ASKE is the professional learning arm of Advantage Schools. The aims of ASKE are to:
We have a number of professional development opportunities available in the summer term. Advantage Schools staff can access any training at no cost, and we have a limited number of places available at a reasonable price for external delegates.
Booking is available via the EventBrite links below. Members of the Advantage Schools Knowledge Exchange network should select this status when reserving their ticket in order to benefit from discounted access. Please ensure you use the email address you used to when signing up to ASKE in order to validate your purchase. Purchases at the ASKE price using unrecognised email address will be cancelled.
ABOUT OUR FACILITATORS
Stuart Lock is the Chief Executive Officer of Advantage Schools and a highly experienced school and trust leader. Stuart is the editor of the ResearchEd Guide to School Leadership, contributed to the writing of the Head Teachers’ Standards and was an advisory member of the expert panel that contributed to the Early Career Framework and, more recently, the CEO Content Framework. You can find out more about Stuart here. Stuart facilitates our sessions on senior leadership.
Naomi Bell is Director of Maths at Advantage Schools and will be facilitating our Catalysing Learning sessions. Naomi has a Masters in Expert Teaching and thinks deeply about how best to support teachers in developing their craft. You can find our more about Naomi here.
Sallie Stanton is the Director of Education at Advantage Schools. She leads on curriculum, assessment, quality of education and professional development across the trust. You can find out more about Sallie here. Sallie will be facilitating our sessions on curriculum.
| DATE | TIME | FACILITATOR | SESSION NAME/FOCUS | SUITABLE FOR |
| 18.04.23 | 4pm-5.30pm | Naomi Bell | Catalysing learning: Working memory, cognitive load and backwards planning | Teachers. Mentors, Coaches and Teacher Trainers |
| SESSION CONTENT | BOOKING LINK | |||
| For teachers to effectively plan lessons which enable students to learn what they intend, they need to have an understanding that attention is limited and essential for learning. Students must be given the opportunity to attend to the most important elements of learning without distraction. Considering what causes distractions, and their impact, we will design learning experiences that focus student’s attention on the most important concepts to be learnt. | Book here | |||
| DATE | TIME | FACILITATOR | SESSION NAME/FOCUS | SUITABLE FOR |
| 18.04.23 | 4pm-5.30pm | Stuart Lock | Senior Leadership: Introduction – bet based thinking and alignment | Current and aspiring senior leaders |
| SESSION CONTENT | BOOKING LINK | |||
| AIM:
To exemplify and explore a model of school leadership based on the Advantage Schools approach, allowing participants to use and develop the approach for their own school.
1. Introduction to ‘bet-based’ thinking 2. Alignment… but also good decision making 3. The importance of domain-specific knowledge 4. Understand that school leaders need to be committed to reading and learning 5. Consider the divorce between decisions from results 6. Be able to hold bets lightly (but not too lightly) |
Book here | |||
| DATE | TIME | FACILITATOR | SESSION NAME/FOCUS | SUITABLE FOR |
| 18.04.23 | 4pm-5.30pm | Sallie Stanton | Curriculum Leadership – Introduction to curriculum thinking | Current and aspiring Subject Leaders and Heads of Department
Current or aspiring senior leaders with a remit for curriculum and/or teaching and learning |
| SESSION CONTENT | BOOKING LINK | |||
| AIMS: To develop or deepen knowledge of curriculum and assessment theory; to develop or deepen understanding of key aspects of school leadership related to curriculum, for example leading teaching, giving feedback and quality assurance of the curriculum.
This session will cover why curricular thought matters in schools, and a brief history of curriculum thinking. |
Book here | |||
| DATE | TIME | FACILITATOR | SESSION NAME/FOCUS | SUITABLE FOR |
| 16.05.23 | 4pm-5.30pm | Naomi Bell | Catalysing learning: The importance of prior knowledge | Teachers. Mentors, Coaches and Teacher Trainers |
| SESSION CONTENT | BOOKING LINK | |||
| Students make sense of new information by reference to what they already know. So, teachers can help students to commit new information to long-term memory by connecting it to existing knowledge. With reference to the nature of schema, we will consider how to plan learning which links to student prior knowledge, so that it is more likely to be remembered. We will also consider how to find out what students already know and how to plan a sequence of learning from that point. | Book here | |||
| DATE | TIME | FACILITATOR | SESSION NAME/FOCUS | SUITABLE FOR |
| 16.05.23 | 4pm-5.30pm | Stuart Lock | Senior Leadership: How can we embrace uncertainty and understand the persistent problems of school leadership | Current and aspiring senior leaders |
| SESSION CONTENT | BOOKING LINK | |||
| AIM: To exemplify and explore a model of school leadership based on the Advantage Schools approach, allowing participants to use and develop the approach for their own school.
