The whole of the CPD provided by Chris was invaluable and insightful as it was underpinned by key research with clear explanations and examples which can impact ‘Quality First Teaching’ across all career expectations (Early Teachers to SLT). It created a real professional buzz which was brilliant. All our staff were engaged and enthusiastic throughout the interaction.
Chris’ training was so engaging and relevant to our next steps in curriculum development. All members of staff who I have spoken to found it incredibly interesting and useful. His manner and extensive knowledge of the subject made the day highly motivating and enjoyable.
Chris was very engaging and clearly passionate, knowledgeable and well researched. This was well pitched for STARS in that we are already reviewing our curriculum intent, implementation and impact. This course affirmed what we are doing and gave us new knowledge and understanding to have a clear focus for further development.
Totally brilliant, thank you! Have booked Chris for this time next year already.
Professional discussion around curriculum organisation and delivery that best fits present thinking. Golden sentences- very excited about developing these across all subjects.
Chris’ work is grounded in sound research and pedagogy – staff really respected that and also the content is inspirational in its ambition for equity. This really helped me shift staff understanding as to why I want us to work on vocabulary.
The session was well paced and structured and the training materials were clear and easy to use/follow. The session was extremely well presented and Chris gave lots of great practical tips and strategies to take away and use in the classroom. The whole school approach to teaching vocabulary outlined was clear and easy to adopt. We really liked the links across the curriculum and the progression across subjects. Also great to have time to stop and reflect throughout and talk to other colleagues through chats in rooms.
All of Chris’ ideas are evidence based which impacts on whole school improvement. I would rate my booking as outstanding - Chris is so current.
Very bespoke implementation session with lots of real-life examples from schools. Plenty of opportunity for discussion and reflection despite being virtual. It was a brilliant session and gave us plenty of food for thought going forward with the development of our curriculum.
Thank you to Chris for inspiring us to embed retrieval across the curriculum and supporting our CPD programme so well. The sessions were well-structured with good links to school development areas, had clear explanations and a lively and engaging presentation. I would rate my booking as excellent.
The most useful parts of the day were the definition of key phrases Chris gave, such as Cultural Capital - we had not given this as much thought as perhaps we should have done previously. It was useful to understand the theory behind many of the points discussed. Self-Evaluation was also useful - we will now use this as part of our subject on a page and use the questions to help identify areas that staff can work on to gain extra insight into their subjects. I would rate my booking as very high. As a group of schools it makes sense for us to come together so that we can get a speaker of a high calibre. Thank you for being so flexible with the booking too - it is appreciated!
Thanks for a great session. Chris was able to combine the DT with the role of subject leader as requested. I would rate my booking as excellent, the team couldn’t have been more helpful.
The session was outstanding and provided further ideas on how we design and implement a curriculum that leads to students' long-term retention and deeper understanding. It was also very helpful to have the points made supported by research so that staff can easily access these if needed. Chris also gave a great description of how to assess the impact of a curriculum and how hard it is to see learning happening within the classroom.
The day was a great success. Chris was fantastic and the delegates got so much out of the day. We have had lots of positive feedback, with lots of delegates hoping to implement this in their own school. The handouts and articles given to read were useful. Delegates particularly enjoyed the breakout rooms. This was a great opportunity to share ideas with others. 10 out of 10, thank you!
The inset was amazing – thank you Chris. Our staff were motivated and inspired and thought that everything made perfect sense. Hearing about starting every lesson with a reminder of what has gone before, as well as the information about how children learn and embed knowledge into their long-term memory was particularly useful.
A great day of quality CPD, lots of things to take away and discuss as SLT and for subject leaders too. Thank you, Chris.
The day was highly engaging and delivered key messages about cognitive science and learning theories based on evidence-based research, supported with real life examples. Our trainees gained new knowledge and were challenged in their thinking. The course was personalised really well to reach our primary and secondary trainees and also touching on their specialism of PE. We were really well supported by the team and the booking process was seamless. Thank you!
Writing has been our biggest area of focus for children across school over the last couple of years post-lockdowns. We really needed some practical advice and ideas for how to incorporate meaningful writing opportunities across our whole curriculum which this course (Writing to Learn) did perfectly. Chris’ delivery was excellent and really engaging (he managed to keep us all interested and involved until 6.00pm).
The session Chris delivered focused on the research and rationale of designing our own curriculum. It was clear and informative and gave staff a good understanding of the changes we are making at school. It was just what we wanted and the staff passed back positive feedback. I would rate my booking as fantastic, easy and straight forward. Always there for support. Thank you.
Thank you so much for the training today (Retrieval Practice). I have had such positive feedback from everyone. It worked really well on Zoom. Having the break out rooms was actually really efficient – probably more so than in person. Chris’ delivery style works well over Zoom and it remained as engaging as ever.