Quick and effective tools and frameworks
Gain the support and guidance you need
Practical, live-streamed workshops designed for making progress that day
Money back guarantee
Enhance your Impact. Enjoy the Journey.
The Progress Collective is a vibrant community of committed educational leaders dedicated to advancing meaningful school improvement. Our mission is to help you enhance your impact, empowering you to focus on what truly matters whilst forging meaningful connections with like-minded peers.
Join the Collective, and we’ll help you enhance your focus, consistency, and teamwork so that you can create a sustainable impact and enjoy yourself along the way.
The Collective has acted as a rich anchor for professional dialogue. It provided our team with a well sequenced series of check-ins, as opportunities to pause, reflect and gain momentum.
Being part of the Collective meant there was support, clarity and processes to make ever-increasing gains. It really felt like I was being executive coached.
The tools and processes from the Collective have dramatically enhanced the clarity of our purpose, the group thinking we are doing, the precision of our work, and the overall effectiveness and efficiency in which we now consistently attain continuous school improvement.
The Problem: The Overwhelm Whirlpool
Educational leaders often know what they want to do and how what they want to do. But with every passing day, they find their to-do list grows longer, their energy levels deplete, and they find themselves in a reactive mode of surviving the term.
This can result in a termly ‘execution gap, where you’ve been flat and exhausted but are increasingly behind where you want to be in your school improvement efforts.
School improvement can feel like a never-ending, lonely, and uphill battle.
Our Response: The Progress Collective
I’ve spent over a decade learning how to help overloaded leaders and teams to find clarity, focus, momentum and enjoyment. In short, I’ve worked out how to help leaders get unstuck, make progress and find energy and flow in their work again.
The truth is, effective school improvement isn’t about working harder, powering through endless tasks, glorifying long days, or being more self-disciplined. It is about having a simple, sustainable system.
This is why I developed the Progress Collective—to provide the regular space, time, tools, and community that leaders need to apply effective approaches and close the execution gap.
Working in a community with peers working towards similar goals can help boost a sense of energy, inspiration, and creativity. We are not alone, and many of the challenges we face are similar across diverse school contexts.
Membership Components
How we make progress together.
Termly Immersion Sessions
(Quarterly, Half-day)
Our program is anchored around quarterly half-day live workshop sessions, delivered by Dr Simon Breakspear, progress collective coaches and guest faculty. This is the backbone of how we will work together. Practical, focussed and rejuvenating, these sessions will give you an anchor point to step out of the urgent and reconnect with the most important aspects of your role.
🔎 Review and upgrade your improvement systems.
🔧 Learn and refine the use of key tools and protocols.
🫖 Engage in reflection and team discussion.
🎉 Detailed Case Studies – Hear how other leaders have made meaningful progress in their contect
🗣️ Expert Workshops – Learn a key framework or concept from a leading thinker in the field.
📖 Research Snapshot – Gain a rapid overview of important new ideas or papers emerging in the field.
You will leave re-energised and clear about the most important high-leverage actions to work on next.
Other optional sessions
(join live or watch the recording)
Momentum Check-In (Quarterly, 55 min)
Join our quarterly guided reflection sessions. These are designed to help you evaluate your progress, celebrate wins, and draw out crucial lessons learned. These energising sessions will help you move forward with confidence and close the execution gap.
Termly Focus Session (Quarterly, 55 min)
Cut through the confusion and get focused on your most important work. Participate in short, live, guided focus sessions on Zoom to advance your improvement goals for the cycle ahead. These sessions provide structure and motivation for the focused cycle of work ahead.
Online Resource Portal
Access videos, tools, and protocols on demand when your team needs them. Explore our comprehensive collection of resources and return all content delivered throughout the year. We are constantly adding new tools, ideas and research to provide fresh inspiration and more efficient ways of working.
Online Community Platform
Connect with an inspiring community of leaders, share your recent thinking and seek peer feedback on your draft tools and improvement ideas. The Progress Collective is your space to grow, connect, and make a lasting impact—while enjoying the process and building relationships with peers who share your vision for thriving schools.
