast — flexibility wins.

6️⃣ Collaboration
Share resources instead of reinventing the wheel.

7️⃣ Continuous Growth
Read, observe colleagues, try new strategies.

8️⃣ Emotional Intelligence
Your relationships with students matter more than perfect lessons.

Teaching internationally is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world.

But only if you protect your time and focus.

📌 Which one do you think teachers struggle with the most?

Are you the leader nobody respects?
Some of the behaviours we criticise...
Are sometimes exactly what schools need.

The “Gatekeeper”?
Standards require friction.

The “Process Police”?
Clear systems prevent chaos.

The “Status Stalker”?
In high-stakes environments, silence isn’t reassurance.

We say: “Choose trust.”

Yes.

But trust without clarity is Lord of the Flies.

In international schools:

Safeguarding matters.
Compliance matters.
Standards matter.

Respect doesn’t come from being hands-off.

It comes from being intentional.

The question isn’t control vs trust.

It’s fear vs clarity.

Where do you draw the line?

A primary school parent once asked me a question I’ll never forget.
“Will my child get into Cambridge?”
Fair question.

But it wasn’t the one that mattered most.

The better question is this:

Will your child become more curious?
More compassionate?
More courageous?

In international schools, it’s easy to chase:

📊 Results
🏆 League tables
📈 Growth metrics

But the real mission isn’t performance.

It’s a transformation.

Leadership in international education isn’t about producing perfect transcripts.

It’s about shaping globally-minded humans.

And the things that matter most?

They’re often invisible.

Years later.

If you lead a school, ask yourself:

Are we optimising for impact...

Or for legacy?

A strong school leader has a low ego and is therefore not afraid to seek team members' opinions. Diversity of thought makes for strong team performance. Nobody knows it all. 

What can we learn from high-performance sport?

Leadership rarely fails loudly.
It fails quietly, through small behavioural patterns, unexamined assumptions, and decision making under pressure.

My work focuses on the human behaviour behind culture, retention, and performance inside complex systems. I help leaders and organisations understand why well-intentioned strategies break down and what actually sustains trust, coherence, and momentum over time.

Education has been one of my primary domains of work, not because it is unique, but because it is one of the most constrained systems leaders operate in. The dynamics schools face today mirror what many organisations experience under pressure: burnout, disengagement, fragmented leadership, and declining trust.

Over the past 25 years, I’ve worked with school leaders, leadership teams, and organisations across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, supporting them to examine behavioural patterns, align systems with human realities, and move from survival mode to sustainable performance.

My approach is grounded in behavioural science, neuroscience, and lived leadership experience, with a strong emphasis on observation, systems thinking, and practical decision making rather than motivation or generic advice.

Background & Experience

25 plus years working in education and leadership development
Founder of exSELlens™, focused on leadership behaviour and culture
Experience across Greece, the UK, Malta, Africa, and the Middle East
Director of Studies and Academic Manager
Trained and worked with thousands of educators and leadership teams
International conference speaker (UK, Finland, Greece, Azerbaijan, UAE)

Theodora Bogiou

🔴“Brain rot” isn’t just a trending phrase…it is becoming a cognitive concern.

Children use the word casually, in games, memes, and short videos. Adults often dismiss it as generational slang.

But as Jonathan Haidt has argued, we may be underestimating the developmental impact of growing up inside a phone-based, algorithm-driven environment.

Algorithms are designed to maximise time on platform.
They learn:

• what excites
• what triggers
• what holds attention
• what drives return behaviour

And they deliver increasingly rapid, increasingly stimulating content.

Research examining high-frequency social media use suggests measurable shifts in attention patterns and cognitive stamina after prolonged exposure.

After extended scrolling:

🧠 Attention fragments
⚡ Dopamine spikes rapidly
📉 Cognitive endurance decreases
🌀 Deep, reflective thinking becomes harder

The brain struggles to shift from rapid consumption to focused learning without intentional regulation.

This is why we are seeing more frequently:

• reduced concentration
• low tolerance for reading
• intense boredom without screens
• difficulty waiting
• diminished persistence

We often frame this as a discipline issue. But it may be a regulation issue.

For education leaders, the real question is not whether technology belongs in schools.

The real question is ‘How do we protect attention in a hyper-stimulated digital ecosystem?’

Because innovation without cognitive awareness creates exhaustion, not excellence.

If we do not design for regulation capacity, we risk asking students and teachers to compete with systems engineered to outmatch them.

Improving leadership decision quality, execution, and retention under pressure | Extended DISC diagnostics and behaviour change | Author | Podcast host EDU Leaders Speak

🔴 The Social media platforms understand the BRAIN better than the education system does.

The education system still treaats attention as a personality trait. 
Social media platforms know exactly how attention and return behaviour works. 

How?
They hire neuroscientists and behavioural scientists to study our behaviour

They study:
dopamine loops,
variable rewards,
habit formation.

Internal documents show a senior Meta data neuroscientist acknowledging that some users may be “addicted” to their products.
We sugarcoat it and call it 'socialisation".

He compared the mechanics to slot machines.
We sugarcoat it and call it "keep the kid busy" time.

They study how to drive return behaviour.
Schools assume students should just FOCUS.

But attention is not a moral quality.

It is the foundation of executive function:
working memory,
impulse control,
cognitive flexibility.

And executive function strongly predicts academic success more strongly than IQ.

One industry is engineering attention capture.
The other is responsible for developing attention capacity.

We cannot overlook that anymore.

If we don’t become equally serious about how the brain learns and regulates focus, we will keep asking students to compete with systems designed to outmatch them.

Screenshot of internal Meta document in which a senior data scientist discusses addictive mechanics and compares intermittent rewards to slot machines.

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