The Only Educator CPD Course List You’ll Need!

 

With teachers on a steep learning curve having had to entirely change their manner of working, additional CPD (Continuous Professional Development) may be the last thing on anyone’s mind. However, many will still look to up-skill at this time, to meet personal targets already set or if planning to change jobs or apply for a more senior role in the not too distant future.   

 

I have compiled a list of available courses and other learning resources I feel may be beneficial to others. Over the course of this week, I will be posting a series of blog posts with CPD suggestions and resource recommendations, kicking off today with a post on online CPD courses, training sessions and webinars.

 

In searching for courses, to avoid cost constraints preventing participation (and to keep the list manageable!), I sought options that are free. These are roughly grouped according to subject area or specialism. You need not be a teacher to undertake these courses, if you have a general interest in matters educational, you may well enjoy and benefit from these suggestions.

 

As always, please get in touch if you are aware of others you feel should be on this list.

Online Courses and Training Sessions

 

Duty of Care/Safeguarding

Early Years Training Hub offers an online Safety and Child Protection for Early Years course. Please note there are lots of other online EY course options available at low cost (£5 ) or you can join for a year for £20.

 

Educare has 7 courses available. Fill in an online form with your details and you will be sent a link to ‘purchase’ the courses for free.

• Effective Health and Safety for Children with SEND and ASN Online Course

• Parental Responsibility in Schools

• Search, Screen and Confiscate for Schools

• Risk Assessments for School Trips

• Anti-Fraud, Bribery and Corruption

• Cyber Security

• Working with Display Screen Equipment

 

Early Years

Early Years Careers have links to 3 free courses on their site:-

• Introduction to Child Psychology

• Attachment in the Early Years

• Early Years Team Work and Leadership

 

Nursery World have put together a comprehensive list of free and low-cost CPD options.

 

English Teaching

The British Council offer English in Early Childhood: Language Learning and Development as a free online course on Future Learn periodically throughout the year. The next course is set to begin April 13th.

 

Cambridge English offers free training and teacher development courses for those delivering their programmes.

 

Jane Considine (The Training Space) will be live-streaming a series of training sessions on writing over the Easter holidays. Details below:

 

 

LitDrive CPD is offering once-weekly free courses every Saturday in April with the schedule as follows:

• Mary Hind-Portley and A Christmas Carol (April 11^th)

• Kat Howard and English Curriculum Design (April 18^th)

• Holly Wimbush and Macbeth (April 25^th)

• Stuart Pryke and ‘Macbeth’ (Mat 2^nd)

 

Leadership

Leadership Matters are offering their leadership courses for free until May 31^st.

 

Practice of Teaching

CogSciSci (a group formed to promote cognitive science in science teaching) currently has 4 courses available.

• Introduction to Cognitive Science

• Retrieval Practice

• How to write SLOP (SLOP = Shed loads of Practice – how to prepare resources that are conducive to your students conducting extensive amounts of practice)

• Introduction to Assessment

 

New South Wales Education Standards Authority has collated a list of free (and low-cost) CPD providers here.

 

Queensland College of Teachers provides links to a range of CPD resources and activities.

 

@ResearchEdhome will be streaming a series of training sessions weekly througout the summer term, beginning with a session from Daniel Willingham on April 20^th.

 

Teacherhead Consulting (Tom Sherrington) has made available for free his Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction Masterclass.

 

Promoting Further Education

Advancing Access offers free CPD to support staff providing advice and guidance to learners making their key stage 4, key stage 5 and university choices.

 

Speech, Language and Communication

Early Years Summit is providing a free online course from June 1st – June 7th on speech, language and communication. 

 

STEM Teaching

Advanced Mathematics Support Programme currently has 10 self-paced study courses available supporting second levels maths teaching in the UK.

 

Stem.org has courses available categorised as early career, teaching and leadership. These are all offered on the Future Learn platform. Some of the options for early career teachers include:

• Managing behaviour for learning

• Introducing assessment for learning

• Planning for learning in STEM teaching

There are also courses in biology, chemistry and physics to boost subject knowledge and teaching approaches for various phases. A primary science and various Maths courses are also available in this section. As well as recommending courses to support teaching and learning in various specific topic areas, to develop teaching, STEM.org recommends:

• The science of learning

• Planning for learning: formative assessment

• Linking curriculum learning to STEM careers

A further 8 course recommendations are made for those aspiring to leadership.

