Leadership Training for Independent Schools in Adelaide: 4 Providers.
- Jonno White
- Aug 4
- 10 min read
If you are choosing leadership training for an independent school in Adelaide, begin with the leadership problem, not the provider name. Four current options with a clear school or education leadership offer are Paul Teys, Make Learning Better, K M-C Educational Consulting and Adrian Cotterell. Their fit differs: principal development, broader leadership coaching, whole-school support, or AI and assessment change.
Table of contents.
I compiled this directory of leadership training serving independent schools in Adelaide to make it easier to find a practitioner who fits the situation. In full transparency, I also provide leadership development and facilitation, so I have kept my own work outside the verified provider list. You can read more about my background.
Who this is for and how to choose.
This is for a principal, board member, business manager, deputy, head of school or senior leader who wants outside help with leadership capability. It is also useful if you are responsible for professional learning and need to compare a local provider with a sector program.
The Association of Independent Schools of South Australia is the peak body for the independent school sector in South Australia and has its own professional learning and Leadership Institute pathways for member schools. That makes AISSA a useful first stop for sector-specific learning, but it is not counted below as a provider to hire through this directory. Read about the AISSA Leadership Institute.
Before you contact anyone, write down four things. Name the leader level, the problem you want to change, the delivery shape you need and the follow-through you expect after the session. This turns a vague search for leadership training into a decision you can defend to your board or executive team.
Provider | Suitable for | Location | Virtual or in person | Link |
Paul Teys | Principals, aspiring principals, senior leaders, boards and independent school leadership teams | Serves independent schools across Australia. Adelaide delivery to confirm. | Ask about the format for your school. | |
Make Learning Better | Coaching, mentoring and bespoke leadership development for education teams | Adelaide focus with South Australian education examples | Ask about delivery. | |
K M-C Educational Consulting | Middle and executive leaders, team training, whole-school planning and leadership reviews | Based in Adelaide, South Australia | Ask about the mix of local and ongoing support. | |
Adrian Cotterell | Leadership teams dealing with AI, assessment, policy and school-wide change | Former South Australian independent-school executive leader, working with schools across Australia and South East Asia | Face-to-face or webinar, depending on context. |
What to look for in a school leadership program.
The Australian Professional Standard for Principals gives schools a useful language for defining the development need. It describes what principals are expected to know, understand and do, across five professional practices that include leading teaching and learning, developing self and others, leading improvement and change, managing the school, and engaging with the community. Read the AITSL principal standard.
That standard is not a reason to buy a generic course. It is a prompt to ask what your school needs next. A new head may need role transition and decision clarity. A middle leader may need authority, feedback and time to lead. A senior team may need to change how it handles conflict, meetings or strategic choices.
The Australian Government describes teachers and school leaders as having the greatest in-school influence on student achievement. Its current school leadership page points schools to the Australian Professional Standard for Principals and records the completed Future Leaders Program pilot. Read the Australian Government overview.
For a leadership team, the test is practical. Will the work change a real meeting, decision, conversation, handover or ownership pattern? If a program cannot explain what leaders will do differently after it, ask for a more specific design before you commit.
Leadership training providers serving independent schools in Adelaide.
The four options below passed a simple existence gate. Each has a current first-party page showing a real identity, a relevant service and a relationship to school or education leadership. This is a fit directory, not a quality ranking.
Paul Teys.
Paul Teys presents a 2026 program set for principals, executives and senior leaders. It includes executive leadership coaching, a pathway for people who want to become principals, a Principal's Roundtable, a Middle/Senior Leaders Program, an eight-week intensive program, governance training for boards and custom development for school leadership teams. The site also lists a leadership growth review for independent school leaders. View the current program list.
The page describes Dr Paul Teys as having more than two decades in principal and senior leadership roles and experience leading large autonomous independent schools across Australia. That makes this a strong fit when the development need is close to the principal role, succession, governance or the distinctive operating context of an independent school.
The Adelaide question needs care. The site describes an Australia-wide relationship rather than an Adelaide base, so ask whether the proposed work will be face-to-face in Adelaide, virtual, or delivered through a different arrangement.
Make Learning Better.
