Our Story
Our founder and Director, Lisa Lea-Weston, began providing supervision in education in 2013 having been a clinical supervisor since 2005. A throw away comment from a Headteacher whose school Lisa worked in, suggested that she could reach so many more children by providing supervision in schools. This comment sowed the seed of an idea with Lisa that providing supervision to senior leaders in education would safeguard the system in which children grow and flourish. Lisa began working with schools local to her and connecting with others who had a shared passion for developing supervision in education. Talking Heads formed in 2018 as Lisa grew her vision with the support of the School for Social Entrepreneurs.
Talking Heads grew and Lisa was asked to undertake pilots for NASS and in 2020 a pilot for a multi academy trust. Lisa gradually begun to build a team and founded the Supervision in Education Hub at Leeds Beckett University. All the work grew via word of mouth and we are delighted that our clients work with us long term. We may have begun with a 1:1 relationship but this has deepened into us working across senior leadership teams. We have been learning by doing and meeting need; how to best safeguard the cultures and systems with our senior leaders as we well as taking care of their own wellbeing through the pandemic and beyond.
Lisa is the Lead Associate Supervisor for Education Support’s Well-being Support for School Leaders Professional Supervision Service, which is funded by the Department of Education and Welsh Government. In this role, Lisa provides quality assurance oversight of the professional supervision being delivered by a team of 50 Associate Supervisors. So far the service has supported over 4,000 school and college leaders. Lisa has also overseen pilots in Northern Ireland and for Further Education Colleges with Education Support.
We take our work very seriously. We don’t do packages or shortcuts. We provide regular, robust and long-term supervision. We are at the forefront of maintaining best practices, integrity, safety, and relationships within supervision.
Our Team
We are proud to be a social enterprise. Lisa Lea-Weston is the Director and is supported by a Business Manager and Finance Manager. Together with two Lead Associates they form a Core Team who focus on operations and strategic development. Lisa, Penny and Seonaid also supervise a number of Talking Heads’ supervisees.
Core Team
Talking Heads Associates
We are honoured to work with a team of highly experienced Supervisors. All of our Associate Supervisors have experience of working with children and young people so are aware of and may also work in education settings. Many of our Associates have a clinical rather than an educational training so, when working with their supervisees, do not leap into any kind of solution in terms of Ofsted or school improvement. Every senior leader we work with says this is very helpful, but they did not think it would be the case when they began.
When someone comes to supervision, they need to meet by someone who understands them and who can help them work through the emotional impact of their work and reflect on it. They won’t know their Supervisor’s background, they don’t need to, what they need to know is that they feel understood. For all our Associates Supervisors, Supervision is a profession and not an add on training (though we all begin somewhere!) Supervision is a whole skill set and life experience. When you work with us, you can be assured that everyone on our team is experienced in holding the vast array of complexity both emotional, practical, spiritual and ethical that they will bring to them.
As of our Associate Supervisors are qualified supervisors with at least 2 years’ experience. Many have over 10 years’ experience and some have 30 years’ experience of supervision. All of our Associate Supervisors remain in regular supervision themselves, and many are authors and lecturers on established supervision training courses. Together with our Associate Supervisors we have set an industry standard for supervision in education.
