Association of Education Advisers

EduKIT: Andy Hargreaves talks about The Age of Identity
2024-02-01 17:30 - 18:30 (Europe/London) | Microsoft Teams
Professor Andy Hargreaves will be leading this EduKIT. He toured the UK talking about his new book, The Age of Identity. If you did not have the chance to see him in person, this would be a great session to attend and be able to ask your questions.
We are living in a time when identity is all the rage – literally as well as figuratively. How do we recognize and include all young people’s identities and honestly address the injustices and exclusions that many young people and their families face without getting drawn into culture wars? How can we do the right thing without fear of saying or doing the wrong thing?
Andy will introduce his controversial new book with Dennis Shirley on The Age of Identity. It affirms that identity is an issue for everyone, not just for “the others”. We should help young people develop positive senses of self and identity from the earliest years of school, guide them through their different stages and life passages, reach out across the generations, and build bridges rather than put up walls between different identity groups.
But if we’re not careful, we’ll fall into a massive identity trap. What we need is leadership that is courageous, and yet collective and close to the action rather than heroic and remote. We need Leadership from the Middle, as Andy’s other new book says, not mandates from the top.
Andy Hargreaves is Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa, Research Professor at Boston College in the US, and Honorary Professor at Swansea University. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Education, former President of the International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement (2018-2020), adviser to the First Minister of Scotland & former Adviser to the Premier of Ontario.
Andy is Canada’s 2023 Professor of the Year. He has published 35 books and has 8 Outstanding Writing Awards. An exceptional keynote speaker and workshop leader, he has delivered invited addresses in more than 50 countries. He has been honoured in the UK, Canada, and the US for services to public education and educational research and is ranked by Education Week as the #16 scholar with the most influence on the US education policy debate.
The AoEA Education Keeping in Touch meetings (EduKITs) are for our members to listen to guest speakers, share knowledge and best practice whilst also providing a forum for peer discussion & support. They occur fortnightly at 5.30pm Thursdays during term time. Reserve your place now. Look forward to seeing you there.
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Assessing the Context for Organisational Improvement
2024-01-30 09:00 - 13:00 | Online
About this event

