| Summary: | Coaching has been used increasingly in schools since 2000. This has been partly due to research showing that it is a more effective form of CPD (continuing professional development) for staff and also due to links made between coaching and school improvement. However, writers have found that there is a lack of research into the benefits of coaching and that much of the existing evidence base builds on hypothetical beliefs. The current study explored through a postal questionnaire the range of coaching being used in 10 urban mainstream secondary schools. All schools were found to be using at least one coaching activity, with specialist and co-coaching the most dominant types. Benefits of specialist and co-coaching were explored through interviews with six CPD co-ordinators and five staff who had been coached. The interviews were analysed through Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to explore patterns in how the interviewees perceived coaching. Benefits were found of both coaching types at all three of the levels proposed in the study which were: individual personal! emotional; individual daily practice; and school-wide. It was found that the level of impact was influenced by the role and situation of the coachee (e.g. NOT, middle leader, teacher). How coaching in the schools was supporting the development of professional learning communities was also explored as school improvement literature indicates that developing a reflective and self-sustaining culture is paramount for schools wishing to improve. Specifically the ways in which coaching supported the four processes proposed by Bolam et al (2005) to help create, maintain and sustain a professional learning community were explored. Coaching was found to support all four processes in different ways. Therefore it has been concluded that coaching may be a useful tool for senior managers to consider with regard to school improvement as it can support both individual staff development and whole-school reculturing.
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