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Welcome to the Professional Development Service

Here at The Education People we provide extensive professional development for teachers, with training programmes for educators working in early years settings, schools, and colleges.

Thanks to our robust quality assurance process, we’re confident that our learning development training is of the highest quality, and, as members of CPD UK, we will begin to deliver accredited CPD courses for teachers across the country.

Our highly regarded conference programme attracts an abundance of national and international keynote speakers offering both face-to-face and online options.

We also have a range of face-to-face and online learning solutions so wherever you happen to be you’ll still have the resources you need to kick start your professional development.

We have made our online teaching courses via Zoom as interactive as possible, with glowing feedback from past attendees to prove it. Every day, we continue to learn and make our programmes as dynamic as possible. We will change to meet national agendas where necessary and deliver these messages at a local level.

We have a wealth of E-learning courses and recorded webinars on offer where remote delivery is more appropriate. Easy access packages of E-learning can also be purchased particularly for those supporting learning in the classroom.

The Education People tutors are all experts in their field, armed with a wealth of knowledge and experience in working in early years settings, schools, colleges, and businesses. It’s with the help of their incredible insight that professional development in childcare, and comprehensive professional development for teachers, is possible. You can learn more about our stellar tutors at the bottom of this page.

Have a look at our latest primary CPD Leaders Training Update below.

Primary CPD Leaders Update

Spring 2023 Edition
We offer a wide range of individual training courses focused around professional development for teachers, via CPD online.
This CPD training for teachers covers a number of important topics, from foundation subjects to equality & inclusion. Find out more below:

Early Careers Teachers (ECTs)

Visit our dedicated area for Early Careers Teachers (ECTs), where you will find detailed information on our ECT Induction & Support team and how they can help you and your new teachers.

What do our delegates say?

"The course was extremely helpful and thought provoking, plenty of resources to use as required. It was interactive enough to give you time to reflect in your own setting. Well presented by the trainers."

Teacher
Tonbridge Special School

"This will positively impact on whole school practice. It will enable us to move forward to enhance phonics planning, teaching, teacher subject knowledge and assessment protocol."

English Teacher
Maidstone Primary School

"A lot of good practice shared with opportunities to network and connect with other teachers. Trainer was AMAZING and clear with explanations and pedagogy."

Teacher
Tonbridge Primary School

Meet some of our in-house training team

for educational settings.  Rebecca provides bespoke training for professionals in relation to online safety and believes in empowering professionals to support children to use the internet safely and responsibly through a practical and pragmatic approach.

Rebecca has led on the development of a suite of online safety policies and guidance documents for Kent which are used by agencies, authorities and educational settings throughout the UK and beyond.

Rebecca is a nationally recognised online safety guidance and policy author, and is member of several panels and groups which provide advice and guidance to educational settings. She is a member of the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS) Education Working Group and has contributed towards and coordinated the development of national guidance documents for educational settings.

Rebecca is also a member of the Internet Matters ‘Expert Panel’ and Childnet Internationals Project DeShame Expert group. Rebecca has received several local and national awards recognising her work, including CEOP's “Children's Champion of the Year” and a certificate of Merit from Kent Police. In 2015, she completed a Master’s in Advanced Child Protection with the University of Kent.

Rebecca is a committed and professional trainer with excellent communication and presentation skills and speaks publicly at conferences on various issues related to online safety. She works closely with local and national agencies to develop forward thinking about online child protection and safeguarding and is passionate about the importance of professionals working in partnership with children to shape and develop an effective and embedded approach towards online safety.

county, delivering training for Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL) and bespoke safeguarding training for schools and early years settings.

She writes guidance and procedures for early years to support their best practice.  Prior to this she worked from 2001 as an Early Years Ofsted Inspector to register, inspect and investigate a wide range of early years provision and schools.  Joanne has a BA (Hons) Degree in Early Childhood Studies.  She has extensive knowledge and understanding of early years issues, particularly with reference to her dissertation examining children’s school readiness for school in respect of their personal, emotional and social wellbeing.

for Literacy in Kent schools.  Penny leads seasonal meetings for the county’s English Subject Leaders, together with in-school support and training in all elements of the teaching of English.  Penny has secure subject knowledge and experience in Literacy, and enjoys working with schools to help them to achieve their great potential.

Her specialities include:

  • Spoken language
  • Reading and phonics
  • Writing
  • Grammar, punctuation and spelling
  • Subject leader support and development.

The Education People as an adviser in August 2018.  He has been a frontline social worker working in child protection, children in care and adoption.  He has also been a team leader in charge of social worker both in mainstream children’s services and within disabled children’s services.  He has also worked as a Local Authority Designated Officer in Kent for 18 months.