Who is this for?
This module aims to focus on key factors which influence the professional motivation of staff.
The programme will be particularly useful for those considering accreditation for the Senior Associate level of the AoEA as well as those working at Associate level who wish to develop their knowledge and skills in assessing and creating an organisational environment in which staff are enthusiastically motivated to seek high standards and sustained improvement.
What is the problem we are trying to solve?
Most of us will have come across highly successful organisations or departments where there is a keen sense of commitment to working with colleagues to achieve high outcomes. Many of us will also have come across organisations where there is a vagueness about the roles and objectives and low levels of structure and commitment. How can we assess or analyse the ‘Context for Organisational Improvement’ (COI) that leads to high performance or provides an indicator of potential decline? The AoEA has used its experience of school improvement coupled with a review of relevant leadership research to establish a way of assessing the Context for Organisational Improvement. It provides another way of analysing working relationships in leadership teams and promote discussion of factors which facilitate or impede improvement.
What is the Context for Organisational Improvement?
The context for organisation improvement relates to key factors which influence the professional motivation of staff. The factors can be analysed into a number of dimensions which provide an indicator of how staff feel about working in the organisation. The way in which leaders carry out their role has a vital influence on the context.
Who is delivering?
The programme will be delivered by Peter Parish, Les Walton and Ian Lane
Peter Parish was formerly Director of Operations for Northern Education and was involved with educational project management activities including support for the establishment of a Multi-Academy Trust and academy conversions. He previously led a local authority School Improvement Service. During this time the Council was awarded Beacon Council status for ‘Tackling School Failure’. He became Head of Planning, Commissioning and Quality Assurance in the local authority’s Children’s Services. He has much experience of contextual factors which lead to school improvement.
Les Walton (CBE) has vast experience as a headteacher, Director of Education, Chief Executive and Principal of an FE College. He has led major change programmes including the reorganisation of a school system within a metropolitan borough, the outsourcing of an education service within a large District Council and the merger of Further Education Colleges. As Director of Education, he achieved Beacon Status for ‘tackling school failure’. Les has played a key role in providing advice to government agencies such as the YPLA and the Education Funding Agency. He has been involved in strategic interventions in schools and MATs to address governance concerns. He has a long-standing interest in leadership and quality systems.
Whilst Ian Lane was headteacher of an inner-city secondary school, the school was twice recognized as one of the most improved specialist schools nationally and awarded a School Achievement Award for successive years of sustained improvement. He also has past experience as part of the advisory service as a Senior Adviser, as a School Improvement Partner, National Challenge Adviser and accredited Ofsted Inspector. He also qualified as a professional coach. He was appointed Director of School Improvement in the same LA with oversight for Primary, Secondary and Special Education. More recently Ian has worked as an interim CEO of a Primary MAT and then as CEO of a Secondary MAT, whilst also undertaking some independent work as an adviser with a number of schools, MATs and Las.
What will I get from the programme?
You will:
• Understand what is meant by Context for Organisational Improvement.
• Consider the dimensions of COI.
• Understand the relationship between leadership and COI.
• Be able to identify the key features in the cultural landscape of your workplace.
• Appreciate how organisational culture influences work-place COI.
• Have assessed your own work-place COI.
• Be capable of establishing systems for on-going measures of COI.
• Be able to design strategies to drive up individual COI dimensions
Prior to the session, participants will have the opportunity to complete a survey to rate their perception of their context for organisational improvement.
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Effective Leadership of Curriculum and Assessment
2024-01-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Online
The first of the two half-day courses is for primary and secondary headteachers, senior and middle leaders in schools who design and implement curriculum and assessment. It is also intended for those who advise on curriculum, education advisers, LA advisers, MAT CEOs.
Designing a curriculum means establishing the Intent (Values and Vision), Implementation (Pedagogy and Assessment) and Impact (Pupils’ Progress and Learning Standards). To do this, we identify what works best in the context of each school and its pupil profile.
What will I learn from this course?
This course focuses on Intent and Implementation. We outline curriculum mapping, sequencing, and assessment within the context of challenges faced by schools; students’ learning gaps and mental well- being. Through a focus on case studies using a variety of adaptive teaching strategies and techniques, including digital tools, we look at how schools strengthen pupils’ ‘knowledge and skills recall’, so they can achieve their full academic potential. Strengthening primary and secondary schools’ formative assessment systems through ‘powerful teacher feedback’ for pupils is key. This enables pupils to take responsibility for their own learning and to move away from right/wrong answers towards cognitive process and self-reflection.
Most importantly, we examine how schools fully integrate skills into the knowledge- led curriculum, thereby ensuring that all pupils develop oracy, critical and conceptual thinking, problem solving and reasoning skills in line with the NI CCEA, Welsh Curriculum, and the National Curriculum.
How will we arrive at this?
A practical handbook with template, including a curriculum template, accompanies the course. This is a unique cross nation collaboration as English and Welsh Primary and secondary school leaders contribute to the workshop through practical case studies. They showcase how they make the theoretical concepts underlying curriculum mapping, such as ‘sequencing’ and ‘interleaving’ work for them. We illustrate how we can construct a knowledge and skills- based approach to learning that benefits all primary and secondary pupils. We will also hear from school pupils about how they evidence their progress over time, resulting from the impact of teacher feedback.
Best practice in teaching/ learning /assessment and Interactive resources, as well as digital learner profiles are discussed through “break out group chats”. Our aim: to ensure the curriculum is diverse, inclusive, and equitable, all pupil groups’ needs are met, with ample opportunity for students’ cultural capital.
Who is leading this course?
The course leader is Meena Kumari Wood, author of the popular ‘Secondary Curriculum Transformed; Enabling All to Achieve’ (Wood and Haddon, Routledge 2021). The book has led to a series of training webinars in UK, Northern Ireland, Dubai and India and features on the core reading list for the MEd in Educational Leadership (University of Birmingham). She has hosted educational webinars and published articles and blogs for SchoolsWeek, Teach Secondary, Chartered College, Edge Foundation and RSA and is currently writing a third book on inspection and school improvement. In addition, she is a keynote speaker at Edu-Conferences, including, Education and Training Inspectorate(NI) British Schools in the Middle East, (BSME), RSA, Foundation of Educational Development (FED) and for Mary Myatt&Co.
Meena Wood was a former HMI Ofsted, Local Authority Adviser, Principal of an Adult College, and Principal of a Secondary Academy and is now Honorary Fellow of Education Leadership Academy (University of Birmingham) and KHDA inspector (Emirates).
Meena is a widely experienced International Educational Consultant, Author, and Trainer. In the UK working with academies and MATs, including Alternative Provision providers, conducting reviews of curriculum and assessment, the quality of education, peer reviews, instructional coaching, inspection, and governance. In addition, she supports British and International Schools in the Middle East (Dubai).
Pre-course reading
A copy of the book ‘Secondary Curriculum Transformed’ will be provided as part of the course materials. It is highly recommended that course participants are familiar with it, as we refer to appendices and models within the book. The relevant parts will be signposted for participants before the course.

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