Place-based leadership development for aspiring headteachers.

The x100 supports school leaders to lead with clarity, confidence and care in complex, under-resourced contexts—rooted in place and sustained by strong networks.

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What is it?

Our “x100s” are not generic CPD, short courses, or qualifications.

Our “x100s” are year-long, place-based, leadership development programmes designed to prepare leaders for the real work of headship—especially in communities facing sustained pressure and inequality.

They prepare aspiring headteachers to develop the judgement, confidence and relational strength needed for first headship.

Why the x100s exist

Leading a school today is not just harder; it is different.

The pressures shaping children’s lives—economic insecurity, unmet need, fragmented services, and fraying relationships between institutions and communities—now show up in classrooms every day.

These are not problems a tighter timetable or a sharper policy can solve on their own.

This is an adaptive moment for school leadership. It calls for leaders who can hold stability and openness at the same time: creating safe, predictable environments for learning while working beyond the school gate to rebuild connection, trust, and opportunity.

The x100s exist to develop that kind of leadership deliberately.

Our x100 programmes are designed around a shared set of beliefs, outlined below.

In each region, we work with a collective of sector-leading trusts and local authorities to co-create and steward a programme focused on identifying and nurturing 100 aspiring school leaders, primed to lead schools where all children thrive.

What we do

We believe that you cannot lead a school well without understanding the community it serves—its assets, histories, pressures and possibilities.
This means that our programmes are rooted in specific regions and invite leaders to study their local context closely, listen deeply to families and communities, and design leadership practice that fits the place they are in, not an abstract ideal.
We believe that leadership is learned through judgment and action, not through theory alone.
This means that participants practise the real work of headship—making difficult decisions, holding tension, and weighing trade-offs—in supported environments, before those decisions carry the full weight of accountability.
We believe that isolation undermines leadership, especially in complex and under-resourced contexts.
This means that we invest heavily in building strong, trusting cohorts and networks, so leaders are sustained by peers who understand the realities of the role and can think and act together over time.
We believe that there is no single blueprint for a great school or a great leader.
This means that our programmes expose leaders to a wide range of schools, approaches and role models—within and beyond their region—helping them develop mental models of excellence that can be adapted thoughtfully to their own context.
We believe that leadership growth is not just about skills and systems, but about who you are as a leader and what you stand for.
This means that our programmes create structured time for reflection on values, identity and moral purpose, supporting leaders to lead with clarity and conviction in moments of pressure and uncertainty.
We believe that leadership growth accelerates when reflection is supported by skilled challenge.
This means that participants are offered access to one-to-one coaching across the year. While coaching is optional, take-up is consistently high, with many participants describing it as one of the most valuable elements of the programme.
Coaching provides protected space to work through real leadership dilemmas, test thinking, and build confidence ahead of headship.Item description

What participation looks like

Each x100 programme runs over one academic year and typically includes those outlined in this section.

Together, these touchpoints are designed to shift how leaders see their role, how they work with others, and how they lead over time.

School trusts and local authorities commonly engage with the x100 as a way of building leadership capacity across a region, developing future headteachers in ways that serve both their own organisations and the wider region, too.

To build trust, shared purpose and a common language for the year ahead, grounding participants in place, relationships and the realities of headship before focusing on technique or performance.
To deepen leaders’ thinking, introduce new perspectives, and create structured opportunities to reflect on practice alongside peers facing similar challenges.
To broaden leaders’ mental models of what is possible by seeing excellent practice in context, and to support thoughtful adaptation rather than replication.
To provide a shared, ongoing learning space where participants engage with curated content, reflect on practice, and stay connected between live touchpoints, reinforcing insight, relationships and momentum over time.
To connect learning directly to lived leadership by supporting participants to practise real decision-making, judgement and prioritisation in their own settings.
To consolidate learning, reflect on growth, and support participants to translate insight into sustained leadership action beyond the programme year.

Who the x100s are for

The x100 is a leadership development programme for aspiring headteachers—senior leaders who are preparing for their first headship.

That means we are looking for people who:

Are aspiring to headship within the next 5 years,
Want to develop their leadership judgement now, while preparing for the responsibilities of headship,
Work in, or are committed to, a specific region,
Are committed to leading in complex or under-resourced contexts, and
Want to develop alongside peers, not in isolation.

Our programmes are for leaders who are willing to take responsibility for long-term change, rather than quick fixes.

Outcomes that matter

When x100 programmes work well, we see change at three interconnected levels. Together, these changes improve the conditions in which all children learn and thrive.

Transformative change

Leaders gain clarity about their purpose, confidence in their judgement, and the courage to lead with values in difficult conditions.

Relational change

Trust deepens—with staff, families, peers, and partners—strengthening the social fabric that schools depend on.

Structural change

Leadership pipelines strengthen, practices shift, and schools and trusts become better equipped to sustain improvement over time.

Where we work

The x100 is delivered through a family of regional programmes. Each programme reflects its local context while sharing the same design principles and ambition.

Each link below takes you to a dedicated regional site with programme-specific detail.

East100

A place-based leadership programme for aspiring headteachers leading in a region of extraordinary opportunity, sharp contrast and deep local identity.

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GM100

A place-based leadership programme for aspiring headteachers committed to leading schools, communities and systems across Greater Manchester.

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SW100

A regional leadership development programme for aspiring headteachers in Devon and Cornwall, designed to build a powerful network and equip leaders with the knowledge and collective action needed to eradicate endemic educational inequality.

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West100

A place-based leadership programme for aspiring headteachers committed to leading in rural, coastal and dispersed communities across the West Country.

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Yorks100

The Yorks100 supports aspiring and early headteachers to lead with clarity, confidence and care in complex contexts—rooted in place, sustained by strong relationships, and connected to a national network of peers.

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