Make Learning Better describes personalised coaching, consultancy and bespoke leadership development programs. Its page says the work draws on leadership, training and teaching experience across education and the private sector, and it includes South Australian school leadership examples among the education testimonials. View Make Learning Better.
This is a strong fit when you want a leadership development program shaped around people and context rather than a fixed public course. It may suit an individual principal, an aspiring leader or a team that needs coaching and practical leadership reflection over time.
The page does not set out a standard delivery model or a public fee schedule. Ask whether your school would receive coaching, a workshop series, team development or a combination, and what evidence of changed practice the provider would help you track.
K M-C Educational Consulting.
K M-C Educational Consulting is based in Adelaide, South Australia. Its services page describes professional companioning for educational leaders, leadership mentoring and coaching for middle managers and executive teams, tailored guidance and training for teams, whole-school strategic planning, stakeholder workshops, leadership reviews and support in an acting principal or head role. View K M-C services.
This is a strong fit when the school wants local and ongoing support rather than a single training day. The offer covers the individual leadership journey, team capability and wider school planning, which may help when a leadership problem sits between people, structure and strategy.
Ask how the work would be scoped, who would be involved, how confidentiality would be handled and what the school will own after the engagement ends. The site provides a useful breadth of service, but the right choice depends on the specific work you want done.
Adrian Cotterell.
Adrian Cotterell specialises in AI and assessment solutions for schools. His consulting page identifies him as a former executive leader at a South Australian independent school and says he works with schools across Australia and South East Asia. The current offer includes one-hour, half-day and full-day workshops, plus leadership consultancy for executive and curriculum teams dealing with school-wide assessment, policy and communication responses to generative AI. View Adrian Cotterell's consulting services.
This is a strong fit when the leadership issue is attached to a live change problem, especially AI policy, assessment design or communication. The page says the training can be face-to-face or delivered by webinar, depending on context.
It is not a general principal-development program, and that is the point. If your school needs leaders to make a clear, shared response to a technical or policy shift, a specialist intervention may be more useful than broad leadership content.
How to choose without wasting a term.
Use the following decision matrix as a starting point. It is based on the current public offers above, not on a quality score.
Starting problem | First provider to ask | What to request in writing |
A new principal or aspiring principal needs a development pathway | Paul Teys | Ask for a pathway that matches career stage, school context and governance responsibilities. |
A principal or leadership team wants coaching and a bespoke development program | Make Learning Better | Ask how the program will turn reflection into changed leadership behaviour. |
Middle leaders and executives need local support, planning or review | K M-C Educational Consulting | Ask how mentoring, team training and whole-school work would connect. |
AI and assessment are creating a school-wide leadership problem | Adrian Cotterell | Ask for the leadership, policy, communication and staff-learning pieces together. |
The first question to ask every provider is, “What would you need to understand about our school before designing this?” A provider who can name the information they need is more likely to shape the work around your context.
The second question is, “What should be different on the next Monday morning?” The answer might be a clearer leadership meeting, a decision that no longer waits for the principal, a middle leader who has real authority, or a shared policy response. Make the change observable.
The third question is, “What happens after the training?” Development is easier to sustain when the follow-through is designed before the first session. This might be coaching, a review point, a decision log, a leadership project or a short cycle of observation and feedback.
Worked example.
Consider an illustrative, unnamed independent school in Adelaide. The school wants to develop middle leaders, the main problem is inconsistent ownership across leadership meetings, and the school wants a practical change it can see within a term.
The starting decision is not “Which provider is most impressive?” It is “Do we need a principal-development pathway, an ongoing team and middle-leader support model, or a specialist intervention tied to a particular change?” That points the school first toward Paul Teys or K M-C Educational Consulting, with Make Learning Better also worth exploring if coaching and bespoke development are central. Adrian Cotterell becomes relevant if the ownership problem is part of an AI or assessment response.
The school should then send the same short brief to two or three providers. It should name the leadership group, the current ownership problem, the meeting or decision where the problem is visible, the delivery preference and the behaviour it wants to see next. The school can compare the replies on how clearly each provider explains diagnosis, design, practice and follow-through.
The result is a fairer comparison, not a prediction of outcome. A written proposal still cannot prove fit, quality or availability, so the school should ask each relevant provider in writing how they would handle the work and request references before booking.
The strongest counterargument and the limits of this list.
