Professional development for leaders and teachers : Training courses 2025/26
To lead thriving schools, we need more than passion — we need purposeful, evidence-informed CPD for teachers and school leaders that responds to the real challenges of education today. Created for impact and empowerment, select from a range of teacher and leader CPD.
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I offer a range of central training courses for teachers throughout the year — giving colleagues from different schools the chance to come together, share practice, explore research, and develop ideas that drive real improvement.
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I also design bespoke CPD and leadership development tailored to your school's or MAT’s priorities — whether it’s for early career teachers, middle leaders, or your senior team.
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Explore our self-paced teacher training courses — ideal for fitting CPD around busy school schedules.
Happiness at Work
Senior leadership & whole school culture development.
This is a scientific, strategic approach that harness 7 drivers to shift gears on employee satisfaction, wellness and productivity. It will help your SLT to perform better, and for your whole school to achieve levels of employee performance not seen before.
Book training for your senior leadership team. Gain access to a handbook, questions and powerful framework. Change the way you audit and utilise staff voice. Access coaching around the 7 drivers for individual ownership of happiness at work.
Rather than targeting surface level and tokenistic measures, make a difference at a practical level.
Metacognition
Our central course date has now passed. Why not consider bespoke training for your school?
Gain the knowledge you need to harness metacognition, make a plan of action and access a wealth of resources to aid implementation.
Grounded in high quality research, participants will extend their knowledge and understanding of this exciting field of psychology. The course particularly focuses on how metacognition can be used to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
The EEF rates metacognition as the highest impact strategy for closing the attainment gap, reporting that pupils can make 7+ months of progress. The training will help to show you how.
Reading comprehension: Switch to the Big 10
Our central training date has now passed. Why not consider bespoke training and support for your school.
The training enables you to move to the Big 10 reading comprehension strategies. You’ll have everything you need to launch: frameworks, posters, case studies, assessment materials, teaching advice, and access to an online portal of support materials.
The training builds expertise and increases the impact of teaching reading comprehension by drilling down into specifics.
Oracy Development
Learning to talk; Learning through talk; Learning about talk;
A fantastic opportunity for oracy leaders to audit the school's current position and create a strategic plan for improvement. Participants will learn how to use a robust, peer reviewed and evidence informed framework that supports oracy development in school.
Deepen knowledge of effective practice with excellent supporting resources for leaders and teachers to aid implementation of oracy across the curriculum.
"Vicky's whole course was outstanding!"
"Brilliant ideas easily put into practice."
Tuesday 2nd December
Weetwood Hall, Headingley, Leeds
Inspire - Facilitate thinking - Empower
Vicky is a school improvement consultant offering a range of senior leadership courses and continuing professional development (CPD) training for teachers. From central face-to-face training to self-paced courses, from single day events to year-long programmes, there are several teacher CPD options aimed at boosting performance and enabling colleagues to thrive in tole. With over twenty years of teaching, leadership, and consultancy experience in the education sector, Vicky understands the demands leaders face in both the day-to-day running of a school and forging ahead with a school improvement agenda. Need training delivered at your school or at a Trust event? Get in touch to discuss options.
Central courses
A range of live courses are offered each year that enable leaders from a different schools to train together.
Bespoke training
Schools, MATs and groups of schools can have a bespoke training package developed to meet their needs.
Think pieces
In-depth education articles, case studies and associated resources can be accessed via my blog and shop.
STARS
STIMULUS materials for leaders with a focus on skills, thinking, application, reflection, and connections.
Courses can be designed to suit your need across a range of teaching and leadership issues, from single events to year-long programmes.
Hear from leaders who have benefited from our leadership CPD programs:
“After the final session I cannot tell you how many staff burst through my door very inspired by the activities they had been part of. I am delighted by the way this programme has developed all my leaders and managers. I know it will have a lasting impact on everyone who has been a part of it which of course will translate to the continued success of our school. I cannot thank you enough for understanding what I needed to achieve and being able to inspire and engage at such a high level.” Headteacher in reference to a year-long leadership programme.
“Just a quick email to say a massive thank you for the training you did on Tuesday. I have had many positive comments about it and people have made a point of coming to tell me about some things they have tried or changed over the past few days...which is great so thanks very much.” Headteacher in reference to a full training day focusing on reading.
