The Red Kite – Staying Calm Above the Noise in School Leadership
Updated: Jul 21
What if the calm you’re looking for is already above the noise?
Not everything that’s loud in school needs your attention - but how do you decide what does?
You don’t need to do more to lead well - but you may need to hold less.
What if the pressure you feel isn’t the job - but what you’ve taken on within it?
In a day full of noise, where do you still have a choice about what you carry?
It doesn't always feel that way.
The noise builds quickly - demands, voices, movement - and it can begin to feel like all of it belongs to you.
Calm in school leadership doesn’t always mean reducing the noise around you.
Not everything that fills the space around you needs your attention.
The field is full of noise. Children moving, calling, laughing. And above it, something quieter is waiting.
There are thirteen red kites above the playing field. Hanging, circling, barely moving. Their wings stretch wide against the sky.
Below them, the energy builds. Packed lunches opened. Hands lifted. Voices rising. Some offer food. Some offer each other: they laugh.
The birds do not join the noise. They do not rush or compete in the way it feels from below. They hold their space. Each movement is deliberate. They descend, take what is needed, and rise again.
It is possible to stand in the middle of this and feel both things at once.
The chaos.
And the Calm.
HERE’S WHAT I’VE LEARNT
Calm does not come after the noise ends. It exists alongside it.
What looks like busyness does not always require our time.
CARRY THIS WITH YOU
Not everything around you needs a response.
Movement and stillness can exist in the same moment.
Space is already there.
There is a version of leadership that happens inside the noise.
Responding.
Holding.
Absorbing.
Staying steady so everything else can keep moving.
And there is something quieter that often goes unnoticed.
The part that sees the whole field.
The part that does not need to descend every time something calls for attention.
Both are present. But only one is usually chosen.
This is the inner work of leadership.
I help school leaders who feel like they’re slowly disappearing into the job -
find their way back.
If this resonates, I offer a complimentary 30 ‑ minute session where we focus on one thing that’s on your mind.
A simple space to step back, think clearly, and begin to feel like yourself again.