Training Providers to the education sector

Training and Development in the Education Sector

Schools and colleges are not so dissimilar to commercial-based businesses. There are customers, stakeholders, authorities, targets and budgets managed.

Of course, the purpose is different but so are the purposes of a number of different businesses. Working at Business Link in the early 2000s three of the Expressions team would work with organisations of all shapes, sizes and categories including schools.

Specifically advising and assessing against the national Investors in People standard there was much to share between education and business and both denominations gained mutual benefits.

One of the founders of the Expressions Partnership was also a primary school Vice Chair of governors for 7 years during the era of academisation and educational reform.

Frustrated by the then-defined role of the primary school being:

“To get the child ready for secondary education” there was a fuelled passion for expanding this basic function to the wider holistic sense quoting the role of the school in question (as well as other primary schools in his opinion)

“To prepare each and every child for the next stage in their life”

Continuing this passion and commitment the Expressions team work with a selection of schools either independently or via a curriculum hub.

One of the team is actually a qualified teacher and still provides teaching support for secondary education in the UK.

Primarily Expressions has designed and delivered interventions and continued support in the following areas:

Inset days
Leadership and Management development
One-to-one coaching
Specific subjects

Inset Days

Protecting time to gather, share and learn is essential especially when you consider the busy schedules that exist in modern education establishments.

Expressions are not qualified to run curriculum-specific training sessions as there are far more equipped individuals and organisations out there that provide this specialist advice.

The Expressions team are often called upon to design and lead on specific issues that face schools as well as other organisations. Examples include:

Dealing with Change
Personal Wellbeing
Happiness
Stress and coping
Building resilience and grounding confidence
Prioritisation
Team development

Leadership and Management

Like every sector and organisation, Managers and Senior Managers typically gain internal promotion due to their technical specialism and expertise. Rarely is there enough (if any) focus on the skill shift from technical to Leadership.

Not many teachers set out to become Headteachers as the role is completely different to teaching. In fact, it is our belief that this job title is now redundant as hardly any headteachers actually teach anymore.

They are the School CEO or Business Leader which requires a distinctly different skill set to that of a teacher, but they must remain focused on their customer base… the children and their parents/guardians.

Curriculum Leaders, Subject and Key Stage Leaders, assistants, deputies and even Headteachers have attended the Open Management Academy so they too can benefit from the ideas and opinions of different sectors.

Expressions has also designed and delivered in-house Academy programmes for schools focusing on their specific requirements to overcome their identified challenges ensuring each individual plays their position to the best of their ability and they deliver for their valued customers and fulfil their purpose to prepare each and every child for the next stage in their life.

“As someone who has always doubted their confidence in managing others and dealing with conflict / change at work, I found The Management Academy invaluable for my own personal development and well-being.

Through the use of discussions and tasks I feel my knowledge of how to be a good leader is dramatically improved and that I have practical skills to use.”

Sarah Barlow – KS1 Leader Broughton Infant School

One to One Coaching

You ask anyone who doesn’t work in education what they think about people who work in education and they will likely quote:

The number of weeks they have as “Holiday”
The fact that they finish at 3 pm

What these people do not appreciate is all the extra time and effort that goes into the education profession from mid-day supervisors, office and support team to the senior Leadership team and everyone in between.

Expressions is proud to have been called upon to provide coaching support for selected education establishments in a range of identified areas including, leadership, well-being, time management and work-life harmony to name a few.

Specific Subjects

One of the most challenging areas to deal with is making qualified judgements and giving constructive negative feedback. This is one of the most popular subject areas the team at Expressions is called upon to assist with. This can be a pragmatic interactive workshop using real play examples through to focused mediation between opposing parties.

Most recently the team have been asked to design and deliver a specific workshop to enable a number of curriculum hubs when they are charged with lesson observation and constructive feedback and action planning sessions.

Not wishing to be likened to the stereo-typical Ofsted inspection these groups of supporters wanted to find an assertive, evidence-based approach to further enhance the standards and qualities of teaching and learning.

Often faced with resistance through denial or apathy to change Expressions ran a series of workshops to identify the origins of the adverse behaviour and practical ways in which to overcome these psychological barriers and arrive at the desired outcomes whilst protecting the dignity of the teachers and engendering a psychologically safe culture.