One year on (ish)

I haven’t written a blog in a while, but I’m getting to the point this year where I feel I need to take stock of the work I’m doing.

When I first set out on this journey (over) 12 months ago, I had one publication to my name and I’d delivered one training course over zoom. That’s not to put my experience down in any way, I’ve supported and developed so many things across schools I’ve worked in over the years, but in terms of being in the ‘big wide world’ of business, my experience has been limited... until now that is!

This year

When I look at the year I’ve had, I’m humbled by the support and engagement I have had from others in the profession. I’ve had some amazing conversations around leadership, curriculum development and the education system as a whole. I’m also very thankful for the confidence schools and headteachers have shown in me when hiring me for my consultancy services. I’ve led on school INSET days and after school staff meetings, and I’ve got to work with some fantastic people directly on specific curriculum developments, developing approaches to leadership, evaluating teaching and learning and different pedagogical approaches, safeguarding and behaviour development. I’m really excited to continue working with these great people, but I’m also excited to work with new teams as well, with numerous exciting consultancy days booked in over the coming months already!

I’m also really excited where my writing has taken me. As I said, one publication, whilst a hugely important one on Black British History, has grown into the following list:

·         Teaching Black British History in the Curriculum

·         Golden Threads in History – Taking your curriculum to the next level

·         Golden Threads in Geography – Taking your curriculum to the next level

·         Vocabulary overviews for History, Geography and Science

·         #Primaryhistorybites

(Titles so far include The Romans, The Ancient Greeks, The Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages and The Great Fire of London)

·         Year group timelines

·         Year group maps

If you are interested, you can find them all here:

All – Page 2 – Focus Education (focus-education.co.uk)

What’s more, is I’ve got so much more writing in the pipeline. I’ve already started to work on a ‘Golden Threads in Science’. I’m also in the midst of putting together another publication on developing vocabulary across the wider curriculum, which I’m really excited about. I have also started work putting resources together to support children with developing their disciplinary understanding within the wider curriculum, which is something that is so important to support children with so that they understand what it means to truly become a historian, a scientist or a musician.

I also have several recordings of the online training I’ve delivered across the year that are available through Focus Education.

And I can’t stop there!

I know this might seem like one long sales pitch, but as I’m writing this its helping me to realise just how much of an impact I’ve had and continue to have on schools!

Let’s Talk

If you’d said to me at this point last year that I’d be writing a whole PSHCE curriculum with Clive Davies, I’d probably have laughed, but that’s exactly what we did over the summer!

Take it or leave it, but if you want to find out more about that, YOU CAN FOLLOW THIS LINK:

Let's Talk - A PSHCE Curriculum - The Learning Challenge Curriculum

There are two free issues (units) available for download if you sign up to the Learning Challenge (for free) and you’ll be able to see how we’ve designed units of learning that allow children to explore issues that are realistic and supported by quality texts to put them into context. I’m biased, but I think it’s a great piece of work and at least worth a look at the free units. While you’re on the LCC too, you can pick up a free Science, History and Geography unit too.

Why stop there you may ask… well alright then, I’ll carry on!

Working Nationally

Something I’ve really enjoyed over the opening term already this year is my work with Best Practice Network as an Associate Consultant. I’ve led training weeks, been a course facilitator for key training days and have supported several students through the start of their teaching journeys. It’s really exciting to be on this side of ITT and I am loving working with another national company to support teacher development.

I also work really closely with Focus Education too. My current work on the Learning Challenge Curriculum is in full flow. We’ve developed our own golden threads through the curriculum and I’ll be looking at how we can develop the art and DT resources further over the coming months. What’s also really exciting is we are in the process of bringing AI into it too. I’m currently training our own chat bot – Elsie – so that she can support subscribers and develop further resources with them – it is going to be amazing! We’re also working with a new product called Air too, which uses AI to generate writing assessment data from pieces of children’s work that you upload in photo format. We want to take this even further and develop a way of assessing what children say within the wider curriculum, and myself and Clive have already started work on this with Dave at Air.

Thank you!

The long and the short of it all, is that what I am enjoying most about being a primary education consultant, is getting to work with so many people invested in our education system across the country. I’ve got to work with over a hundred different individuals in just over twelve months, and there are so many more who want to be involved with what I’m doing, which is really amazing and humbling. I’m so thankful for all of the interactions I’ve had over this time.

And if you do want to have a chat about the work I do in schools, I really am always happy to chat. It might not lead to you buying anything or hiring me for anything, but it will still be great to make a new connection and talk about the things we love within education and how we can support each other through the challenges we face.

You can check my availability here for a virtual tea or a coffee:

https://calendly.com/alexneweducationoutlook/chat-with-alex