I thought the consultation was extremely useful. Gary took me through the whole programme of study and explained everything in detail which was great. I asked quite a few questions and Gary was incredibly willing to answer all. The most useful part of the consultation was when Gary explained to me the Essentials website itself. Here, he showcased all that it has to offer, and discussed the thinking behind making it. It was a great, informative hour and I feel very confident in delivering it one day to the staff.
Role: Associate Consultant
Since starting out as a Teacher, Gary has enjoyed a variety of roles in primary education including as Head Teacher of three schools. Gary has considerable experience of leading training events for individual and groups of schools, as well as speaking at conferences. Gary joined Chris Quigley Education as an Associate in 2012.
I cannot rate the training highly enough, it was fantastic. It is one of the best external CPD experiences we have had in a very long time. The whole training by Gary was really cohesive and tied in all aspects of really thorough curriculum planning, from principles, to delivery, to assessment. I left school feeling excited, motivated and really secure in the direction in which we are going. The ‘buzz’ and excitement in the room was amazing!!
Having worked with CQ Education before it was good to see the updated ideas shared by Gary and link it to how our work as a school has been developing. The second day with the working party of our school leaders was very valuable in considering our school community and the nature of our own pupils, with Gary asking questions to focus us on our school context and develop a plan for what we need to do next. Following on from a discussion with Gary about the vocabulary course, we have decided to book this for our INSET in January and continue the work we have started with Gary, and build on our existing relationship with Chris Quigley Education.
Another really successful day! Gary got it dead right!
Gary has been extremely helpful in supporting us with the structure our new curriculum, particularly with regards to the theory and academic research surrounding how children learn and how our curriculum can reflect this. The CPD has been vital in supporting the development of our new curriculum.
Lots of information to think about and practical tasks that can easily be implemented to improve learning outcomes. High quality – relevant and delivered in a user friendly way by Gary with quick wins that can easily be implemented.
Very Good, clearly informative and knowledgeable delivery from Gary with good links and explanation.
The framework that Gary shared with us now puts us at a shared understanding from which to move forward and do the work. Meeting with Gary and my Curriculum Team beforehand gave us the chance to continue our journey discussing and reflecting on what we are doing and put us one step ahead of the rest of the team who we are going to support and guide going forward. The content was very well thought out, linked well with what we already doing and was current and relevant.
I just wanted to say thank you to Gary for our session on Tuesday. I found it really useful. I introduced the knowledge categories to the staff yesterday and they were really excited about using them within their planning next half term.
A very effective and useful day with Gary last week! I found the time I spent with Gary before and after he worked with staff invaluable and all staff felt that he reassured them in regards to making judgements about children. My booking was excellent; from the initial phone conversation where I was able to explain our particular needs as a school, to the e-mailing in the lead up to the event and the actual day itself with Gary. All aspects were of a very high standard.
Please pass on our thanks to Gary for such a great day. It was really useful seeing how the design of the curriculum can influence how children learn and remember key concepts/approaches, not just the 'facts'. Our booking was excellent as previously.
The presentation guided us to how we want to present our new curriculum to staff. Gary was very adaptable and changed the day to suit our needs as it progressed. Excellent!
Gary was inspiring in his delivery of all material and he gave staff sufficient time to think about and reflect on the curriculum ideas he was discussing. The ideas raised around assessment of greater depth being a two-year cycle and allowing the first year of this cycle to be spent on basic thinking to deliver firm foundations of knowledge, skills and understanding for pupils to develop further in the second year were well received. We really enjoyed the training and would highly recommend Gary to colleagues at other schools. This training surpassed my expectations.
It was a fantastic day and thank you again to Gary for making the content so relevant to our school. The course was excellent value for money. Gary’s recent experiences as a Headteacher made his suggestions and advice well-respected as he has first-hand and current experience of everything he was presenting. He was extremely easy to listen to and the day went far too quickly! Thank you on behalf of all my staff.
All parts of the day Gary delivered were very useful - it was an excellent course. As a leadership team, it has made us totally re-think our curriculum intent, implementation, monitoring, educational visits, displays etc. It has highlighted possibilities for the curriculum we had not previously thought.
The whole day was great – Gary tailored the training to meet our needs. It was a super event.
All really useful information, well presented by Gary and linked to our current school priorities – exactly what we were looking for!
All parts of the day were extremely useful, but the morning sessions led by Gary were excellent. It was very reassuring to find that we were further than we had realised with our curriculum journey and on the same page as a staff.
A thought provoking training day, which really made us reflect on our current curriculum. The pitch was just right, it was an excellent session, thank you Gary.
The day was a great success; we received excellent feedback from delegates, all of whom really enjoyed Gary’s presentation and found the content stimulating. The session on enriching children’s vocabulary was particularly well-received. The resources were excellent and highly relevant, and the presentation had the right balance of interaction.
Everyone who attended felt they had been challenged and inspired. Gary was able to adapt the course for us and we found the work on curriculum drivers, the difference between mastery and greater depth and the cross curricular approach to sustaining mastery most useful.
The day was all great, as expected. Gary was able to draw connections between our current approach, DoL and Learning Without Lessons. It's really useful to have someone other than myself giving staff the same message.
Training days went really well; staff are very enthused and re-engaged! Do thank Alex for us; he is a mine of information. Staff wanted even more time to pick Alex’s brain!
The day was excellent. It had been tailored to meet our needs: to develop our understanding of BAD, to identify essentials for planning, to develop our understanding of responsive teaching and to develop the concept of levels of questioning.
The event was very well received by the 50 Teachers who took part. Gary was a great presenter and gave us lots to work on and think about.