'I was kicked out of school then became a Leeds civic leader - now I'm reshaping education'
A woman permanently excluded from school as a teenager who went on to become a Leeds civic leader is celebrating the release of her first book.
Shaheen Myers describes her book, The Human Side of School Leadership, as a practical guide to support headteachers and senior leaders written from a “human-first perspective.”
The 50-year-old, of Bradford, has more than 25 years of experience in the education industry, including serving as Deputy Director for Learning at Leeds City Council.
After Shaheen was permanently excluded from her high school shortly before her exams, she decided she wanted to work in education to change the system from the inside.
Shaheen said: “I had a very troubling secondary schooling. I ended up being placed in bottom sets after excelling in primary school and passing my 11+ and no real care or regard was taken to my background and my academic ability or my character.
“I used pain as a communicator and I found myself permanently excluded during the exam period without a qualification to my name.
“I was overlooked and underestimated.”
Shaheen’s high school attendance was just 30% before she left, as she balanced education alongside life as a young carer. As a teenager, she didn’t feel the environment could recognise her needs.
Determined to prove her high school’s assumptions about her wrong, Shaheen decided to restart her GCSEs at 18 after becoming a mother for the first time.
Before she knew it, Shaheen was at university just a month after her second child was born and pursuing a degree while working and raising a young family.
Joking that her baby was the “youngest student on campus”, Shaheen credited her youth with lighting a fire inside her that she could balance it all.
Shaheen said: “I’d always been somebody who would just accept the challenge as something to overcome.
“I wanted to make sure that my children were learning alongside me learning so reading became a huge aspect in their lives as much as it was in mine.”
After university, Shaheen became a teacher and worked her way up to becoming headteacher at Co-Op Academy Nightingale in Harehills. Shaheen, who grew up in Reading and Bradford, said that Harehills is the region that truly shaped her character.
Shaheen said: “Leeds is a place of collective spirit and it achieves phenomenal things for its children and young people.
“I fell in love with the community in Leeds and the melting pot of characters, personalities, and care.”
“I say I was made in Harehills.”
From 2021-2023, Shaheen served as Deputy Director for Learning at Leeds City Council, and she was the first Pakistani woman to hold that position.
In this role, her keen focus was to ensure education is inclusive to all pupils, regardless of background, and that they are equipped to adapt to the challenges they face.
Crucially, Shaheen believes that educators need to recognise the power of placing pre-conceived judgements on pupils.
“For children and young people, to try and dispel labels is one of the most difficult things you can do,” Shaheen said.
“They absorb those labels and become them.
“As adults, we adult but we can’t expect our children to adult so we need to assess what our children are showing us and meet their needs.”
After her husband Rhys passed away, Shaheen left her council position and founded Balance:ed, a company dedicated to supporting senior education leaders, the figures Shaheen believes “set the tone” for their schools.
Shaheen, who was shortlisted for a Northern Power Woman Award earlier this year, sees her company as continuing the “legacy” of her late husband who was also passionate about education.
Shaheen said: “I used to say his superpower was non-verbal communication. He made children feel so safe that they would transform under his care.
“He was given the mislabelled, misjudged children and he had such a high regard for them that they would just become who they always were: children who were capable of brilliance. He made that happen.”
Shaheen’s work with Balance:ed, which includes coaching leaders, keynoting conferences, and working with senior teams on cohesiveness and culture, led to the offer of a book opportunity with Routledge.
Now The Human Side of School Leadership uses Shaheen’s life experience, from her days as a pupil to now, to explore what it means to lead a school.
In the book, Shaheen particularly wanted to recognise the hard work of senior education leaders who are doing an “incredible” but “exhausting” job.
Shaheen first pursued a career in education because she didn’t want any child to experience what she did in high school.
Now writing her own book represents just how far she has come.
The Human Side of School Leadership comes out on April 10.