Karen Forshaw

Karen Forshaw is an organisational psychologist, former headteacher and founder of HumanEdge Performance. Education has been at the heart of her professional life for more than 20 years, including seven years in headship.

Karen knows schools as places filled with purpose, relationships, creativity and possibility, where people make a meaningful difference to children and communities every day. She also understands how demanding the work can be, particularly for leaders carrying responsibility for others while navigating competing priorities, accountability pressures and constant change.

Through HumanEdge Performance, Karen works alongside school leaders and trusts to create healthier, more sustainable working environments. Her work considers both the working conditions that shape people’s everyday experience and the individual support that helps them navigate and influence those conditions, recognising how these interact to affect wellbeing, performance and retention.

Reflective supervision is an important part of Karen’s practice. She offers leaders a thoughtful, collaborative space in which they can pause, reflect and explore the complexities of their work. Her approach brings together her lived experience of headship, organisational psychology and specialist supervision training. This systemic lens enables her to support the individual without losing sight of the wider working conditions shaping their experience and practice.