Eng Teacher CPD Courses
TESTING HAS BEGUN, JOIN IN!
For the next two weeks, we need testers to try the software to see that everything is working and give us lots of delicious, useful feedback.
Please feel free to join in, the more the merrier. Turns out its pretty tricky to make something great without a big team. We need your help. If you want to get ahead of the game and save some pennies, then try our first course for free and let us know how to make it better for you or someone in your context.
Course
Analysis Skills
What do pupils need to be able to explain when they are analysing texts? This course goes through the strategy of what to teach and looks at models of different level pupil writing, so you can gauge your pupils' abilities.
Course
Behaviour For Learning
Launching Dec '24. Prepare for more difficult classes and ensure that you take action to create the learning environment you want. You're the boss
Literature
How to teach Macbeth
Launching Winter'24.
Training that you can actually use immediately, that doesn't just waste your time. If you want to just use the book you can, or you can do a training course for maximum impact.
Vocabulary Building
How to create better quality vocabulary instruction.
Coming Soon...
Convince Me
If you want a faster way to be better at your job, this is it. You can even skip the
rest of this page, look at the books, look at the app. The fastest way to know if you’ll get anything from it is to try it. If you’re feeling uncertain, then keep reading.
It’s 4.30 on a Monday, you’ve just finished the staff meeting. and a familiar feeling is lurking. "I'll just... It's time for you to go home. You could be done for the day if you'd already got everything ready. But it isn't ready, so it's another evening of 'justs'. Which is all fine. You’ll do it. You do. Again, and again, but after a while it gets old. The constant, "I can’t tonight",
I’ll just have cereal for tea
I’ll just finish this off
I’ll just get up an hour earlier
I’ll just give up my hobbies for a little while longer
I’ll just dread those two pupils in year 9 a bit more
I’ll just wait and ask again for some backup next week. It will get easier in a few weeks. Next term will be better.
Unlikely.
If you want to dream, it's better to set your sights higher, and take some action.
- What if you could leave work at work and not have to even think of work in the evenings?
- What if you knew how to construct schemes of work so good that you could easily improve the resources your department use?
- What if you became the best trained person on the team?
- What if you were the most impactful teacher in the department?
- What would it be like if you enjoyed your job more? What would you be able to do then?
There is a way to make the whole experience of training to be an English teacher much more satisfying from the very start. Your training should be about you; be convenient for you; be specially designed by someone who has been through the same struggles as you. With just a little tweak, it can be.
This is Ellie
Ellie was beginning to understand why she’d heard about so many people quitting teaching. She had just got back from the Peugeot garage and felt rather embarrassed. She’d taken her car in because on the way to work this morning, she realised her headlights didn’t work.
Only, she got a call 20 minutes later. The Mechanic had literally just lent in and turned the lights on. There was nothing to fix. Turns out, Ellie was so tired, she’d not been able to figure out that she hadn’t actually managed to turn the lights on. The car wasn’t knackered. She was.
Something Better
That evening she realised that she was feeling particularly overwhelmed, but it seemed to her that if this job really was so hard, surely someone somewhere would’ve already done something to help. There was just no need for it to be so disorganised.
She knew she had what it took to be a great teacher. Resolving to see what options were out there to help, she had a little google. She simply didn’t want to be a cliché of a teacher who was miserable and just complaining constantly about how difficult it all was. Ellie already knew about LitDrive, and Twinkle and TES, but none of them seemed to really offer training or resources that would actually save time. Those websites all sort of seemed like TK Max. The stuff was all
there, but the idea of trawling through it all felt too much like hard work. She didn’t want
to examine and cobble together other people’s schemes, she wanted a stronger starting point to work from. Otherwise she was just swapping one time suck for another one. She wanted more time. That was the whole point. She felt her mind running towards a solution.
She tried the app.
She found English teacher CPD.uk and decided to download the app.
She wanted to have the evening off and put her new plants in the garden, so she decided to give herself an hour off and test the app by listening to her first session for free at the same time. Ellie didn’t need the hour. She knew after 25 minutes she'd get something new out of it.
She was so relieved to not have to rely on her over-stretched boss anymore. Now her career was down to her. She could get a handle on things now. She was going to be able to help them. Things were about to get easier.
Your Options
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The App
You can train yourself quickly anywhere, any time. You're not reliant on the skill level of your boss anymore. You can get skilled as fast as you like.
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The Books
Hard copy resources that you can photocopy make life easier. There are books for teachers and books designed for your pupils. You can get them as e-books,or if you're in the UK, you can order hard copies.
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The Curriculum
As each course comes out, it will come with the power points and lesson resources for you to use. So you can get trained on exactly the same things you can deliver the next day. You can apply your knowledge, and fast.
Play it out. Where do you want to be in a year?
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What everyone else does
Gets paid about £33,333. Starts the year over confident, starts to get exhausted by Christmas. Tired to the bone by February, with still no real idea whether their teaching is any good. Contemplate how long you're going to be in this job for because it's not what you want to do long term.
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What you could do
Get paid about £33,133. Start the year by teaching yourself how to be an excellent practitioner. Be helpful to your team by Christmas. Come into your own by February when everybody else is exhausted. Enjoy your job more.
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What you might want to do
Get paid about £32,850. Start the year with coaching calls and a strategy for rapid career development. Prove yourself unusually capable by Christmas. Start thinking about opportunities for leadership in February. Wonder why everyone is always complaining that the job is so hard, when if truth be told, you're finding it kind of easy.
You're in control of which job you have.
You don't have to change your employer. These three paths could all unfold for the same person at the same school. A little bit of investment up front can be transformative to your experience.
You determine which option of these three you take. The reality of teaching is that the vast majority of your daily experience is you teaching the pupils. There aren't that many other people involved. You're in control of the vast majority of every day. You can make it more satisfying.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I split the cost?
Yes, of course. Pay monthly. No problemo.
Will it be worth it?
Try it and see. You decide whether to binge it at the start for maximum impact, or do a little time each week for maximum ease.
Do I have to do it all on my phone?
No, you can access the courses on your computer. You decide what suits you.
Is the App related to the curriculum?
Yes. When you get new courses in the app. There will be a code, so you can download the lessons for free.
What to expect from the SKEC.
1) The Behaviour for Learning course and Language Analysis course so you know what you’re doing from early on in your PGCE and don’t have to stay in struggle.
2) A downloadable app, so you don’t have to spend ages trawling youtube or TES trying to find things that are useful.
3) Hardcopy books of the BFL and SKEC course notes, so you can remember what you’ve been learning rather than having your ideas get lost in an instant.
4) Access to coaching calls when you need them. (depending on which subscription plan you choose)
5) Freedom to improve. You’re no longer limited by your boss or your mentor. Just because they might be struggling doesn’t mean you have to. You’ll be able to add to your team, proving yourself a competent department member quickly and effectively.
6) More confidence and increased chances of promotion because you’re enjoying the job more, because you know you’re doing it right.
7) Access to more courses like teaching persuasive writing and KS4 Lit, as they drop throughout the year.
8) Free Access to KS4 Schemes of work immediately after I finish each one, so you have a higher bar to work from and build on than what you've currently got.