Short Courses

This 3-day course is suitable for subject or phase leaders who have completed two or more years of successful classroom teaching.  It will cover a range of leadership aspects to support you has a middle leader.

Day 3:  Leading with a clear vision, preparing for Ofsted, engaging with all stakeholders

• Leading in a church school – what makes it different and distinctive?
• Preparing for inspection
• Understanding what a ‘deep dive’ might look like
• Engaging the wider community, including parents/carers, in school improvement
• Cultural capital – what does it mean in your context?
• Effective action planning and evaluating impact
• Planning your next steps back in school in your role as a middle leader

Click here to book your place ›

The purpose of the MTC (multiplication tables check) is to determine whether pupils can recall their times tables fluently, and to help identify those who have not yet mastered their times tables, so that additional support can be provided.

This 2 session course will support subject leaders and class teachers, especially those in Year 4, in developing a whole school approach to teaching multiplication tables, including preparation for the MTC in Year 4.

It will cover:

• a whole school approach to the teaching and learning of times tables
• securing conceptual knowledge and quick recall of multiplication tables
• the requirements of the MTC in Year 4
• the impact of games and ICT to support the learning of multiplication tables

Session dates and times:

• 29th November 2022 @ 1.30 – 4.00pm
• 27th April 2023 @ 3.45 – 5.15pm (twilight session)

 Please see Session 1 to book your place ›

This course is designed to provide governors and trustees with an understanding of their role and remit of safeguarding in their school. It provides an introduction to all relevant safeguarding guidance, child protection processes and procedures, the roles and responsibilities of governors, the categories of abuse, and an insight into inspection standards for safeguarding children and young people.

The course will cover:

• Governors’ responsibilities to ensure compliance with safeguarding laws and statutory guidance; multi-agency working; the requirement to appoint designated safeguarding leads; and the requirement that all school staff undergo relevant training
• The policies and procedures required, with a particular focus on information-sharing and high risk safeguarding areas such as child-on-child abuse and online safety
• Whistleblowing, Safer Recruitment obligations and the appropriate management of allegations against staff

Please note: While participants will receive a certificate of attendance, this course does not provide certification in safer recruitment.

Course dates:

• 3 October 2022 @ 10am – 12pm (free of charge) FULLY BOOKED
• 21 March 2023 @ 12pm – 2pm (£30 per participant)
• 15 May 2023 @ 2pm – 4pm (£30 per participant)

To register, please fill in the form on this page for each participant attending › Once we have received your registration, we will email you to confirm your place. Log-in details will be emailed once your course place has been confirmed.

ECT 10 – Promoting poetry in the classroom: This practical session will consider ways to develop teachers’ own subject knowledge and enjoyment of poetry. It will look at techniques to help lift poetry off the page to enhance children’s response to poems and to support children in writing their own poetry.

Please bring with you a poem you remember from your childhood and one that you have used successfully (in any way) with your class.

This course is certificated and can serve as evidence of the statutory 2 year training for DSLs.

It covers the following aspects:

• Understanding of the Child Protection Framework, including legislation (Education Acts) and statutory guidance (KCISE September 2021)
• Effective implementation of Duty of Care within the role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead
• Exploration of effective and robust record keeping
• Understanding the referral process and effective information sharing
• Responding effectively to whistleblowing concerns
• Understanding of thresholds and risk analysis within the context of safeguarding
• Management of safeguarding across challenging topics including Prevent, and Peer-on-Peer abuse (including sexual violence and sexual harassment)

“Nicole was extremely informative with excellent up-to-date knowledge to share.”

This programme explores key areas of leadership within the context of schools in London and provides opportunities for self-reflection on your leadership journey. Topics are grounded in the day-to-day experience of participants and that of the experienced headteachers and senior leaders who contribute to the course.

Click here to book your place ›

With the increasing spotlight on middle leaders (subject leaders) in the new inspection framework, there is an unambiguous focus on the ability of subject leaders to improve teaching and learning and ultimately, drive forwards whole school improvement. The national curriculum programme of study for art and design does not provide very much detail in terms of content compared to those for many other subjects. As a result, schools need to plan carefully to ensure it provides a rich, broad and balanced art and design curriculum

The new ‘Quality of Education’ judgement is at the heart of this framework and schools will need to consider the following:

• What knowledge and understanding are pupils expected to gain at each stage of their schooling and in each subject?
• How does our whole-school curriculum hang together?
• How does the school’s context inform the curriculum?
• Do pupils know more and remember more of the planned curriculum?

