I offer a broad range of services for school leaders, faculty leaders, and teams. As well as regular Professional Learning events – advertised via my mailing list – I offer consulting services and workshops which can be tailored to your context. This page contains details of my faculty consulting services. For information on broader education strategy services including work with tertiary, not for profits, and school strategic intent, visit Furze Smith Consulting.
Faculty leadership is a complex and demanding role which needs extra support. Effective faculties drive progress in schools, and should be strategically aligned to the school’s bigger picture mission and vision. As well as professional learning for teachers and leaders, I offer a range of consulting services designed to meet the needs of faculty leaders and leaders of teaching and learning.
The ‘Critical Friend’
The ‘critical friend’ model allows me to work with leaders one on one and with entire faculty teams. A critical friend engagement can last from one term to a full year, depending on what you and your team need. It is an engaging and interesting role which is highly customisable and can be designed to meet a range of needs, including:
- Support with curriculum development, scope and sequence, and documentation
- Change management, including major changes to a curriculum or handover between leaders
- Establishing a new faculty or moving from a 7-10 school to a 7-12
- Implementing a new program, such as a reading program or whole school literacy
- Data analysis and developing an action plan to address gaps and needs
- Faculty culture and team formation
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Faculty Strategic Planning
Strategy isn’t just for the boardroom: every unit within a school benefits from a clear strategy which can help to define outcomes and goals for the coming years. Faculties are often responsible for implementing on the broader school strategic intent, and benefit greatly from a clear plan to put the bigger picture mission and values of a school into action. Faculty strategic planning services include:
- Co-design of a faculty strategic plan, including clear purpose, vision, and values
- Developing strategic directions
- Identifying faculty goals, including choosing where and how to collect data
- Analysing existing data to identify gaps and needs
- Aligning faculty strategy to the broader school strategic intent
- Developing a pilot program to implement on school strategic intent
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Practical Reading Strategies Workshops
Based around Practical Reading Strategies, these workshops provide schools, team leaders, and teachers the tools to shift reading culture and develop students who are confident, engaged readers. The PRS Workshops can be run face to face or online.
Creating a Culture of Reading
This four part workshop series is the cornerstone of the Practical Reading Strategies program. It takes a school from vision through to execution in creating an exciting and energetic reading culture.
Session one: A 1:1 with the faculty leader to discuss school context, the why of creating a culture of reading, and to start developing a shared vision.
Session two: A small group session with the ‘core team’ (deputies, energetic faculty members) to clarify and share the vision.
Session three: A whole faculty PL with the first three Strategies: Making Connections, Visualising, and Questioning
Session four: A whole faculty PL with the final three Strategies: Inferring, Summarising, and Synthesising.
Implementing the Strategies
Whole faculty and whole school Professional Learning based on the six Reading Strategies.
Choose a single Strategy for a focused session exploring a range of activities, or a combination of the Strategies from: Making Connections, Visualising, Questioning, Inferring, Summarising, and Synthesising.
Sessions include resources, annotated examples, and activities tailored to your current text list.
Introduction to the Strategies
For faculties just beginning the journey towards Practical Reading Strategies. This single session includes an overview of the six Strategies with examples of activities and student work, plus an opportunity to discuss as a faculty how to integrate the Strategies into your existing curriculum.
“Leon has been an invaluable asset in supporting our team in challenging preconceived assumptions about the way to approach teaching texts in an English classroom, and increasing capacity and efficacy in aspiring for a more student focused and skills based method. His manner is approachable and engaging, and through providing a balance between theory and practical strategies, all teachers feel empowered to make change in their pedagogy.“
Clare Mackie – Middle Years Head of English Haileybury and Victorian Academy Master Teacher of English
English Curriculum Professional Learning
A variety of workshops and online courses developed around engaging, contemporary English teaching practices.
Understanding the 2023 VCE English/EAL Study Design
A 1.5 hour or half-day workshop which goes through the upcoming 2023 Study Design for VCE English and EAL.
Units 1 and 2 are covered through in-depth discussions, with every Area of Study explored in detail. Special attention is paid to the new Crafting Texts outcome and the implications it will have in 2024 for the Unit 3 Area of Study Creating Texts and subsequent exam section.
Participants will leave with confidence in implementing the new Units, and resources to help construct a curriculum including sample essays and responses.
Mapping Crafting and Creating Texts through the 7-10 Curriculum
A half-day workshop which explores the implications of the new VCE English and EAL Areas of Study Crafting Texts (Unit 1) and Creating Texts (Unit 2).
While the content of the VCE exam should not dictate your junior and middle school curricula, it is helpful to know exactly how the skills required in Year 11 and 12 map down through 7-10.
Participants will gain an understanding of the writing cycle and models used throughout the entire English curriculum and advice on how to construct an engaging and robust English curriculum from 7 through to 12.
Bespoke English Faculty Professional Learning
Through many years working alongside the Victorian Association for the Teaching of English (VATE), presenting at state and national conferences, and running workshops in person and online I have developed resources in many areas of the English curriculum.
Get in touch via the enquire now button to start a conversation about an English professional learning package that suits your school’s needs.
Enquire Now
Get in touch to start a conversation about any of these professional learning services.
I’ll respond within 24 hours with an option to continue the conversation via phone or zoom.