The strongest counterargument is that a provider directory can create false confidence. A polished service page can show that an offer exists, but it cannot prove that the work will suit your school, that the people involved will build trust quickly, or that the change will last after the final session.
This list has four important limits. Provider pages are first-party descriptions, not independent assessments. Adelaide base and face-to-face availability must be confirmed, including for providers who serve South Australia or Australia-wide. Fees and dates are not compared because no comparable public fee information was found across the four offers. The list is a useful starting point, not a complete census of every practitioner who may serve Adelaide.
It is also worth separating training from supervision, sector professional learning and formal qualifications. AISSA may be the right route for member-school learning and networking. A specialist supervisor may help a principal think through the role. A university or accredited course may suit a longer qualification pathway. They are different decisions from hiring a provider for a tailored school leadership intervention.
For more on the connection between leadership development and internal succession, read school leadership pipeline. For the team-level question, read leadership team development. For the workplace conditions that make leadership development stick, read school staff culture.
Conclusion.
The right leadership training choice starts with the school problem, the leader level, the delivery shape and the follow-through needed after the work. The four providers in this directory offer different routes, so compare their written responses against the same short brief rather than treating the list as a ranking.
Your practical next action.
Take ten minutes and finish these three sentences: “Our leaders need to get better at…”, “We will know the work helped when our next meetings show…”, and “After the training, the follow-through will be owned by…”. Send that short brief to three suitable providers and compare the questions they ask before they propose a solution.
Frequently asked questions.
Are all four providers based in Adelaide?
No. K M-C Educational Consulting states that it is based in Adelaide. Make Learning Better has an Adelaide focus and South Australian education examples. Paul Teys describes an Australia-wide independent-school relationship, and Adrian Cotterell describes a South Australian independent-school background with work across Australia and South East Asia. Confirm the delivery arrangement for your school.
Should an independent school choose training, coaching or a leadership review?
Choose based on the problem you want to change. Training can build shared language and a common method. Coaching can support an individual leader or team over time. A review can help when the school is unsure whether the real problem is capability, structure, decision rights or role clarity. The most useful design may combine more than one mode.
Is AISSA included as a provider in this directory?
No. AISSA is included as a relevant sector route, not counted as one of the four hireable providers. Its Leadership Institute supports established and aspiring leaders, including Board members, and its professional learning calendar contains programs for independent schools. Check the current AISSA offer if your school is a member or is considering a sector pathway.
How this directory was compiled.
I searched Adelaide, South Australia and Australia-wide school leadership sources for providers who genuinely offer leadership development, coaching, team training, strategic planning or a closely related specialist intervention for schools. I included only options with a current first-party page showing the provider identity, relevant service and a truthful relationship to school leadership or the Adelaide and South Australian context. Where a route was a sector platform, public-sector program or professional supervision offer rather than a direct provider to hire for this purpose, I kept it outside the four-provider count.
This page was compiled on 4 August 2026. Public offers, delivery modes, dates and availability can change, so check the linked provider page and request a current written proposal before making a decision. If you spot a factual correction, email jonno@consultclarity.org with the page section and a current first-party source.
Sources.
Association of Independent Schools of South Australia explains the sector role of AISSA and its professional learning offer.
AISSA Leadership Institute explains the leadership platform for established and aspiring leaders and Board members.
Australian Professional Standard for Principals provides the national leadership framework used here to define development needs.
Australian Government teaching and school leadership overview provides the national context for school leadership and records the completed Future Leaders Program pilot.
Paul Teys programs provides the current leadership program and independent-school evidence.
Make Learning Better provides the current coaching and bespoke leadership development offer.
K M-C Educational Consulting services provides the current Adelaide-based educational leadership offer.
Adrian Cotterell consulting services provides the current AI, assessment and school leadership offer.
About the author.
Jonno White helps leaders build organisations people would move cities to work at. He is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, certified through Patrick Lencioni's The Table Group. Read more about Jonno's background.
Next Read.
For a team-level view, read Working Genius for school leadership teams. It shows one possible shared language for discussing how work moves through a team.
If you want a written proposal for a keynote, workshop or facilitated leadership session, I help leaders build organisations people would move cities to work at. I am a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, certified through Patrick Lencioni's The Table Group. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.