Who You’ll Work With
LEAD FACILITATOR
Dr Simon Breakspear
– 2026 Workshop Calendar –
2026 Workshop dates are to be confirmed.
QUARTERLY IMMERSION 1
March 2026
QUARTERLY IMMERSION 2
May 2026
QUARTERLY IMMERSION 3
July 2026
QUARTERLY IMMERSION 4
October 2026
Join the Waitlist for 2026
Our membership program is open to school leaders and system leaders within educational roles.
FORMAT: Digital live steamed workshops + Online resources and tools
DURATION: 12-month membership
WORKSHOP TIME: 3 hrs each quarter
NEXT COHORT: Starting January 2026
This has sharpened my focus on how to continually improve the schools that I serve. This learning has been impactful.
As the principal of a large P-12 school in a low socio-economic community there is an essential need for our leadership team to commit to ongoing learning and growing. I enjoy the practical learning that we get from you and find that it helps us stay anchored to what I would describe as honest and authentic human leadership.
The Collective has provided us with leadership tools that work in the ‘now’. Practicing with these tools and strategies in real time and getting results has made a difference to how we lead.
About Simon Breakspear
Lead Facilitator
Work alongside Simon throughout this membership, and join leading academics, thinkers and practitioners.
Simon is a researcher, advisor and speaker on educational leadership, policy and change. Simon develops frameworks and tools that make evidence-based ideas actionable and easy to understand. Over the last decade his capability building work has given him the opportunity to work with over 100,000 educators across more than 10 countries.
Simon is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at UNSW. He serves as an advisor to the NSW Department of Education and sits on an expert steering committee for the Australia Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). Simon received his BPsych (Hons) from UNSW, his MSc in Comparative and International Education from the University of Oxford and his PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge. Simon began his work in education as a high school teacher.
About Cate Challen
Facilitator
Dr Cate Challen is an educator committed to increasing access and equity in education through systematic approaches to continuous improvement. Cate leverages ten years of experience in the biotechnology sector and seven years as a classroom teacher to coach teachers and leaders on how to analyse and use data regularly to inform instructional practices and school-wide decision-making.
Cate’s expertise stems from extensive work with Networked Improvement Communities focused on improving outcomes and equity for schools through iterative, data-informed cycles of inquiry. Cate has a Doctor of Biotechnology degree from the University of Queensland, and is currently an educational researcher at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane.
F.A.Q
Can I do this program on my own?
Yes of course! Every cohort has at least 20-30% of participants who join on their own. Whilst we strongly advocate for the benefit of team learning, you can still experience a rich learning program engaging on your own.
How much time will this take?
Our membership program is fully flexible. We hold four 3-hour online workshops over the 12 months of membership, held quarterly. We also have quarterly momentum sessions of 45 min. Attendance of these sessions is completely optional, and all will be recorded so you can watch them or re-watch them at a time that suits you. We will never pressure you during the membership. Do what you can, with the time that you have, and we will be there every step of the way to help you gain as much benefit as possible.
What happens if I miss the workshops?
We totally understand how busy and unpredictable school life can be. All of our faculty have worked in schools, and spend time with educators every week. All of the immersion workshops and momentum sessions are recorded and made available within 24 hours of delivery. So never feel pressured or stressed about missing a session or needing to rush out to do with an unexpected incident. We are with you every step of the way with flexible approaches for you to engage with the content when you have the time and cognitive bandwidth. You will continue to have access to the recorded sessions for a full 12 months after your membership ends.
What time zone do the live sessions run in, and are they recorded?
Our workshops are streamed from Sydney, Australia, and are in the AEST or AEDT time zone (depending on Daylight Savings). You may not be able to make all workshops over the year, so we record every session so that you can engage in your own time with the content that is most relevant to you.
How long will I have access to the course materials?
You will have access to all of the recordings and online materials for a full 12-months after your membership ends.
What happens once I complete the 12-month membership?
You will have the option to continue in the Progess Collective and join for a further 12 months (depending on the membership continuing).
Still wondering if this course is right for you?
Please reach out to our team, and we can help explore whether our work is likely to be a good fit for you and your team. Email us at team@simonbreakspear.com