The Optimus blog

The blog that inspires leaders in the UK education sector

The Optimus blog

The blog that inspires leaders in the UK education sector

Professional development

Elizabeth Holmes

Presentations: top tips to engage your audience

As schools utilise in-house expertise, teachers are not only educating children and young people - but colleagues too. What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail? -Eleanor Roosevelt I’ve seen poor presenters with great content and slick presenters with poor content – never be taken in by...
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Elizabeth Holmes

Maths-specific CPD: challenges to address

With subject-specific CPD ever in demand, Optimus expert Elizabeth Holmes catches up with Steve McCormack, former maths teacher and now communications director for the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) , to find out the key challenges around CPD in maths. It’s...
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Lizzie Gait

CPD in the news: Sutton Trust

Across the education sector, colleagues are calling for a greater focus on professional learning for teachers. Lizzie Gait, training development lead, looks at some of the key research and policy documents which are paving the way to improved professional development. In light of the government’s...
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Elizabeth Holmes

How to encourage professional dialogue in schools

Effective face-to-face professional dialogue requires good listening skills, empathy, compassion, understanding and being civil in the event of disagreements. Elizabeth Holmes explains what schools can do to encourage positive discussion. A single conversation across the table with a wise man is...
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Elizabeth Holmes

Supporting NQTs: ideas to implement

Are you meeting the needs of your NQTs? Elizabeth Holmes offers practical ideas to ensure your newly qualified teachers feel valued and motivated. Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. Ralph Waldo Emerson If my inbox is anything to go by, this is the time of...
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Lizzie Gait

What does quality CPD look like to you?

How can you ensure that CPD in your school consistently meets the highest standards? Our new Teacher Quality Mark can help you maintain training standards in your school. Exciting news from camp OE… Here at Optimus Education we have just launched our first online only course! Managing Self-Harm by...
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Elizabeth Holmes

The College of Teaching – what’s it all about?

‘The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.’ – Bill Clinton If you’re not a regular on Twitter some of the wrangling over plans for a College of Teaching for the profession may have passed you by. But now a proposal has been published by the Claim Your College...
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Lizzie Gait

Improving Initial Teacher Training: recommendations from the Carter review

The Carter Review of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) was released last month, detailing Sir Andrew Carter’s recommendations for ITT moving forwards. To save you time, we’ve summarised the recommendations for you. We hope you find it useful! The aim of the Carter review was to: define effective ITT...
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Elizabeth Holmes

CPD and the year ahead – the view from the TDT (Part 2)

'Learning never exhausts the mind.' – Leonardo Da Vinci Following on from our recent blog on David Weston and the Teacher Development Trust , we discuss with David the key characteristics of effective CPD and what schools can do to raise the profile and standard of the CPD accessed by teachers...
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Elizabeth Holmes

CPD and the year ahead – the view from the TDT (Part 1)

'Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.' – Albert Einstein There are few people out there with as much interest and involvement in the continuing professional development of teachers as David Weston, Chief Executive of the Teacher Development Trust (TDT) . In the two...
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