Gulshan Kayembe Testimonial

Gulshan is an exceptionally gifted and very talented education consultant and school improvement advisor, as well as being the perfect Headteacher appraiser and outstanding coach and mentor. She is extremely knowledgeable about her subject and as a result, has the ability of providing a calm assurance and confidence to those who ask her advice or having difficulty with a particular issue.

I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of having Gulshan appraise me in my role as Headteacher of a large secondary school based in south east London and have marvelled at her ability to listen carefully to what I’ve said before providing a thoughtful and meaningful response or suggestion. She completely understands both the local and national educational landscape and the school’s context within that and she totally appreciates the complexities that confront all Heads no matter what phase of school they work in.

Gulshan has the ability of allowing you to think that your ideas are unique by giving you the opportunity of talking things through and putting your point of view across. Even though she may have seen the same ideas in countless other schools she’s been in beforehand, she will use her vast knowledge and experience to work with you in developing your thoughts and very gently and very carefully, steer you away from the rocks and impending doom by nudging you in a more appropriate direction.

This is one of Gulshan’s major strengths and because of that, she is unlike any other school improvement advisor or consultant I have ever worked with who usually are only interested in themselves and enforcing their own ideas on you. Rather than put across her own personal views, Gulshan prefers to develop yours and build on them so that you feel you have achieved success by yourself. It’s a wonderful skill to have and puts Gulshan high on the pedestal alongside highly renowned and world famous business and sports coaches. She is the consummate professional educationalist in every sense of the word.

Gulshan is also a highly successful presenter and has spoken on many occasions to large groups of Headteachers and LA school improvement advisors in our quarter of south east London about the constantly changing political and education backdrop and situation facing all schools including inspections, finance, academisation, staffing and so on. Again, she doesn’t try to preach or put over her own personal interpretation or sow the seeds of doom and gloom by embellishing the message she is putting across. Gulshan will give the facts as they are and how she understands they are to be interpreted and then works skilfully with her audience to arrive at possible workable solutions. She openly encourages questions from her audience and welcomes debate.

Gulshan is an exceptional person; intelligent, thoughtful, rational and very personable. She is a wonderful coach and uses her great depth of knowledge, experience and understanding of her subject to help develop those she works alongside. She is a very popular figure who is also highly respected for her hard work and commitment in supporting others to do their job better and achieve much improved outcomes. I cannot praise her highly enough.