Job Title: Schools Coach

About Metis

Every child in Kenya deserves to be safe, loved, valued, and successful. Yet, most Kenyan children finish primary school without meeting minimum literacy and numeracy proficiency, and we want more for them than that: the 21st-century skills to innovate, build relationships, and think critically. Kenya's Competency-Based Curriculum aims to deliver both, but faces major implementation gaps, and the wider education ecosystem remains fragmented, with organizations largely working in isolation from one another.

That’s why we exist.

Metis is a non-profit organisation with the mission to equip, connect, and amplify education leaders developing localised innovations for a world where all learners thrive. Our vision is that education systems across Africa provide learners—from cradle to career—with the skills, mindsets, and opportunities they need to thrive.

Since 2018, Metis has supported 170 changemakers through the Fellowship who, in turn, build high-quality learning experiences for over 1.5 million youth across Kenya. We host quarterly events, an annual learning summit for education practitioners, policymakers, and funders, and provide tools and training to support transformative education innovation and leadership. Learn more on our website. Our InnovatED program has brought tools of innovation to 7,000+ teachers across 1,000+ schools in Kenya.

About the Role 

The Schools Coach is a critical driver of Metis’s school transformation and Whole Child Learning work.you will serve as the primary strategic partner for the assigned partner schools, supporting them with design and innovation and school transformation, helping them translate Whole Child Learning into meaningful, sustained changes in classrooms, school culture, leadership, and learner experience.

You will work closely with school heads, lead teachers, and wellbeing coordinators to guide iterative design cycles, support experimentation, navigate implementation challenges, and strengthen the conditions required for lasting change.

You will also play a central role in capturing, codifying, and translating what schools learn into a Kenyan Whole Child Learning model that can inform wider practice and scale.

The quality of your relationships, coaching, judgment, documentation, and follow-through will directly influence the success of our partner schools—and the credibility and potential of Metis’s broader work.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. School Transformation, Coaching & Design Partnership

• Serve as the primary strategic partner and trusted coach to six partner school design teams.

• Support school leaders and teachers to develop and pursue ambitious, contextually relevant Whole Child Learning visions.

• Facilitate regular virtual and in-person engagements with school leaders and design teams, focusing on:

  • Conditions for change and distributed leadership

  • Classroom design and experimentation

  • Implementation challenges and learning

  • Teacher practice, learner experience, and school-wide adoption

• Conduct school visits to observe instruction, facilitate reflective conversations, and support classroom-level micro-testing.

• Help schools navigate the tensions between established compliance-oriented practices and learner-centered innovation.

• Identify implementation risks, surface emerging needs, and work with school teams to develop practical responses.

• Support schools to move beyond isolated experimentation toward embedded practices that can be adopted across their wider teaching teams.

  
  

2. Codification, Evidence & Knowledge Development

• Systematically document school journeys, including adaptations, breakthroughs, challenges, local innovations, and lessons learned.

• Capture non-intrusive classroom video, audio, photographs, teacher reflections, and learner engagement moments.

• Identify and document how Kenyan schools interpret, adapt, and express Whole Child Learning in their own contexts.

• Surface emerging patterns, bright spots, and implementation insights that can strengthen Metis’s approach.

• Contribute to the development of the Kenyan Whole Child Learning playbook, including localized case studies, training resources, videos, and practical tools.

• Ensure that learning from each school is not only recorded but translated into insights that can inform program improvement and wider adoption.

  
  

3. Facilitation, Cohort Learning & Ecosystem Engagement

• Collaborate with the Programs Manager on partner school recruitment, selection, onboarding, and cohort experience design.

• Design and co-facilitate learning retreats, co-creation convenings, peer-learning visits, and other cohort experiences.

• Strengthen learning across schools by enabling teams to share practices, challenges, and emerging solutions.

• Host and engage Technical Working Group stakeholders—including representatives from MoE, KICD, KEMI, and TSC—during school visits and learning activities.

• Help showcase emerging demonstration classrooms and practices that contribute to the development of Whole Child Learning in Kenya.

  
  

4. Other Responsibilities

• Contribute to wider Programs Team priorities and organizational learning.

• Undertake other responsibilities aligned with the role and evolving needs of Metis.

WHAT YOU BRING TO OUR TEAM

You are a reflective practitioner, relationship-builder, and proactive problem-solver who can combine strategic thinking, innovation, and disciplined field execution.

You bring:

• Experience in teacher coaching, instructional leadership, professional development, school transformation, or education innovation.

• Strong understanding of the Kenyan education context, including school leadership, classroom realities, and education stakeholders.

• Experience facilitating adult learning, reflective practice, collaborative design, or professional learning communities.

• The ability to build trust and influence school leaders and teachers while also challenging assumptions and encouraging meaningful change.

• Strong classroom observation, feedback, and iterative improvement skills.

• Ability to work independently, manage multiple school relationships, and respond effectively to ambiguity and changing implementation realities.

• Strong documentation, storytelling, qualitative research, and/or media-capture skills.

• Willingness and ability to travel regularly to partner schools.

• A genuine commitment to learner-centered education, Whole Child Learning, and continuous improvement.

The Nature of This Role

This role requires someone who can move between vision and execution, strategy and relationships, experimentation and accountability.

You should be comfortable taking initiative, making informed judgments, addressing difficult implementation challenges, and owning the quality of your work. You will not simply deliver a predefined coaching package—you will help shape what effective Whole Child Learning looks like in Kenyan schools.

Your work will influence whether schools meaningfully transform, whether teachers adopt and sustain new practices, and whether Metis can build a credible model for wider change.

METIS VALUES