Culture of Excellence
The Pathway to Inspired Learning, Empowered Teaching, and Intentional Leadership
Buy In Australia
International Retailers
Mindful Assessment
The 6 Essential Fluencies of Innovative Learning
Buy In Australia
International Retailers
About the Book
Culture of Excellence is a blueprint for schools ready to move beyond scattered initiatives, reactive leadership, and the exhausting cycle of “one more thing.” It speaks to leaders who understand that culture is not created by accident, but through alignment, clarity, and deeply intentional practice.
Drawing from decades of global work with schools, this book reveals a simple truth:
When purpose is clear and people feel empowered, improvement becomes inevitable.
- Clarify purpose and establish a shared vision for learning
- Strengthen professional trust, agency, and collective ownership
- Lift engagement, wellbeing, and achievement through coherent systems
- Create rhythms and routines that sustain momentum beyond short-term initiatives
- Lead with confidence through complexity, change, and modern pressures
Through real-world examples, case studies, and the Six Aspects of Excellence, Culture of Excellence shows how schools are building environments where staff flourish, students thrive, and community confidence grows — not through heroic effort, but through intentional design.
This is not a book about managing schools.
It is a book about building schools that elevate people.
Cultures that endure.
Systems that empower.
Leadership that lasts.
Written for principals, system leaders, teacher-leaders, and leadership teams, Culture of Excellence offers a clear pathway for shaping the future of learning with purpose, coherence, and confidence.
If you’re ready to move your school from aspiration to alignment, and from effort to impact, this book will show you the way.
About the Book
Mindful Assessment: The 6 Essential Fluencies of Innovative Learning redefines how we think about teaching, learning, and assessment in the modern classroom. In this insightful and practical guide, Lee Crockett and Andrew Churches reveal how true learning begins when teaching becomes a response to students’ needs—rather than an end goal in itself.
Grounded in six essential fluencies—core skills every learner needs to succeed in today’s complex world—Mindful Assessment provides a clear pathway for aligning teaching and assessment with inquiry-based and project-driven learning. Through practical examples, rubrics, and classroom-tested strategies, Lee and Andrew show how to move from grading tasks to cultivating growth.
Both visionary and actionable, Mindful Assessment equips educators with the tools and mindset to create classrooms where mindfulness, feedback, and continuous improvement drive authentic learning.
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“The authors have provided a much-needed guidebook for assessing some of the most important fluencies that lead to deeper learning.”
James A. Bellanca
Author and educator -
“The crucial new skills and mindsets that learners need to flourish in 21st-century life are clearly explained ... this book will inspire and challenge teachers.”
Dr. Therese Keane
Professor and Associate Dean, La Trobe University -
“How does a teacher utilise the assessment of 21st-century fluencies to implement a learning environment conducive to preparing students for this new global society? This book is filled with exemplars of how to do it.”
Dr. Guy G. Tétrault
Superintendent/CEO of K-12 Schools
