Colleges and Universities

“That was by far the most relevant training day I have ever been to. James was outstanding in his passion for teaching and learning, his ability to inspire and the practical strategies he shared with us” (Peter Smith, Newcastle College, UK )

Having worked with colleges and universities in the UK and overseas for many years, James Nottingham, Martin Renton and their associates are able to help make a significant contribution to:

·    Curriculum planning

·    Effective teaching and learning

·    Innovation and creativity

·    Inquiry-led learning

·    Leading Learning

·    Personalised learning

·    Social and emotional well-being

·    Supporting ALL students

·    Thinking skills and critical thinking

All of the training we offer is tailor-made to suit your context and aims. Some of the most popular themes we are asked to design around include:

Tailor-made Options

BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT: having supported many institutions around the world to develop a fair and equitable behaviour management system that really works, we can help all of your staff understand how to improve behaviour in all of their classes

CHALLENGE: to learn, students should to be working at one level above where they’re at, in terms of skill, knowledge, language and conceptual development. This session looks at the reasons for this and some strategies to ensure all pupils are making progress.

COMMUNICATION: an insight into proven strategies for enhancing student and staff communication, including reference to pupil voice, listening for understanding, and dialogic teaching.

CREATIVITY: everyone can learn to be more creative. Having trained with Edward de Bono at the University of Malta, our consultants are able to guide your colleagues in the development of creative and lateral thinking techniques.

CRITICAL THINKING: from the Greek, kriticos, meaning “able to make judgements,” critical thinking is concerned with enabling students to present reasoned arguments, listen carefully to each other’s ideas, and to engage in independent and co-dependent decision-making.

FEEDBACK: all the work we do with students can be enhanced or threatened depending on the types of feedback we give and receive. This interactive session will explore the do’s and don’ts of feedback and point to strategies to enhance feedback further in everyday schooling.

INQUIRY LED LEARNING: encouraging students to question their lecturers on what they do and do not understand about a subject or concept is the single most effective way of improving education (Hattie, 2008) This session explores the research behind this claim and identifies how we can provide the right classroom climate for this to happen, as well as improve our students’ ability to question us.

LEADING LEARNING: helping staff to think of themselves as “leaders of learning”, rather than “classroom managers” can have a profound effect on the effectiveness of teaching and learning in your college. This session explores this claim and offers tools and strategies to enhance everyone’s leadership capacity.

P4C: Philosophy for Children (P4C) and the Community of Inquiry is an outstanding way to develop critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinking. As a co-founder and director of p4c.com, the international resource and collaboration site for P4C, as well as one of the UK’s most experienced trainers, James can help your college to develop any aspect of P4C.

SELF ESTEEM: for five years, James led an award-winning, multi-million pound project to raise the self esteem and aspirations of young people across north east England. This session draws on those experiences and points at ways to develop resilient, positive and self-confident students of all ages.

THINKING SKILLS: both James Nottingham and Martin Renton have been working alongside the University of Newcastle throughout the 1990’s, to develop thinking for learning strategies. Martin has also piloted these approaches in FE colleges across Northern Ireland, to great effect.  This session draws on these experiences and identifies the very best techniques for enhancing students’ learning.

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