Stage 00
Pre-Season
Understand your school before you lead it.
- Understand the school before you lead it
- Plan a strong opening
- Prepare the building and support systems
First action: the Good, Bad and Ugly assessment
Principal Playbook / First-Year Leadership Program
Your first year
has a playbook.
A year-long leadership program for new and aspiring principals. Structured stage by stage, from the summer before the doors open to the day you plan next year.
Chapter OneNobody hands you the manual
The job starts long before the students do.
A masters programme teaches policy, law and finance. It does not teach you how to walk a building in July and read what the last five years did to it. It does not teach you how to run a faculty meeting that people leave believing something. It does not teach you what to say at 6:40 in the morning when a parent is already in your office.
Principal Playbook is the part nobody wrote down. It follows the school year the way a coach follows a season: prepare, open, establish, adjust, finish, then reset for next year.
0+
Years in education
0
Years as a principal
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Educators mentored into leadership roles
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High schools opened, as teacher, assistant principal and principal
Chapter TwoThe season
One school year.
Six stages.
The program is built the way a season is built. Every stage has a focus, a set of lessons, the tools that go with them, and a coaching connection. Keep scrolling: the year moves sideways.
Stage 01
Quarter 1
Principal School
Establish the foundation.
- Leadership principles, culture and building a school
- Crisis management, safety and community response
- Develop leadership purposefully
- Establish structure, procedures and routines
The quarter that sets the tone for everything after it
Stage 02
Quarter 2
Strengthen the work established in the first half of the year.
- Hold the structures you set in Quarter 1
- Read the building at the mid-point
- Correct early, not in the spring
Curriculum for this quarter stays editable in the CMS
Stage 03
Quarter 3
Build the Bench
Develop the leaders around you.
- Developing staff leadership and building capacity
- Interviews and hiring for the culture you want
- Difficult conversations with staff, students and parents
- Recognition that people actually feel
Where the year stops being about you
Stage 04
Quarter 4
Finish Strong
Close the year on purpose.
- Testing, data and the spring testing calendar
- Staff feedback and the administrative retreat
- End-of-year events and recognition
- Planning next year and setting its focus
Includes the Good, Bad and Ugly review
Stage 05
Post-Game
Reflect, then carry it into the next school year.
- Reflection on the full year
- Transition into next season
- Certificate of completion
The appendix and resource library stay with you
Appendix
Templates, examples, calendars, agendas, forms, worksheets, checklists, communication examples and presentation materials. Filed by stage, quarter and lesson.
Chapter ThreeInside one lesson
Every lesson is built the same way, so you always know where you are.
Instruction, then tools, then something you actually do in your building this week, then the question you bring to coaching. Eleven parts, in the same order, every time.
01
Lesson introduction
What you will learn and why it matters at this point in the year.
02
Learning objectives
What a principal should understand once the lesson is complete.
03
Michael’s instruction
Video, presentation, written material, or a combination of the three.
04
Why
Why this leadership practice matters, and what happens in a building without it.
05
How
How Dr. Bishop recommends approaching it, based on seventeen years of doing it.
06
What
The actual actions, procedures and tools you use.
07
Playbook tools
Downloadable templates and worked examples, versioned and filed by lesson.
08
Activity
An interactive exercise, worksheet, self-assessment, checklist or scenario.
09
Field application
A real task you complete in your own school before the lesson closes.
10
Reflection
Questions to sit with, saved to your account as personal notes.
11
Coaching connection
What to bring into your next group or individual coaching session.
Chapter FourThe digital field manual
Not a PDF you download once.
Every participant gets a working field manual inside their account, organised by Pre-Season, the four quarters, Post-Game and the appendix. Read it online, download a section, print what you need, complete worksheets, and keep your own notes against the material.
Your notes and completed worksheets are saved to your account, so the manual becomes a record of your first year rather than a set of files in a downloads folder.
- Templates
- Examples
- Calendars
- Agendas
- Forms
- Worksheets
- Checklists
- Communication examples
Chapter FiveSomewhere to ask
A new principal needs somewhere to ask without being embarrassed.
That belief shaped the whole coaching side of the program. Sessions are scheduled through the year, and between them there is a private channel straight to Dr. Bishop.
Private channel
Ask Michael
Submit the question, the situation, a category and how urgent it is. Attach a document if it helps. The answer comes back inside the portal, and the history stays private to you. It is not a public forum.
Session type 01
Group, in person
Scheduled in-person sessions with your cohort, with preparation materials issued beforehand.
Session type 02
Group, virtual
Live virtual sessions with a topic, a meeting link and materials attached to the session record.
Session type 03
Individual coaching
One-to-one time on what is actually happening in your building this month.
Across the year
Progress you can see
Lessons completed, activities finished, resources used, coaching attended, and a certificate at the end of the program.
Chapter SixTwo ways in
Route A
For new and aspiring principals
You are about to open a building, or you already have and the year is moving faster than you expected. Join as an individual participant and work the season stage by stage.
Start your first year
Route B
For school districts and divisions
Enroll a cohort. District administrators see enrollment, completion rates, program progress and coaching attendance, while individual coaching questions stay private to the participant.
Build a cohort
Chapter SevenWho wrote it
Michael E. Bishop, Ed.D.
The retired principal of Patriot High School in Nokesville, Virginia, where he led for fifteen years and served a total of nineteen years as a high school administrator. He championed standards-based instruction, critical thinking and student-centered learning: work that helped Patriot students excel on AP exams, thrive in dual enrollment courses and earn industry certifications across multiple fields.
His doctoral research examined how school design shapes student and staff attitudes, behavior and performance, and it directly influenced Patriot’s learning spaces, technology integration and collaborative environments. He has coached and mentored more than thirty educators into leadership roles, including principals and central office administrators.
“Success comes before work only in the dictionary.”
Chapter EightFrom people who worked with him
“I would rank Dr. Michael Bishop in the top 5% of administrators, teachers and coaches with whom I have worked over my 45-year career. I give him my highest recommendation, without reservation.”
Dr. Steven L. WaltsSuperintendent of Schools, retired
“He listens. He cares. He responds promptly. He embraces a vision arising from the voices and aspirations of those he leads.”
Stewart RobersonSuperintendent, retired
“The staff was naturally drawn to him as he was always available for assistance or advice.”
Ted SalmonChesterfield County Public Schools, retired
Colophon
Develop people. Build culture. Leave a legacy.
Principal Playbook runs as a full school year for individual principals and as a cohort for districts. To ask about the next intake, a district cohort, a keynote or a consulting engagement, start a conversation, or write directly to the address below.