Created for Art and Design subject leaders across the primary phase of education, this half day course introduces them to a range of effective strategies, approaches and knowledge that will help them grow in confidence and excel in this important role. This course is aimed at empowering the Art and Design subject leader to:

• Understand the implications of the new Ofsted framework on their leadership role
• Explore how intent, implementation and impact relate to each other within the context of a school’s Art and Design curriculum
• Unpick progression through the different strands of Art from the EYFS to the end of Key Stage 2
• Consider the key elements of a ‘Deep Dive’ in Art

This 1 day course gives subject leaders and teachers an in-depth look at what progression in the different types of scientific enquiry and the working scientifically skills in the National Curriculum look like from EYFS to KS2.

Participants will explore the relationship between the substantive knowledge in the National Curriculum and the two areas of disciplinary knowledge (i.e. the working scientifically skills and scientific enquiry). It will look at how children need to be taught the relevant working scientifically skills in order to answer appropriate scientific enquiry questions, and how the working scientifically skills develop from EYFS to upper KS2.

Throughout the course, they will be directed to useful resources to support the teaching and learning of this disciplinary knowledge.

Participants in this course will also be able to join in the Science Network meetings for FREE.

Naomi Hiscock works for the Science Learning Centre London as a trainer, delivering INSET both at The Centre based at the Institute of Education and in schools.

This accredited training is provided by the Safer Recruitment Consortium and meets the standard of training consistent with the Local Authority offer of Safer Recruitment Training.

By undertaking this endorsed training, you can be assure that the content is up to date, relevant and sector specific. Your training will meet the standards required by the DfE in Keeping children safe in education (September 2022).

Course content:

• To ensure that you are confident and competent in identifying people who may post a threat of harm, and eliminating any circumstance of risk
• Raise awareness of the safer recruitment within the wider context of the safeguarding.
• Look into the prevalence of the abuse and harm
• Understanding further details of the model of offending behaviour

This online course is spread out over 2 x half day sessions: 12 & 13 June 2023 @ 1.00 – 4.30pm

If you’re a governor of a school or an academy and would like to attend this course,  please get in touch by filling in our contact form, making sure to include the title: Governor’s enquiry about Safer Recruitment.

This accredited training is provided by the Safer Recruitment Consortium and meets the standard of training consistent with the Local Authority offer of Safer Recruitment Training.

By undertaking this endorsed training, you can be assure that the content is up to date, relevant and sector specific. Your training will meet the standards required by the DfE in Keeping children safe in education (September 2022).

Course content:

• To ensure that you are confident and competent in identifying people who may post a threat of harm, and eliminating any circumstance of risk
• Raise awareness of the safer recruitment within the wider context of the safeguarding.
• Look into the prevalence of the abuse and harm
• Understanding further details of the model of offending behaviour

This online course is spread out over 2 x half day sessions: 12 & 13 June 2023 @ 1.00 – 4.30pm. Please see Day 1 to book your place ›

If you’re a governor of a school or an academy and would like to attend this course,  please get in touch by filling in our contact form, making sure to include the title: Governor’s enquiry about Safer Recruitment.

The session will cover the following areas:

• Understanding the main beliefs and practices of Christianity
• Understanding the big story of the Bible through eight core concepts
• How to effectively teach Biblical text analysis across the primary age-range
• Tackling sensitive issues related to Christianity

This 5-day programme is aimed at leaders who want to develop their subject leadership skills to ensure it is strategic, has an impact on the whole school and is driven by the school’s distinctive Christian vision.

Programme Outline: 5 taught days, with up to 12 hours ‘out of class‘ to conduct and write up a piece of small-scale action research. Where possible, up to two visits to other schools to complete gap tasks/work collaboratively on a research project. There will be a short written reflection at the end of the programme, which focuses on the RE leader’s personal goal/s, plus an opportunity to share findings of the research project, and the impact of the study upon the school and themselves as leaders, with colleagues on Day 5.

Day 5: Hope & Aspiration ‘Reflecting on the journey’

• What does it mean to be hopeful and full of aspiration?
• Personal reflection on development of leadership skills
• Sharing of research projects
• What now?
• Evaluation of the programme

Click here to book your place ›

Led by Rebecca Swansbury (Canterbury Diocese), and supported by Shaun Burns (Southwark) and Mary Thorne (LDBS).

• Rebecca Swansbury: Acting Deputy Director of Education for the Diocese of Canterbury, where she regularly leads training to support and enable leaders, teachers and trainee teachers across the Diocese in RE, collective worship and SIAMS.
• Mary Thorne: Primary school link adviser, leading on RE for the London Diocesan Board for Schools. Her role involves supporting school improvement and leading training in the areas of middle leadership, collective worship, spirituality and RE.