How OPPI Trains School Leaders
Adopting Finnish pedagogy changes more than the classroom; it changes how a school is led. OPPI's leadership training, alongside its educator training, prepares principals and leadership teams to run a Finnish-pedagogy K-5 school day to day.
- In Finland itself, a rehtori, or principal, is trained as a teacher first and typically has classroom experience before moving into school leadership, with an emphasis on pedagogical leadership and trust-based autonomy rather than top-down administrative control.
- OPPI runs a leadership development track, known as Lead Like a Finn, alongside its educator training programme, Teach Like a Finn, for affiliated schools outside Finland.
- Leadership training sits inside OPPI's wider, multi-year affiliation process, which includes defined milestones, quality assurance reviews and biennial certification rather than a single training event.
- The focus for school leaders is on supporting teachers' pedagogical judgement and protecting the conditions, time, autonomy, trust, that Finnish-style teaching needs, rather than administrative compliance alone.
Why leadership training matters as much as teacher training
Finnish pedagogy depends heavily on teacher autonomy: class teachers making day-to-day judgements about pacing, grouping and assessment rather than following a fixed script. That only works if school leadership actively protects it. A principal used to a more prescriptive, compliance-driven model can unintentionally undo the benefits of Finnish pedagogy by over-managing lesson plans or over-testing pupils to satisfy external reporting.
OPPI's leadership track exists to prepare principals and senior leaders for that shift before it becomes a problem, not after.
What the Lead Like a Finn programme covers
Leadership training draws on how Finnish rehtori are prepared: leaders with teaching backgrounds, trained to support pedagogy rather than control it, and trusted to make school-level decisions within a shared national framework. For affiliated schools outside Finland, this translates into practical guidance on staffing, timetabling for longer breaks and cross-subject projects, supporting new teachers through the transition to Finnish methods, and communicating the model clearly to parents and local regulators.
How leadership training fits the wider affiliation process
Leadership development is not a one-off workshop. It sits inside OPPI's broader affiliation process, which runs over multiple years and includes agreed milestones, ongoing quality assurance reviews and biennial certification. School leaders are expected to keep developing alongside their teaching staff, not just at the start of affiliation.
Frequently asked questions
What is Lead Like a Finn?
It is OPPI's leadership development track for principals and senior leaders at affiliated schools, run alongside Teach Like a Finn, its educator training programme.
Do school leaders need Finnish teaching experience before starting?
No, but they do need a teaching background of some kind, mirroring Finland's own principals, who are trained as teachers before moving into school leadership.
Is leadership training a single event or an ongoing process?
Ongoing. It sits inside OPPI's multi-year affiliation process, alongside quality assurance reviews and biennial certification, rather than a single training day.
Related reading
Bring Finnish pedagogy to your school
OPPI affiliates a selective cohort of schools each year for its K-5 Finnish-pedagogy programme, backed by Education Finland. Tell us about your school and our team will reach out.
Backed by Education Finland. Over 20 schools have already affiliated, including DPS, Radcliffe and Sanctus. Places in each cohort are limited.
Apply to the affiliation cohort →