This session will build on “bet-based thinking” and explore how to embrace uncertainty in our schools, and take a “persistent problems” approach to school improvement. Participants that have not attended a session on bet based thinking will need to watch a video recording explaining this approach in advance of the session. This will be provided. |
Book here | |||
| DATE | TIME | FACILITATOR | SESSION NAME/FOCUS | SUITABLE FOR |
| 16.05.23 | 4pm-5.30pm | Sallie Stanton | Curriculum Leadership – curriculum theory part 1 | Current and aspiring Subject Leaders and Heads of Department
Current or aspiring senior leaders with a remit for curriculum and/or teaching and learning |
| SESSION CONTENT | BOOKING LINK | |||
| AIMS: To develop or deepen knowledge of curriculum and assessment theory; to develop or deepen understanding of key aspects of school leadership related to curriculum, for example leading teaching, giving feedback and quality assurance of the curriculum.
Session content: · Getting to grips with specialist vs generalist knowledge · An overview of some key theorists and thinking · Exploring the importance of subject communities |
Book here | |||
| DATE | TIME | FACILITATOR | SESSION NAME/FOCUS | SUITABLE FOR |
| 27.06.23 | 4pm-5.30pm | Naomi Bell | Catalysing learning:
The limitations of working memory |
Teachers. Mentors, Coaches and Teacher Trainers |
| SESSION CONTENT | BOOKING LINK | |||
| Building on from our exploration of the nature of long term memory and the importance of using prior knowledge to help students develop connected schema, we will look at practical ways to do this in the classroom. | Book here | |||
| DATE | TIME | FACILITATOR | SESSION NAME/FOCUS | SUITABLE FOR |
| 27.06.23 | 4pm-5.30pm | Stuart Lock | Senior Leadership: Getting to grips with the curriculum | Current and aspiring senior leaders |
| SESSION CONTENT | BOOKING LINK | |||
| AIM: To exemplify and explore a model of school leadership based on the Advantage Schools approach, allowing participants to use and develop the approach for their own school.
1. Consider the ‘zeitgeist’ of curriculum 2. Senior Leaders and what they can do 3. Some bets for school leaders
Participants that have not attended a session on bet based thinking will need to watch a video recording explaining this approach in advance of the session. This will be provided. |
Book here | |||
| DATE | TIME | FACILITATOR | SESSION NAME/FOCUS | SUITABLE FOR |
| 27.06.23 | 4pm-5.30pm | Sallie Stanton | Curriculum Leadership – curriculum theory part 2: knowing about subjects | Current and aspiring Subject Leaders and Heads of Department
Current or aspiring senior leaders with a remit for curriculum and/or teaching and learning |
| SESSION CONTENT | BOOKING LINK | |||
| AIMS: To develop or deepen knowledge of curriculum and assessment theory; to develop or deepen understanding of key aspects of school leadership related to curriculum, for example leading teaching, giving feedback and quality assurance of the curriculum.
Session content: · Thinking of subjects as quests · Understanding different categories of knowledge · Thinking about sequencing and progression within the curriculum · Core and hinterland knowledge |
Book here |
CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW OUR BROCHURE
Our professional development courses, networking, information sharing webinars and conferences are available to anybody working in a school or training to teach – simply sign up using the form below and you will be invited to our events as and when they occur.
Members that have signed up to our network receive advance booking information before courses and event places are made available to all. Most of our courses were fully booked last year, so early booking is advised.
All our professional development courses and events are free to staff working in schools within the Advantage Schools family, and we offer a reduced rate to schools we work in close partnership with. For more information, see our latest brochure.
Although the network is primarily aimed at teachers and school leaders in Bedfordshire, we welcome enquiries and contributions from further afield and have members from across the country.
We aim to ensure the exchange is accessible to all and have kept our costs to a minimum in order to cover administrative and staffing costs. We think our training is very reasonably priced but if this is prohibitive to you, please get in touch so we can discuss your situation, particularly if you are a small school or are an individual self-funding your attendance.
If you are still not sure but would like to hear more about ASKE, click here to get in touch.