Robin has experience in lots of different disciplines and areas of children’s social care.  Within these roles he gained the skills and knowledge to be able to make sound judgements about when children can no longer be safeguarded at home and the ability to escalate matters to a legal arena.  As a consequence he has given evidence in court and provided numerous legal reports to a high standard for this purpose.

He is currently an Area Safeguarding Adviser in East Kent which is a role that provides a consultation service to a variety of educational settings.  He also provides training to staff in educational settings such as Designated Safeguarding Training.  He also offers whole settings training for schools and nurseries.  Robin currently has a lead role in the areas of harmful sexual behaviour and safer recruitment for the service.  Robin delivered a workshop on Harmful Sexual Behaviour in Children for the recent The Education People Show held in Maidstone in 2019.

He lives in East Kent is married with two adult children.

experience of disability to support and empower others.  Ben moved to the position of ESO in August 2008, a position he still holds.  Due to his extensive experience of supporting people in the workplace as a job coach, Ben was asked to co-deliver his first TSI course in 2009 when, along with his co-trainer, he delivered TSI internally within the service. Since then he has delivered TSI training for over a hundred participants.

Ben has regularly delivered training on behalf of the organisation and along with TSI has delivered other courses including travel training, disability confident and job coach best practice courses.

Ben is particularly passionate about the in-work support within the service due to the empowering nature and the impact it can have on people’s lives. Ben gets great satisfaction from passing on his knowledge and strong values around TSI to as many other individuals and services as possible.

in a range of areas including Early Years (Communication, Language & Literacy Development), SEND, Maths and Literacy, before moving to Kent.

She leads seasonal meetings for the county’s Maths and English Subject Leaders, together with in-school support and training in all elements of the teaching of Maths and Literacy. Sarah keenly follows the latest developments and pedagogic research and is passionate about ensuring Kent pupils receive the very best teaching possible specialising in:


English subject knowledge:

  • Reading and phonics
  • Writing
  • Grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Maths subject knowledge:

  • Using manipulatives from EYFS to Year 6
  • Developing fluency, reasoning and problem solving
  • Promoting opportunities to work at greater depth.

Subject Leader support and development:

  • Joint learning walks and work scrutiny.

 

to develop school leadership and improve teaching.  Matt spends most of his working time in schools with children teachers and leaders looking at ways to improve outcomes for all. He has also inspected schools. He draws on this wealth of experience to add practical examples to all his training sessions.

His relaxed yet knowledgeable delivery ensures people come away well informed, excited and empowered to implement new ideas back at school.

DfE as a National  Leader of Governance and trained external reviewer.  Her experience spans both the maintained and academy school sectors as Chair of a Trust and a Maintained School.

Julia’s passion for governance led to her employment in Governor services in 2016 in which she provides support, advice and legislative guidance, working closely with the School Improvement Team and leads The Clerking Service.  She uses her wealth of ‘hands on’ experience  and knowledge within her training and facilitated sessions to Governors, Clerks and Headteachers as well as delivering on the National Governance Association Leading Governance programme.

a primary headteacher.  Following headship her focus has been in advisory and consultancy work in advisory and consultancy work.  Roles have included:

  • Advisory Teacher (BME) with Cambridgeshire Local Authority
  • Numeracy Consultant with Peterborough Unitary Authority
  • Programme Manager in four government regions working with the NCSL on the development and delivery of Leadership Programme (LftM, Leadership Pathways, New Visions and Headteacher Induction Programme). During this time she worked as an NPQH assessor and was a lead facilitator for NCSL (responsible for recruitment and training for regional consultants)
  • Writing and facilitating bespoke leadership programme for senior leadership teams and school collaborations as a freelance consultant and associate with Leadership Development consortiums across the UK
  • School Improvement Adviser (Northants)
  • Ofsted accredited team Inspector (2008) followed by accreditation as Lead Inspector (2009) whilst working for Tribal as a Senior Inspector
  • Head of Primary Transformation (National Academy Chain)

Helena has worked in Kent since 2009 across all districts either as a School Improvement Adviser or as a Consultant.  She co-ordinated the Deputy Headteacher network meetings in Ashford and managed a county wide mathematics project which involved leading a design and delivery team whose remit was to support schools in the implementation of the new mathematics curriculum (2013-2014).  During this time she was accredited with the NCETMs Professional Lead Qualification in mathematics.

She has been based in East Kent since September 2014, specialising in the following areas:

  • Supporting schools to secure rapid improvement
  • Teaching and learning reviews/leadership reviews
  • Preparation for inspection
  • Leadership development within all levels of the organisation
  • Coaching and mentoring
  • Support and guidance to governing bodies with
    • Headteacher recruitment
    • Headteacher performance management
    • Bespoke training

Governor Services team in 2008.  Tina has degrees in Lifelong Learning and also Children and Families (Childcare Management).

