Want to make quality improvement meaningful, documentation purposeful, and leadership genuinely collaborative?
Leadership Floorbooks® give early years leaders a framework that makes all three possible without adding to your team's workload.
Leadership Floorbooks® help your team:
What is a Leadership Floorbook®?
Most leaders in early years care deeply about their teams and the children they serve.
But the systems designed to evidence that care often feels disconnected from the work itself. Something to be done around the real job, rather than part of it.
A Leadership Floorbook® changes that relationship.
At it's heart, it's a collaborative, shared visual record where leaders and teams document their decisions, reflections, and progress, and make their thinking visible.
Unlike traditional documentation, a Leadership Floorbook® isn't filed away between inspections. It lives in the staffroom to be used in all your team meetings. When an inspector arrives, it tells a compelling, evidenced story of growth.
Take the next step
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Leadership Floorbooks® — Collaborative Strategies for Educational Excellence
Buy the bookThe definitive guide to implementing Leadership Floorbooks® in your setting. 17 chapters covering the theory, the practice, and everything in between — from building a culture of collaboration to engaging reluctant team members. Includes case studies from settings across the UK and Australia, Looks Like / Sounds Like strategy guides, and reflective prompts throughout.
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Achieve Excellence with Leadership Floorbooks® — Online Programme
Join the programmeA four-session online programme led by Dr Claire Warden. Built around the book, the programme takes you from understanding the concept to embedding it in your setting — with live guidance, peer discussion, and practical application at every stage.
Ready to lead differently?
Upcoming Training Talks
How to Use a Leadership Floorbook® to Unite Your Team
Leading Through the Pages: Mastering Leadership Floorbooks
How to Turn Your Documentation Into a Story of Leadership Growth
From Notes to Leadership Narratives: Transforming Practice with Floorbooks
How to Make Sure Every Member of Your Team Feels Heard
Team Voice Matters: Using Leadership Floorbooks to Build Stronger Staff Cultures
Why Your Team Keeps Having the Same Conversations and How to Move Forward
Leadership Through Inquiry: Using Floorbooks to Drive Continuous Improvement
How to Make Your Leadership Visible So Your Whole Team Understands Where You're Going
Visible Leadership: Making Team Learning Transparent with Floorbooks
How to Build a Team That Reflects Together Without It Feeling Like Another Meeting
Reflective Rooms: Developing Strong Reflective Cultures with Leadership Floorbooks
How to Spot and Develop Leadership Potential in Your Team
Growing Leadership: Using Floorbooks to Mentor and Develop Your Team
How to Hold Your Team Accountable in a Way That Builds Confidence
Accountability Without Anxiety: Using Floorbooks to Create Supportive Leadership Structures
How to Show That Your Leadership Is Actually Making a Difference for Children
Leading with Children in Mind: Linking Leadership Floorbooks to Child Outcomes
How to Set Up a Leadership Floorbook® That Your Whole Team Actually Uses
The Leadership Floorbook Blueprint: Setting Up, Sustaining & Scaling Successful Floorbooks
Meet Dr Claire Warden
The Creator of The Floorbook Approach and Leadership Floorbooks
Dr Claire Warden has spent 35 years working alongside leaders in early years settings developing genuinely effective leadership documentation looks like in practice.
Leadership Floorbooks grew from real settings, teams, and the real world observation of leaders. Claire noticed that the settings that thrived weren't the ones most diligent with their paperwork, but the ones whose teams felt heard, valued, and invested in the work.
That's the core principle at the heart of Leadership Floorbooks.