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Supporting Education Leaders
with Practical Mind Management Skills
How SHARE Multi-Academy Trust colleagues are using The Chimp Model to manage pressure, approach challenging conversations and build more effective relationships.
Reflections from SHARE-Multi Academy Trust:
The Chimp Management programme has transformed how I approach leadership. It has helped me manage my own emotions, navigate difficult conversations with confidence, and understand others with greater empathy. I now feel better equipped to respond thoughtfully rather than react instinctively.
Bryonny Wrighton
Senior Improvement Leader for Disadvantaged Students, Thornhill Community Academy, Share Multi-Academy Trust
About the Organisation
SHARE Multi-Academy Trust brings together schools and education professionals working to support pupils across their communities.
Leaders across the Trust have a wide range of responsibilities, from supporting staff and driving school improvement to working closely with students, parents and carers.
Colleagues from across SHARE took part in Chimp Management’s Mind Management Skills for Life programme, exploring a practical framework to better understand how the mind works and how this can influence emotions, behaviours and communication.
The Challenge
Working in education can involve challenging conversations, competing demands and emotionally charged situations.
The colleagues taking part in the programme had different roles and reasons for joining, but shared a common aim: to better understand and manage their own responses while working more effectively with others.
For Bryonny Wrighton, Senior Improvement Leader of Disadvantaged Students at Thornhill Community Academy, this meant developing greater confidence and clarity when managing staff, particularly during challenging conversations. She wanted practical strategies to stay composed, step back from situations and respond professionally rather than react emotionally.
Emily Devane, Headteacher at Royds Hall, wanted to develop her understanding of different people and their emotions to help her build effective relationships with staff, students, parents and carers.
For a SENDCo within SHARE Multi-Academy Trust, the focus was also on personal reflection and efficiency, with the longer-term aim of sustaining a positive and enjoyable career in education.
The Approach
Through the Mind Management Skills for Life programme, participants were introduced to The Chimp Model and a framework for understanding some of the processes taking place within the mind.
For Bryonny, this included learning to recognise when her Chimp was active and how it could influence her responses, alongside techniques for pausing and reframing before responding.
She also found value in understanding how other people’s Chimps can affect communication, preparing for difficult conversations and developing strategies to manage stress, pressure and emotional triggers.
Other participants highlighted concepts including the Computer, Gremlins and Ghosts, which helped them better understand established patterns of thinking and negative self-talk.
The programme gave participants practical ideas they could take away and apply to situations both inside and outside of work.
The Impact
Participants described changes in how they managed themselves, approached challenging situations and worked with others.
Bryonny noticed calmer and more effective staff conversations, alongside an increased ability to step back from situations and consider her response rather than reacting emotionally. She also reported greater confidence in her leadership approach, stronger working relationships and increased self-awareness during busy or high-pressure periods.
For Emily, understanding The Chimp Model helped her identify strategies for managing her own stress while becoming more aware of how to get the best from different members of her team. She has also applied this understanding when working with students, parents and carers and when developing practices across the school.
The SENDCO found the idea of “moving forward with a plan” particularly useful, helping them accept situations that had happened, maintain perspective and move forward in a positive and proactive way, both professionally and personally.
Across the different roles, participants highlighted benefits including:
- greater awareness of emotional responses
- increased confidence in challenging conversations
- practical strategies for managing stress and pressure
- a better understanding of other people and their responses
- stronger working relationships and communication
- an increased ability to step back, gain perspective and choose how to respond