“Just to say a very big thank you for your work on Friday. I very much appreciated your direct approach and your hard work. I know the day will move the school on in our marking and feedback and increase the impact on pupil progress.” Headteacher in relation to a marking and feedback review day.
“A massive success and I thank you for your first class training and organisation.” Headteacher in relation to a multi school event for over 90 teaching assistants.
“I appreciate everything you've been doing with EYFS and transition. Staff have spoken extremely highly about everything. Both EYFS and KS1 have had successful moderations with the authority, and transition strategies that were worked out with you are going extremely well. You've really helped with helping to move both these key stages forward, and have a really successful year. A real credit to all involved.” Headteacher in relation to an EYFS / Year 1 writing project.
My guiding principle is to empower primary teachers and leaders through focused teacher CPD and leadership CPD, ensuring professional growth. To achieve this, I believe in:
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Balancing theory and practical application. Colleagues need to be able to turn research and theory into reality.
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Encouraging colleagues to challenges themselves, be open-minded, ask questions, analyse current practices, and remain curious.
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Supporting colleagues to acquire a deep knowledge base so that they empowered to take action and implement quality solutions that are right for their schools.
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Facilitating critical thinking to enable colleagues to explore problems from multiple perspectives.
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Providing equal levels of challenge and support - high expectations and a commitment to excellence.
If you are someone committed to growth and achieving excellence, then I am the right training provider and school improvement partner for you.
Other training and development options for primary schools
In addition to bespoke training, I offer a variety of online self-paced options, emphasising teacher CPD, tailored to close the gap for disadvantaged pupils.
Design your own middle leadership support package
Subject leader training and phase leadership training can be designed for your school. You can also add coaching to the programme, helping to blend together theory and practice. Having worked with many subject leaders, colleagues really appreciate the time to discuss their vision and action plans and to reflect on developments that are specific to their subject or phase. Phase leaders value considering how they fit into the bigger picture and examining how their contributions can make a significant difference to school culture, standards and achieving whole school goals. Create a subject leader training programme by selecting from a range of leadership modules, or set your own leadership objectives and Vicky will design a course to match your needs. Face-to-face options in Yorkshire and zoom options for across the country.
Strategic leadership for teams
Some schools find it useful in the summer term to have a 'strategic facilitator' helping them to assess the current situation, set out priorities and consider the actions needed to bring about improvement. Other schools are interested in growing the strategic skillset of the whole senior leadership team over a series of half-day training events. Both these can be provided for your school. For leaders interested in developing strategic thinking, a blended coaching / professional dialogue 1:1 approach can also be provided.
Reading comprehension
Vicky has spent several years researching, creating resources, writing think pieces and creating live and self-paced training courses for the development of reading comprehension. You can book leadership support or enable all colleagues to develop their reading expertise via an online self-paced course. This year, colleagues can also undertake a one-year 'building expertise in comprehension' programme.
Reading comprehension is essential for academic success, as well as equipping pupils with skills they need for the rest of their lives. It is particularly important to support pupils who are struggling in the classroom, and is an essential piece of the jigsaw in raising attainment for disadvantaged pupils. It is this latter element that kick-started Vicky's interest in resolving reading issues.
Curriculum Development
Vicky has significant knowledge regarding curriculum design, curriculum review and curriculum development. Vicky has worked with a variety of schools through face-to-face courses and bespoke support. Audits and development materials produced by Vicky have been published by 'The Key' and these have helped a number of school leaders and governors set out their vision and intent. Schools currently tend to be focused on the challenge of implementation and impact. Vicky can provide strategic leadership for senior leaders and more direct support for subject leaders depending on the needs of the school. Why not get in touch to discuss how Vicky can support the school in the goal to make the ambitions of the curriculum a reality.
Developing oracy (and thinking!)
Oracy is vital for academic and life-long success. Vicky can work with a senior leader or group of teachers to design and implement a school-wide approach to oracy. From oracy frameworks to practical resources, Vicky can help you turn theory into reality. Improving oracy is a key strategy in supporting disadvantaged pupils to thrive in the classroom.
Vicky can offer you some amazing tools that are proven to help schools shift oracy into a strong position.
If you have not worked with me before, why not book a 'discovery meeting' to see how I can be of assistance. Choose a date and time to discuss your requirements and ask questions about the service you can expect.
Or, if you are a school who has worked with before but you have a new project in mind, book a 1 hour discovery meeting to map out the deliverables.