Who We Are

Springboard Trust is an impact organisation working within the education sector. We transform schools together by developing individuals' and teams' strategic leadership, bringing together leaders from the education, private, public and philanthropic sectors to facilitate insightful learning and embed impactful change.

The reason we do this is simple: we believe that effective strategic leadership transforms schools, which ultimately improves student outcomes.  

Underpinning this work is our unique cross-sector model which gives principals the building blocks of strategic leadership, providing them with a diverse toolkit of resources to effectively lead their school and create the conditions that enable students to thrive.  

Bringing the best from both worlds

New Zealand teachers and principals typically struggle to gain access to professional learning and development or unique insights from outside their own sector. Springboard Trust aims to break down these barriers and facilitate a unique platform that encourages cross-sector thinking, learning and collaboration.

The cross-sector model gives school leaders access to tailored expertise, trusted coaching relationships and a network of support that is essential to strong leadership in education.  

This comes from our expansive network of skills volunteers, a combination of expert individuals and senior leaders in our strategic, major and supporting partner organisations.  

Principals are paired with a volunteer who matches their needs and skills, who will share essential development in leadership, strategic planning, stakeholder management and practical action.

In turn, our volunteers build lifelong relationships, gain invaluable insight into how our schools work and have an opportunity to give back to their community in an impactful way. These are partnerships founded on trust and passion, and build critical skills to enable New Zealand schools to thrive.  

An independent approach to school leadership 

Springboard Trust sits apart from the government sector and remains staunchly apolitical. Our goal is improved student outcomes, and we believe that happens by providing an independent, trusted source of information and guidance to our principals.  

Since 2007, we have helped more than 400 principals improve their school leadership, impacting more than 200,000 New Zealand learners.  

With recent regional delivery expansions to South Canterbury, Nelson / Marlborough, Bay of Plenty and Wairarapa, new programmes and services being developed to meet the growing needs of school leaders and cohorts being added every year, the opportunities for principals, senior and middle leaders to take part in the Springboard learning journey are only on the rise.

To find out more about our school leadership programmes, check out our portfolio.