Personal Information
Type of work offered:
Consultancy, Teaching/working with pupils, Training and Writing
Specialism:
Cross-phase English, Curriculum Design, Initial Teacher Education, Primary and Reading
Region available:
Midlands, National, Online and UK
Social media:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lauraspargo Bluesky: @lauraspargo.bskysocial Substack: https://substack.com/@lauraspargo
Website:
www.lauraspargo.com
Testimonials
" 'Having Laura in to our school has transformed the way we teach English lessons and given the teachers the confidence to adapt planning and lessons to the needs of their class.' Rachel Boswell, Executive Headteacher, Tibshelf Infant School, Derbyshire."
" 'It’s always a joy to collaborate with someone who brings such clarity, depth, and heart to the work. I very much hope we’ll find more opportunities to work together in the future. Thank you once again for helping to make the session so memorable.' Nadine Abeng, Education Partner, Birmingham Education Partnership."
" 'We recently received training from Laura and have already booked her in for a return visit. It has sometimes proved difficult to find someone with the right skills, knowledge and passion to really engage our staff during training days but she provided us with the best training we have had for a long time!' Nikki Ingram, Literacy Coordinator, Dame Allan’s Junior School. "
Profile
Having led Primary English across the UK, Spain and Dubai, and with a career in education spanning over 16 years, Laura is an experienced practitioner and subject specialist. Passionate about inspiring and supporting educators in cultivating reading and writing experiences which are inclusive and ambitious, Laura has presented at a number of conferences and works with a range of educational organisations. She is a member of the Opening Doors team, supporting schools in creating a quality English curriculum, rooted in providing inclusive learning experiences and promoting equity and excellence for all. She is a also a Just Imagine trainer and content contributor, providing bespoke training and consultancy opportunities for schools, academy trusts and wider organisations on all aspects of teaching English, literacy and dialogic pedagogy. Laura is a proud member of the English Association's Primary and Early Years Education Committee.
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Personal Information
Social media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-pattison-71119083
Website:
www.carlpattison.co.uk
Profile
I currently lead one of the 34 English Hubs, a priority investment literacy project and fulfil the role of Early Reading lead for a large primary-based trust. After headship, I made the transition into consultancy work so that I could follow my passion for supporting early literacy. In recent years, I have enhanced my expertise further and also work independently as a Literacy advisor. Further details can be found here:https://theliteracyadvisor.co.uk
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Personal Information
Type of work offered:
Consultancy, Training and Writing
Specialism:
Phonics, Primary, Reading and Secondary Literacy
Region available:
London
Social media:
@phonicsandbooks
Testimonials
"Thank you so much for a great session. Our teachers thoroughly enjoyed the session. It was very informative and gave everyone a good understanding of the structure for teaching the different phases. "
"Thank you so much for the staff training yesterday, it was pitched perfectly and really useful. Interestingly, staff who have been using MLS already said that it was helpful doing the training as they could relate to what you were talking about and it gave them some ideas to try out. "
"Thank you so much and once again, the training was excellent "
"The course was fantastic and we are already starting to implement ideas I got from it into our teaching. "
Profile
Passionate advocate of high-quality teaching and learning for all children, raising standards in phonics, reading and writing and other curriculum subjects in schools. Phonics expertise, working for several validated schemes and publishers.Improving leadership and teaching in schools. Expertise in delivering high quality training to a wide range of audiences. Comprehensive knowledge of teaching and developing literacy skills in all pupils from preschool to Year 8 . Author and trainer.
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Personal Information
Type of work offered:
Advisory work for government bodies/organisations and Training
Website:
I am a lead school improvement adviser for English and moderation manager. Having taught across key stages 1 and 2, relatively recently, I am able to draw on my expertise to support schools with their English curriculum and teaching. I am passionate about empowering subject leaders and teachers to enact change in their setting. I provide training for teachers and English subject leaders around all areas of English, including a grammar course, reading course, phonics networks, subject leader networks. I also run projects with groups of schools. Recently I have been part of a successful writing project which addresses all aspects of the writing curriculum. I have also led on a secondary early reading project, empowering literacy leads withing secondaries to implement reading interventions and to develop disciplinary literacy skills across the school. My next project coming up will be implementing an effective oracy strategy in our primary and secondary schools. I also deliver assessment leader networks and provide training for teachers around various aspects of assessment, including an in-depth look at reading and writing assessments.
Profile
I have been working as an English adviser for Achieving for Children for the past three years. I have recently taken on the role of moderation manager. My experience is within primary education. I have taught in the majority of year groups (years 1-6) for the past 17 years and have recent classroom experience. In my current role, I provide training for teachers and English subject leaders around all areas of English, including a grammar course, reading course, phonics networks, subject leader networks. I also run projects with groups of schools. Recently I have been part of a successful writing project which addresses all aspects of the writing curriculum. I have also led on a secondary early reading project, empowering literacy leads withing secondaries to implement reading interventions and to develop disciplinary literacy skills across the school. My next project coming up will be implementing an effective oracy strategy in our primary and secondary schools. I also deliver assessment leader networks and provide training for teachers around various aspects of assessment, including an in-depth look at reading and writing assessments.
