Just wanted to drop you a line to thank you for your excellent CPD over the past 8 years which has led to us gaining 'Outstanding' in all areas in our May 24 inspection. No AFIs either! The meticulously planned curriculum is all down to Chris's fab CPD!
The curriculum is meticulously planned. The curriculum in each subject is designed so that pupils revisit important concepts. This helps pupils build on what they know. The school prioritises language and communication in the curriculum. Pupils learn subject-specific vocabulary so that they can understand and talk about what they are learning…. The curriculum is delivered by skilled staff. They receive high-quality training and use the latest research further to enhance their teaching…. Lessons have been carefully structured so that feedback and retrieval activities are at the start of all lessons.
Inspection of St George’s Catholic Voluntary Academy 8 and 9 May 2024
The course Chris delivered, Curriculum Design & Implementation, was very informative. Staff were inspired to go away and make the adjustments needed to improve our practice. It was really useful to get a clear definition of the types of knowledge and how that works with implementation. I would highly recommend to others and would rate our booking as 10/10.
All the ideas from the Five a Day - supporting students with additional needs in a mainstream class course that could be used in class were helpful and Teachers were very keen to use some of the ideas, like exit tickets, back in the classroom. It was really helpful that it fitted so clearly with our retrieval practice training last year and previous work on our whole-school curriculum. Delivery was fast-paced and Lesley was easy to listen to and engage with. She combined the theory with workable, practical ideas which were well received. I would rate my booking as very high quality - it was informative, based in research and easy to apply to the classroom and our children's needs. Thank-you!
This event was part of a really important piece of work in our 3 trust schools beginning to collaborate on curricular development and staff felt Chris delivered a really useful session in cementing their understanding of the fundamentals. It gave opportunity for staff to link back to the design of the Essentials Curriculum and how to effectively use the Curriculum Companion products that each school has access to. I would rate my booking as excellent. Good communication throughout the process from booking to delivery. Many thanks for your support.
Chris worked with this school online to deliver a bespoke session on Assessment.
Being able to create a bespoke programme that built upon where we are as a school helped us to clarify - and simplify - our assessment approach. It enabled teachers to strengthen their own schema around curriculum and assessment as we keep coming back to the same messages. This places us in a strong position going forward. Overall, taking into account all the sessions to date, Chris has helped us to clarify education in way we didn't realise was possible.
Matt delivered our Retrieval Practice course, in person, for this group.
The whole day's training was extremely engaging and thought provoking. Matt is an excellent speaker whose very personable style always captures and holds the attention and interest of all those present.
Chris gives so many practical ideas that can be used in school to drive improvement. Chris has the expertise to deal with questions effectively. I would rate my booking as outstanding.
Matt delivered our Infusing Rich Vocabulary Course as an in-person event on this school's training day.
Matt was incredibly personable and knowledgeable. It is always great to have a workshop probationer who is actually using the practices being covered in the session. he provided some good advice on how we can approach things here. I would rate my booking as excellent.
Chris delivered a bespoke session on breaking down lessons to promote retention, not just imparting knowledge for foundation subjects. The school are using Rosenshine's principles of instruction but need to break these down for pupils with visual examples for subjects.
All content was very useful but particularly practical strategies and modelled examples of how to implement different principles. Excellent, informative and inspiring.
The links made to Rosenshine were very useful as many schools have already covered this in recent years. We quite liked the golden sentence ideas and how this approach could support pupils with SEN show their full understanding in a safe way. This is something we look forward to trialling. Robin was a great speaker who presented the Five a Day- supporting pupils with additional needs in a mainstream class course in an engaging and enthusiastic manner. We know we are always getting a high level of competence and quality when we book with Chris Quigley Education. I would rate our booking very highly - the booking process is clear and communication is a strength. Thank you for a great morning.
Making it Stick - the science of successful learning:
The training really brought together each of the areas we are currently embedding across school, particularly around our curriculum and our reading spines. The psychology of how the mind retains long term information was really informative and made both myself and my colleagues really think about our current delivery methods. We will now look at our teaching practices in light of the training. What I felt particularly useful was the slides which were shared with us - between now and the next meeting, I can use these to plan some further 'embedding' work to ensure that the strategies delivered by Robin are receiving solid groundwork. This will then able colleagues to build on this further prior to his return in February. I found the content to be extremely well researched, and embedded in tried and tested classroom routines and strategies - this was clearly evident. The delivery was animated too - even though it was a twilight on a cold December evening, Robin kept every member of staff engaged until the end of the session. I would highly recommend this to other schools. Five stars - extremely efficient and organised.
Lesley was fantastic in delivering Judging the Impact of your Curriculum to our school. All staff got a lot out of the day. We have had a lot of great training with consultants from Chris Quigley and it has allowed us as a school to evaluate and reflect on our next steps. The quality of the training is excellent and we have already booked another day with you in January.
It was really helpful to actually take part in some retrieval work as part of the inset, it helped to demonstrate its value! It was great to hear practical ideas, and ideas that were relevant to all year groups (including Early Years). Hearing examples of experiences was really helpful as was learning about the science behind cognitive function. The session moved at a good pace and Matt was really engaging. Morning challenges have now been adapted as a result. The session was very thought provoking and gave as ideas that are actually achievable and therefore didn't make us feel overwhelmed. It was delivered in an engaging and enthusiastic way that left us feeling inspired!
