Training

Values Led Design

Alongside the Joyful Education💛 public events, we offer values-led, personally designed bespoke training for groups and organisations (and coaching for individuals). We believe that everyone has potentia, that we can all do hard things, and that building community is at the heart of culture change.

We write values into the structures and processes of our coaching and training, not just into the content. Our first step will be to have a conversation with you about what you stand for. Please contact us to take your ideas forward.

Culture Change

Culture change is hard (and we can do hard things). It's everyone's business (and everyone is a leader). Our structured processes have values inscribed at their core. Healthy cultures are expansive and anti-competitive, embracing diverse perspectives and staying fresh.

Our perfectionist culture (when did 'outstanding' stop meaning 'to stand out'?) is detrimental to everyone's wellbeing. Healthy, contextualised, agile 'improvement' is the hallmark of a healthy organisation. Cultures with a universal experience of trust, honesty and humility have no need of fear-driven smoke and mirrors.

We can help you figure out your own culture change manifesto which is engaging, co-produced and pro-active.

Community

In Covid times, so much is converging on the importance of community - and not just in education. Community building is at the heart of culture change. We have decades of community-building experience, on and offline; each has some learning to offer the other. There is an abundance of room for all.

Building community will re-make your organisation. Community superpowers of care, diversity, equality, joy, openness, place, trust and unity have an affirmative impact on any work or life context.

Our structured and disciplined work will reach deeply into your organisation, in culture changing ways and means.

Communication

Communication is not just about the 'what' but also about the 'how' and 'why'. Learning to communicate well with one another rests on principles of equality - even in hierarchies we can be equal as thinkers, in a healthy communications culture.

We will work with you on understanding (our own) behaviours, on where opinion is not information and - crucially - on how to maintain healthy communication even across profound disagreements.

Our communications work with you will enable you to take a clear-sighted and values-led co-productive approach to flexing communication processes virtually and physically.

What We Offer

What works for us is that we practise different skills sets from a shared values base.

Lou is a Thinking Environment trainer, trainer and coach. She is a writer and an award-winning staff wellbeing champion. Lou's background in public health and community development feed her specialisms around community-building and communication. She is an expert in developing co-productive approaches and in morale-raising interventions. Lou enables people to do their best thinking, without trying to do it for them. She is an adult education specialist, former teacher educator and FE Governor. As a facilitator and public speaker she is in national demand. Lou's approach to coaching is challenging as she won't allow you to use her thinking as a crutch for your own. Recent work includes:

National Communities of Practice Lead for the #APConnect Advanced Practitioner Programme
Speaker at the inaugural TEDxDoncaster: 'The Ethics of Joy'
25 years practice in Thinking Environments
Founding #DancingPrincess💃and contributor to all three books in the Dancing Princesses trilogy
Co-founder of #JoyFE💛
Member of the #FECrowd and researcher for national Community Learning Mental Health Research Project

Stef is a Teaching and Learning, Quality Improvement specialist first and foremost, combining the ethos of support, development and a growth centric culture to everything that she does. She is a visionary and is always pushing the edges of education, meaning she knows how to create ambitious and innovative cultures through leadership. Stef is currently offering training and development to colleges and educational settings including:

Leading Quality Improvement, including Advanced Practitioner and Learning Technology teams
Creating high performing teaching teams
Evidence Based Teaching and Learning Strategies, Deeper Learning, Science of Learning, Knowledge Retention, Exam Preparation
Impactful Professional Development Programmes
Teaching and Learning development - including improving Assessment for Learning, Target Setting, Holistic and ambitious planning for learning, Pedagogical approach to online learning
Coaching and Mentoring structures and programmes - for staff, managers, students and Quality teams
T Level readiness - professional development, pedagogy, planning for exceptional learning, preparation for end point and external assessment

Together - we deliver Organisational Culture Development Programmes

Our combined specialisms have allowed to us to develop programmes of support and training focusing on organisational development. The programmes include focus on:

visionary leadership, team cohesion
community building, quality improvement
developing high performing teams,
innovation
Staff wellbeing.

The programmes can be large or small and are tailored depending on initial discussions, allowing for a personalised approach to achieve impactful change.