Critical reflection on the benefits of relational supervision in schools

Supervision has a long and illustrious history as a professional practice across multiple disciplines that are concerned with positive outcomes for children, young people and their families. Defined as a work-based learning relationship, it is a reflective space where those involved – either in relational dyads or in small groups – commit to purposefully engaging in learning from experience (Kennedy et al., 2018; Kennedy and Laverick, 2019). It places particular emphasis on how our feelings, thoughts, values and attitudes – our selves-in-role as practitioners – influence what we do at work. Whilst practitioners in other fields, such as medicine, social work, psychology, psychotherapy, counselling and so on, typically conceive of supervision as a core and fundamental component of continuing professional development (CPD) across a career, supervision has received far less attention in education. Coaching and supervision: Complementary and yet different Coaching is more commonpl