In my conversations with staff and my research, Further and Adult Education college groups are facing a triple opportunity and challenge:
- Ofsted’s reflective focus demands deeper thinking about how leadership is happening, yet time and space for reflection are limited.
- Leading on well-being support is often a challenge, as managers who support their staff’s well-being are struggling themselves and yet staff wellbeing is at a difficult moment with burnout and stress on the increase.
- While inclusivity is a huge priority—both in curriculum design and for learners and leadership—most colleges, like all of us, are still grappling with the new Ofsted’s focus: what it means and how to respond. Some college groups are also missing opportunities to champion diverse staff to lead at all levels.
Over the next three blog posts, as we launch our FE and AE Sustainable Learning offer we’ll dive deeper into each of these areas, sharing reflections.
A launch
As a team of PGCE-qualified ex-teaching staff, ex-Senior Lecturers, teacher trainers, and current Senior Safeguarding Managers in Further and Adult Education, we’ve made a decision – to launch three new ‘Sustainable Learning’ offers for FE and AE in addition to our standard services:
- Reflective Practice Spaces: Helping managers, leaders, and teaching leads carve out time to explore, reflect, plan, and think in joined-up ways. We will create the questions and spaces for you to reflect on leading and on supporting peers—whether it’s discussing your learning walks or an area of your QUIP.
- Inclusive Leadership Development: Through Action Learning Sets and diversity leadership workshops, we are taking our long-term, proven “Confident and Authentic Leadership” programme (which we run in educational charities in HE) and extending it to FE. It helps empower underrepresented staff to lead confidently and drive a project on inclusive change in FE.
- Sustainable Wellbeing Leadership: Drawing on all our well-being and resilience expertise, we equip managers and leaders with the insights to spot early signs of potential burnout, handle challenging well-being conversations, and foster a culture of well-being.
How to make learning land
Instead of just offering workshops, we hope you’ll partner with us and lean into the frameworks that make learning land and have impact: connecting with participants early, adding activities between sessions, and guiding you to truly embed your learning. We’ve successfully worked with many FE, HE, and AE organisations across the UK.
Missing reflective spaces
- In some colleges there is limited time to think and reflect in meetings that are understandably heavily agenda driven not offering space for joined up reflection on leading on teaching and learning Team meetings are operationally driven, so where is the space for reflection, team reflective practice or relative on leading on planning. Some of the missing conversations I’ve been hearing about are:
- Team leads or senior practitioners not having the time and space to collaboratively discuss how peer to peer observational feedback conversations are going, and what can make those feedback moments land better.
- Middle managers and their teams not having the space to collectively explore how their Quality Improvement Action Plan could be used through the whole year, in informal and informal conversations, so that will feels co-owned and alive, rather than a once-a-year paperwork activity.
- Some college groups lacking adequate space and time for group peer safeguarding supervision. This is so essential for safety and safeguarding that it can’t be overestimated.
We address these missing spaces conversations in our Reflective Practice Spaces offer and also support your staff to learn the skills to have those conversations themselves.
Connecting
If you would like to explore working with us please What’s Ap, call or message Andry on 07984 107728, message or email