Alison Kriel

As a child she attended a Cape Coloured school in South Africa during the apartheid regime, an international school in Botswana, a girl’s grammar school in Ireland and a middle class sixth form in England all of which informed her passion for social justice, leadership, wellbeing, equity, inclusion and diversity.

She has a reputation for excellence in leadership, leading schools with high social challenges to be in the top 0.1% nationally. She attributes the success of the schools to having a team of talented staff who taught from the soul and were focussed on delivering a global curriculum which celebrated the uniqueness of each pupils which led to raised self-esteem.

‘When staff and pupils feel good about themselves, success follows’.

Alison believes that the key reason for the outstanding results achieved by her pupils at her schools was due to positive self esteem. A well planned global curriculum gives teachers an opportunity to focus on the critical skills children need to go out and to be independent self-sustaining adults, who understand their responsibility to self, their community, the wider world and our planet. These skills include the development of resilience, collaboration, leadership, acceptance of difference, and adaptability.

Alison now works nationally and internationally supporting leaders with the strategic development of their schools, particularly those in challenging circumstances. She also mentors teachers and school leaders. She is a regular speaker and panel member at conferences, speaking on a wide variety of subjects including Conscious Leadership, Turnaround Schools, Unmeasured Curriculum, The Global Curriculum, Appreciative Inquiry, Wellbeing, Staff Retention, Intersectionality, Breaking Through The Concrete Ceiling, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Ubuntu and AntiRacism.

Alison is the founder of the newly launched Above & Beyond Education – a social media platform for all educators and schools to celebrate, connect, support, grow and collaborate to make every school into a great school.