Information Officer: Peter Cansell: petercansell@gmail.com
& Mike Aylen, Chair.
We all face unusual circumstances in the lock-down, stuck at home. However, we face excellent opportunities to 'brush up' on our professional skills and acquire new knowledge in the realm of teaching. The Oxfordshire Teaching School Alliance have produced this very helpful list of mostly free online CPD providers for you and schools here, please click the red hi-lighted provider to find out more. There are also more links you may wish to explore on the home education page and the teaching remotely page .
The Open University has a huge range of free online courses through ‘OpenLearn’ and has an ‘Education and Development’ category offering 175 courses ranging from 3 to 50 hours of study. Topics include e-learning, languages, assessment, early years, leadership, study skills and many more. Anyone is able to sign up for a free OpenLearn account.
The Chartered College of Teaching is the professional body for teachers, dedicated to bridging the gap between practice and research and equipping teachers from the second they enter the classroom with the knowledge and confidence to make the best decisions for their pupils. The CCT is a membership organisation but a number of free resources are available on their website including a list of articles, blogs and resources about online, distance and home learning and CPD as well as themed collections of open access articles from Impact (CCT Journal).
STEM Learning is the largest provider of education and careers support in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). They work with schools, colleges and others working with young people across the UK. STEM offer free online learning courses for teachers categorised as ‘early career’, ‘teaching’ and ‘leadership’. The online courses are delivered by STEM Learning and are hosted by FutureLearn.
FutureLearn offer a selection of online courses from universities and cultural institutions around the world. They are a private company owned by the Open University and the SEEK Group. FutureLearn courses are divided into weeks with various activities that you should aim to complete within the week. They cover a wide range of subjects - some are free, some have a fee. The link below will take you to 79 free courses of interest to educators.
Educare provide online duty of care and safeguarding training. The company has recently become part of the TES. Educare are offering seven courses, with a focus on 'duty of care', free of charge. To access the courses, you will need to complete an online form with your details which will trigger an email to you with a link allowing you to 'purchase' the courses at no cost.
The National Centre for Computing Education is a government funded organisation providing training in computing education for primary and secondary schools and colleges, including bursary-funded face-to-face courses around England, and free online courses, delivered through FutureLearn. It also offers a repository of teaching resources for computing through its website. Currently there are over 20 free online courses available.
The National College offer a range of webinars on topics including leadership, mental health, Ofsted, PHSE & RHSE, Research, Safeguarding & Teaching. Some of the webinars are recordings and available on demand, others are time specific with a limited number of participants. There is a fee of £50 per webinar, unless you or your organisation has a subscription. At the moment there are a small number of free webinars available, linked to the coronavirus, if you open a free account. The National College is a private company and has no connection with the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) that closed in 2018.
The Advanced Mathematics Support Programme is a government-funded initiative, managed by MEI. It aims to increase participation in Core Maths, AS/A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics, and improve the teaching of these level 3 maths qualifications. The programme provides national support for teachers and students in state-funded schools and colleges in England. AMSP offer about 10 free online professional development programmes for maths teachers.
The National Association for Special Educational Needs (nasen) is a membership charity organisation that supports education practitioners by providing Continuing Professional Development (CPD), resources, advice, information and much more to enable all staff to meet the needs of all their pupils. The organisation offer a free online course called ‘Focus on SEND’ which aims to help teachers and educational practitioners working across the 0-25 age range to develop high quality practice in order to better meet the needs of their learners with SEND.
This site gives an international view as well as some advice from good people. Ian Gilbert was encouraged to set up Independent Thinking in 1994 and, since then, has built up a unique educational organisation that acts as a platform for some of the UK’s leading innovative educators and school leaders as well as serving as a ‘lighthouse’ for so many practitioners who might otherwise fall prey to the idea that silence is respect, obedience is behaviour, grades measure education and teaching and learning are the same thing (taken from their website).