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Personal Information
Type of work offered:
Initial Teacher Education
Specialism:
Initial Teacher Education, Secondary and Secondary Literacy
Region available:
Midlands and Online
Social media:
@NikkiCopitch
Profile
I have been a subject leader for Secondary English and Drama ITE, an English consultant and an English and Media teacher. I am now NAAE Secretary and Publicity Officer, a foster parent and a visiting university lecturer in ITE.
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Personal Information
Type of work offered:
Advisory work for government bodies/organisations, Assessment, Broadcasting, Consultancy and Training
Specialism:
Oracy, Primary, Reading and Writing
Region available:
Midlands and South
Social media:
Twitter @BabcockLDPEng
Website:
https://www.babcockldp.co.uk/english
Testimonials
"Thank you so much for your presentation last Thursday-it was just what I needed to hear…Your passion and belief are infectious. Thank you for inspiring."
"I cannot express enough thanks for your valuable training tonight. All our staff are now so inspired and motivated to get our children's spellings up to standard! Thank you, thank you, thank you. We were so impressed with the whole training that we are now going to purchase the grammar programme."
"I have watched all five of your taster modules "
" in conjunction with Pearson Education and recently completed your course through ‘FutureLearn’: ‘An Introduction to Teaching Vocabulary’. I found the course to be extremely relevant, informative and easy to follow as well as incorporating useful strategies, supported by credible references. I have been very impressed by the Babcock courses and am looking forward to the new ones appearing. I have recommended your courses to my colleagues and also alerted our SLT to the value of the content."
Profile
Rebecca leads the English team for Babcock LDP which comprises a team of Primary English advisers and a secondary English specialist. The team offers a wide range of training, consultancy and publication Rebecca is a qualified teacher with a Masters Degree in Children’s Language and Literature with 30 years’ experience in education as a teacher and an adviser. She is also an accredited KS2 moderator and is currently moderation manager for two Local Authorities. Rebecca has worked as an adviser in London and Devon. She was heavily involved in the pilot phase of the National Literacy Strategy including writing some of the national training materials. With Babcock LDP, Rebecca’s team have developed some extremely popular and well respected publications, most notably No Nonsense Spelling, Grammar and Literacy. The team are currently developing extensive materials and cpd to support schools with developing vocabulary
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Personal Information
Type of work offered:
Consultancy, Training and Writing
Specialism:
Cross-phase English and Oracy
Region available:
International and UK
Social media:
Blue Sky @think_talk_leah.bsky.social
Website:
www.leahcrawford.com
Testimonials
"'I am more confident now to ‘facilitate’ when questioning and I feel more able to reinforce the ‘ease’ in which grammatical knowledge can be applied to complex tasks through talk.' Primary English Subject Leader"
Profile
Leah had 15 years experience as a Local Authority English Inspector/Adviser, working across the primary and secondary phases before becoming an independent consultant. In her school career, she held pastoral and subject leader roles. She now leads Thinktalk consultancy, is a Tutor for the King’s College Let’s Think in English Cognitive Acceleration programme and is a consultant and writer for Bob Cox’s Opening Doors publications and consultancy. She has completed a Masters in Education Degree on teacher learning and development and has supported a European Erasmus project on the Assessment of Thinking Skills. Leah has led extended professional learning courses through Teaching Schools and MATS on Mastery of Reading at primary, Writing Design and Process, Grammar for Purpose and Viewpoint, and Word Study – combining the teaching of spelling and vocabulary. She is delivering the new NPQ in Leading Literacy through the University of Winchester.
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Personal Information
Type of work offered:
Advisory work for government bodies/organisations, Assessment, Consultancy and Training
Specialism:
Handwriting, Oracy, Primary and Reading
Region available:
South
Social media:
Twitter @BabcockLDPEng
Website:
https://www.babcockldp.co.uk/english
Testimonials
"‘Thank you very much for the detailed responses and links and for your time last week. I found it very useful and thought-provoking… I really appreciated the time and it is great to know there are people on the end of a phone or email who can help. I've been really impressed with the English team at Babcock since moving to Devon from Surrey 2 years ago.’ – a primary English subject leader after a consultancy call to support post-COVID school closures"
"‘The reading was really good last week - we are looking forward to the next one! Thank you.’ – a primary English subject leader after an online training session/staff INSET"
Profile
Rebecca is a Primary English Adviser with Babcock LDP, having joined the team in 2016 after over eighteen years’ experience of teaching in Key Stages 2 and 3. She has worked as a Leading Literacy Teacher for Bath & North East Somerset, an Advanced Skills Teacher for Somerset, was Head of English and Assistant Headteacher at a middle school, alongside her class teaching. Rebecca has a Master of Arts degree in Education and is an accredited KS2 moderator.As an adviser, she supports schools and teachers with all aspects of primary English, through training, consultancy and publication. She has co-written several popular publications such as Re-think Reading!, No Nonsense Literacy, and developed a suite of CPD materials to support a whole school approach to developing vocabulary.
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