 

Teach Computing currently has 20 courses available on the Future Learn platform. These can be searched according to key stage or topic.

 

Teach Meet Maths Icons – a series of presentations from the Teach Meet series are available for download here on TES.

 

Teacher CPD.ie is the learning platform for PDST Technology in Education online courses on digital technologies in teaching, learning and assessment in Ireland.

 

Supporting Pupils with SEND

Jarlath O’Brien has compiled a comprehensive list of recommended resources, reading and courses here.

 

National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN) provides ‘Focus on SEND’ training for free.

 

Real Training have a free ‘Effective SEN Support Provision – Middle Leaders’ course. The course will take approximately 15 hours to complete and is available for a year from registration.

 

Websites offering Multiple Courses

Coursera is an American online learning platform offering massive open online courses (MOOC) across a wide range of subject areas and from a host of providers. Many are available for free with options to purchase certificates as evidence of course completion should you wish to do so.

 

Edx is another MOOC platform with thousands of courses to choose from. At present, there are 140 options in the Education and Teacher Training  section. Although most are in English, courses in other languages are also available.

 

Futurelearn currently has 117 teaching-related courses available in the following categories:

• How to Teach Online

• Inclusive Teaching

• Language Teaching

• Primary Education Teaching

• Professional Development for Teachers

• Secondary Education Teaching

• STEM Teaching

• Teaching Computing

• Teaching English/TEFL

• Teaching Maths

• Teaching Science

Most courses are free. Fees are payable for those that serve as university credit modules. A plethora of courses in other subject areas are also available for those interested in pursuing other passions and interests. You will find courses provided by various universities, the Chartered College of Teaching, the National STEM Learning Centre and more.

 

Open Learn from The Open University claims to offer more than 1000 courses, interactives, videos etc. and provides free courses in the following subject areas:

 

Clicking on the Education and Development section and looking at the free courses available reveals 175 options in the following categories:

• Childhood & Youth

• Childhood & Youth Studies

• Early Years

• Education

• Education Careers

• Learning

• Working with Young People

 

Prospero Teaching offers a range of free, accredited, online CPD courses. Currently available are:  

• An Introduction to Safeguarding Young People

• An Introduction to Teaching Phonics

• An Introduction to Attachment Disorder

• An Introduction to Classroom Management

• An Introduction to Teaching in the UK

 

Seneca Learning has 8 free courses available. You can choose from:

• Assessment for Teachers – Seneca Certified Assessor

• Cognitive Science for Teachers – Level 1

• Cognitive Science for Teachers – Level 2

• Dual Coding for Teachers

• Language Development for Teachers

• Leadership for Teachers

• Literacy in Science for Teachers

• Metacognition for Teachers

 

The TES Institute provides several CPD courses. Some are free; others range from short, low-cost courses to more expensive, longer-term ones. Available for free at present:

• Effective use of teaching assistants CPD course

• Free Education for Sustainable Development 

• Free Embedding employability skills in the curriculum

• Tomorrow’s Teachers – Inspire the next generation of teachers in your classroom

 

As I live in Malaysia, I would like to draw the attention of my Malaysian readers to Malaysia MOOC on Open Learning where there are presently 439 courses available in a range of subject areas.

 

More generally, MOOC List and Classroom Central may be helpful search tools if you are looking for a course in a specific subject area.

 

I hope this helps in giving a flavour of available courses. I will be uploading further posts this week about other useful CPD learning resources I have found. As always, please add your recommendations in the comments box below.

 

**Updated (24.4.20)**

In addition to the courses above, the following are available since I drafted the list. 

Creative Education is offering 4 courses

• Breaking the Cycle of Emotionally-based School Avoidance

• Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Pupils with SEND

• Using Simple Self-soothe Strategies

• Staying Mentally well during Covid-19.

Please note, dates and availability for each one differs.

Provision Map are running a series of webinars for SENCOs every Tues and Thurs.

 

Abigail @SENDCOSolutions uploads a weekly video to her YouTube channel and blogs about matters SEND here.

