Patrick Cozier
Calm Leadership - Leading with Humanity - Diversity and Inclusion in Leadership
Being a school leader is stressful. Many heads leave their post after five years. Many who don't, still think about it. This is all the more the case when the school is in a challenging area. The tenure is shorter still if the school leader is a person of colour.
Unless you’re Patrick Cozier.
Patrick is the headteacher of a successful multi-cultural secondary school in north London. He’s been in the job for nearly 20 years. He is a man of colour.
And, despite the stresses, he’s calm.
It this approach to the job – Calm Leadership as he calls it – that is making Patrick so much in demand to speak to other current and future school leaders across the UK.
For Patrick, calm isn’t the absence of pressure — it’s the ability to think clearly in the middle of it.
Like the time he had to lead his school through a particularly deep funding crisis. Or the difficult restructuring process that would affect people he cared about. Or when industrial action threatened to fracture the school community. Not to mention the ongoing pressures of inspections, results, league tables and being an Arsenal supporter.
"Calm Leadership enables you to commit for the long run – to become a leader who lasts."
Patrick Cozier
Recent titles include:
- Rising to the Challenge of Calm Leadership
- Headteacher Burnout? There Is Another Way
- Diversity, Opportunity and Leaders Who Don't Look Like You
Empathy mixed with pragmatism; soft words combined with hard conversations; the loneliness of leadership counterbalanced by the power that comes from building resilient teams - all of this is part and parcel of Patrick’s approach. It is an approach that has helped him avoid burnout, deal with challenges and lead an exemplary school for nearly two decades.
What’s more, his journey is shaped by his lived experience as a Black leader in UK education.
A minority within a minority, unlike so many of his peers, he knows what it’s like to walk into a room and be the only one who looks like you. He knows the quiet pressure of representing. And the louder challenge of being underestimated.
That’s why he has made it part of his life’s work to support and encourage leaders from minoritised backgrounds to step forward. He mentors aspiring leaders, shares his story openly, and challenges the idea that leadership has to ‘look’ a certain way. He also actively campaigns with groups such as Show Racism the Red Card.
Kipling famously wrote, ‘If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…’. It seems a suitably apt line to describe the 'Calm Leadership' approaches that are at the heart of Patrick Cozier’s success and longevity as a school leader.
Patrick Cozier In His Own Words
“THERE IS POWER AND AUTHORITY IN BEING CALM AND MEASURED, IN BUILDING TRUST AND MAKING DECISIONS COOLLY” - CALM LEADERSHIP
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We look forward to hearing from you.
- Patrick has been with Independent Thinking since August 2025
- He is an Arsenal supporter, despite growing up in Tottenham
- You'll find his work in our Leadership topic areas
- He is one of our New Voices
Enjoy a free no-obligation chat.
Haggle a bit. Make a booking.
Call us on +44 (0)1267 211432 or drop us a line at learn@independentthinking.co.uk.