In her role within the Governance team, Tina provides legislative support, advice and guidance to governing boards across South Kent, supporting School Improvement and Leadership and Management.  She also promotes Effective Governance and facilitates training and development opportunities, including for the National Governance Association and for Clerks and Governing Boards across the County.

and afterschool clubs across Kent before moving to support families within Children’s Centres and the Early Help & Intensive Support Service.

Jude has been a school governor since 2002 and it was her interest in developing governor skills that led her to apply for the role of Area Governance Officer.  Jude is a charity trustee and chair of governors.  Jude is passionate about improving outcomes for children and young people and believes good governance and leadership is at the heart of school improvement.

educational change and the day-to-day challenges faced by teachers and leaders who are driven to meet the needs of their children.

Jenny brings expertise from her teaching, consultancy and leadership experiences within Kent which include roles as both a headteacher and executive headteacher.

Jenny has devoted 24 years of her career to education and holds a Masters in Education.

Her specialities include:
• Supporting school self-evaluation and improvement planning
• Change management
• Systems leadership
• Development of leadership at all levels to drive school improvement
• Coaching and mentoring
• EYFS and KS1.

which would have a huge impact on the rest of his career.  Mitch was fortunate enough to undertake the Diploma in Supported Employment during its pilot year.  In 2009 he was asked to write The KSE Training in Systematic Instruction (TSI) course which he now delivers with co-trainer Ben Carne.

Mitch is the lead trainer for KSE and runs a number of our Supported Employment courses as well as Disability Confidence sessions for employers.  In 2018 Mitch was awarded BASE Practitioner of the year award.  In his spare time he enjoys cooking and playing guitar, but not at the same time.

for The Education People.  Lorraine has over ten years governance experience and has held a number of positions on a governing board.  Lorraine was previously a Primary School teacher in Kent following the completion of her degree at Canterbury Christchurch University. Lorraine has also worked in the Civil Service in the Home Office and Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

headteacher roles as a Kent Leader of Education.  Her motivation for success has been built upon a passionate belief that every child is unique and deserves an outstanding education.

As a leader, Mary has led school improvement across a wide variety of schools with a focus on staff development and curriculum innovation.

She has worked closely with a wide variety of partner organisations including local universities, Teaching Schools, Kent Association of Headteachers and the Education Endowment Fund, supporting school improvement through the development of collaborative, self-sustaining school groups.

Mary's specialities include:

  • System Leadership
  • Developing leadership within schools
  • Assessment for Learning
  • Curriculum Development
  • Mentoring and Coaching
  • Research based learning
  • Nurture-based provision.

Advisor, Consultant and Moderator in several Local Authorities. supporting leaders and teachers to improve outcomes for pupils.  Passionate about primary education, Ruth has taught from Nursery to Y6. In 2014 she left headship and trained as an OfSTED inspector, combining this role with a number of other roles in education. Ruth is a nationally renowned trainer, writer and speaker, with a particular interest in Early Years.

children’s social work team managing a team of social workers who work with children open to children’s social care.

She has been a qualified social worker since 2009 and has worked for the Local Authority in children’s social work teams across Kent.  Gemma has always had employment working with vulnerable children such as working in a residential children’s home, with young offenders and at an alternative provision for education.  Gemma obtained a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, MA in Social Work and a Graduate Diploma in Children and Families at University.  In her current role Gemma delivers safeguarding training to education settings, conducts safeguarding reviews and advises settings about safeguarding children.  Gemma has also written reports for safeguarding practice reviews and domestic homicide reviews.

and as part of the teaching and learning team worked as a coach coaching staff in a special measures school. Andrew quickly moved into department leadership when he moved to Bristol and made significant changes to the KS3 maths curriculum and assessment ensuring it reflected the changes in the national curriculum at KS2 and the changes in assessment. The Maths department were recognised for their success and were shortlisted for Maths Department of the Year in the TES awards. While doing this Andrew completed a Masters in Leadership in Education from the University of Bristol. This was with a particular focus on assessment and specifically formative assessment.

Andrew embraced more challenge and moved to be Head of Maths in another area in Bristol. There, he led through reform at KS4 and implemented many effective changes which resulted in praise in the 2019 Ofsted for helping the school achieve a Good rating.

More recently, he has been a Lead Practitioner supporting Teaching and Learning in a Grammar School in Canterbury and teaching the Further Maths A-level as well as developing stretch and challenge resources for high attainers.

Andrew believes that without trying new things we don't improve. It is through trying and experimenting with teaching and learning and pushing our comfort zones that we develop the habitats that make us effective teachers.