 

ResearchED are running daily CPD sessions throughout the summer term. The link takes you to the timetable. Further information on the week 2 schedule (beginning 27.4.20) is available here.

 

Studio 3 hosts a free webinar every Tuesday at 3pm UK Time (BST).

Catch up on YouTube:

• The Low Arousal Approach: A Practitioner’s Guide – Prof. Andrew McDonnell

• Using Low Arousal Approaches in Learning Environments – Gareth D. Morewood

• Psychoeducation: Should I Tell My Child They Have Autism,and How? – Peter Vermuelen

• The Relationship is the Therapy – Complex Children Need Kind and Slightly Crazy Carers – David Walker

• Sulky, Rowdy, Rude: Using Low Arousal Approaches to Manage Behaviour of Concern in Children and Young People – Bo Hejlskov Elvén (Linked is Bo’s PPT)

 

Upcoming – 

• Causes and Management of Self-Injurious Behaviours – Paul Burbage (May 5th)

• Lean on Me: The Psychobiological Cost of Caregiving – Prof. Mark Wetherell (May 12th)

   

 

**Updated (26.4.20)**

The Teacher Development Trust are running a series of online training sessions as follows: 

 

• Sunday 26th April: 8.30pm-9.30pm (UK Time)

  Reduce change, increase improvement

  Special Guest: Professor Viviane Robinson

 

• Wednesday 29th April: 3pm-4pm (UK Time)

  Formative assessment amid uncertainty

  Special Guest: Dylan Wiliam

 

• Saturday 2nd May: 10.30am-11.30am (UK Time)

  Having effective, emotionally-loaded conversation

  Special Guests: Jill Berry & Kathryn Morgan

 

• Thursday 7th May: 4.30pm-5.30pm (UK Time)

  Inclusive leadership in difficult times

  Special Guest: Kiran Gill

 

• Sunday 10th May: 10.30am-11.30am (UK Time)

  Connecting curriculum & staff development

  Special Guest: Philippa Cordingley

 

• Tuesday 12th May: 8pm-9pm (UK Time)

  Helping teachers use cognitive science

  Special Guest: Professor Daniel Willingham

 

• Thursday 14th May: 4pm-5pm (UK Time)

  EdTech lessons for the future

  Special Guest: Daisy Christodoulou

 

The link above takes you to the registration page.

 

**Updated (29.4.20)**

The Inquiry Educators Summit 

Attend for free online – May 16-17, 2020. Follow the link to register.

Keynote speakers include:

Dr. Jo Boaler, Kath Murdoch, Kevin Bartlett, Rosan Bosch, Sugata Mitra, Trevor MacKenzie, and Vishen Lakhiani. There are also a host of other workshop leaders and panelists listed.

 

TES Vodagogy Series All UK times

• Friday 1 May, 11am: Mental health support for pupils and teachers

Professor Tamsin Ford pinpoints the key challenges for pupil and teacher mental health due to the Covid-19 lockdown and offers a guide to how we can support those who need it.

• Monday 4 May, 12.30pm: Bereavement support during lockdown

Carole Henderson, expert grief counsellor at Grief Recovery UK, explains how we can support teachers and pupils who are grieving during the partial school closures and when schools reopen.

• Thursday 7 May, 3.30pm: Planning for life after lockdown – lessons from Italy

Milan-based headteacher Jennie Devine explains what life is like in the classroom four weeks ahead of the UK in terms of school closures, and she details her plans for reopening. 

• Monday 11 May, 12.30pm: Planning to close the learning gap in secondary

Tes columnist and expert teacher Mark Enser explains what the research can tell us about how we can plan to close the learning gaps once pupils return to schools.

• Thursday 16 May, 8am: What do you need to know about memory and learning?

Neuroscientist and Tes columnist Jared Cooney Horvath walks through the key research around memory for teachers, explaining myths, facts and half-truths as he goes.

 

**Updated (4.5.20)**

Voice21 are hosting 2 Teacher masterclasses on May 14th and May 21st, as well as providing a book club with Rupert Knight on May 6th and an additional masterclass from the Voice21 team on May 28th.

 

 

 

 

Take care and stay safe all!