“It was exceptionally useful, highly relevant & personalised to our school. I cannot recommend highly enough!”
Dr Dawn Casserly, Headteacher, St. Paul’s School for Girls
Are you planning your staff CPD development days across an independent schools group?
If you are currently planning for staff CPD developments sessions for an independent school group for the remainder of this academic year and/or September 2025, we will be pleased to work with you to create a bespoke staff development day tailored to your needs.
Our inhouse team of experts have the spotlight on the current most relevant and asked for key issues, opportunities and challenges that academies are wanting to focus on.
Subject Specific Training
Teachers , especially in Secondary schools often cite subject-based CPD as more effective than generic training, as they can see a direct effect on their own teaching and therefore the attainment of the classes that they teach; certainly teachers enjoy training within their subject discipline and there are certainly instances where there would be little point in doing generic training – in areas such as exam technique for example.
Independent School Groups can use economies of scale to focus on Subject Knowledge & Pedagogical development
Independent school groups are in a unique position to be able to provide group wide subject knowledge & pedagogy CPD during their INSET days.
Focus on your priorities and key areas, including, but not limited to…
We can draw on our extensive database of specialist subject associates to arrange simultaneous training days for independent school groups with multiple sites. Often these are arranged with a common theme which is explored in depth in practical workshops within each subject discipline, for example:
- Consistency of the quality of teaching & learning across the curriculum
- Stretch and challenge
- Supporting Neurodiverse learners
- Improving the level of teaching pedagogy
- Raising attainment
- Metacognitive strategies in the classroom
- Adaptive teaching strategies
- Improving assessment and feedback to drive up performance
Bespoke to the needs of Senior Schools or Prep Schools
These can also be tailored to match the needs of learners at different key stages. We can deliver versions of these for Senior School or Prep School staff within the same independent school group if you prefer to arrange the training by phase.
“Knowledgeable and dynamic”
Katie King, Assistant HOD, Dragon School
Why is Subject Knowledge & Pedagogy so important?
Research also shows that strong subject knowledge contributes significantly to outstanding teaching pedagogy. In a review of research behind effective teaching, Coe et al. ((Coe et al., 2014), p. 2) found that a teacher’s subject knowledge, and their understanding of how pupils handle this subject, has strong evidence of impact on student outcomes. Teacher credibility ( the belief and trust pupils have for their teacher) scores and effect size of 0.9 in Hattie’s Visible Learning which is (almost) equivalent to a two grade leap in GCSE grades! We can see this need for excellent subject knowledge in Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction (Rosenshine, 2012). Like Coe’s work, this looked at the defining characteristics of effective teaching and found, among other things, that effective teachers were able to provide detailed explanations of the material they were teaching.
Our subject specific courses are delivered by experts in their field with insight, depth and passion. They are designed to help your in-service teachers update or develop their current subject knowledge or to train to teach other specialist subjects. As a departmental or whole school training event they give an invaluable opportunity to foster expertise and academic rigour.
Our subject-specific courses can cover changes in exam expectations, support teachers delivering in a subject area they are less familiar with and provide a range of strategies and approaches to bring a subject to life.
The benefits for an independent schools group
Our subject knowledge courses will help your teachers:
- Allows teachers to incorporate new content, methodologies, and resources into their teaching
- Gain a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of their subject and associated specialist pedagogy
- Develop critical reflection skills
- Gain confidence in applying research based strategies to their classroom teaching
- Discover innovative ideas, techniques and activities to use in the classroom
A selection of our subject enriching courses are listed below but if you can’t find the area you are looking for use our enquiry form and we can source a lead practitioner to meet your needs.
📧 Email us at enquiries@jmcinset.com
“I really appreciated how organic the delivery was”
Shelley Chapman, Head of Teaching & Learning, The Marist School
Subject Knowledge Courses
INSET: Towards Exceptional Oracy and Communication
🌟 Towards Exceptional Oracy and Communication – Building Confident Communicators in Primary Education Oracy is a vital foundation for learning, social development, and future success. It underpins pupils’ ability to…
INSET: Towards Exceptional Primary English Teaching
🌟 INSET: Towards Exceptional Primary English Teaching – Building Language, Literacy and Learning English is the cornerstone of the primary curriculum, underpinning pupils’ ability to access all subjects and express…
INSET: Towards Exceptional Primary Maths Teaching
🌟 Towards Exceptional Primary Maths Teaching – Building Fluency, Reasoning and Progress Mathematics is a core subject in the primary curriculum and a key driver of cognitive development, problem-solving ability,…
INSET: Exceptional Primary Science Teaching
🌟 Exceptional Primary Science Teaching – Inspiring Young Scientists and Building Lifelong Skills Primary science plays a vital role in shaping how children understand the world, think critically, and solve…
INSET: Exceptional GCSE Science Teaching
🌟 Exceptional GCSE Science Teaching – Raising Attainment and Engagement In the context of Ofsted’s 2025 framework and the continued importance of Progress 8 as a measure of school performance,…
Science INSET: Towards Exceptional Science Teaching
🌟 INSET: Towards Exceptional Science Teaching – Raising Standards and Impact With the 2025 Ofsted framework placing greater emphasis on curriculum coherence, learner progress, and subject-specific pedagogy, this CPD course…
INSET: Towards Exceptional Primary Maths Teaching
🌟 Towards Exceptional Primary Maths Teaching: A CPD for Ambitious Schools In light of Ofsted’s new framework, the definition of excellence in primary maths teaching has evolved. This CPD is…
INSET: Towards Exceptional Maths Teaching in Secondary Schools
“Superbly clear, inspiring, and backed by outstanding subject knowledge.”Tom Bowley, Millfield School, Head of Maths 🌟 Towards Exceptional Maths Teaching: A CPD for Ambitious Departments In an educational landscape reshaped…
Secondary INSET : Raising Attainment in Biology A level
“Left inspired!” Kim Carmichael, Head of Science, Longcroft School Improving the performance of lower attaining A level Biology students This highly interactive workshop is designed to boost exam performance in…
Subject Knowledge & Pedagogy INSET for Multi-Academy Trusts
Elevate Teaching Quality Across Your Trust with Scalable, Subject-Specific CPD Why MAT Leaders Choose JMC INSET “It was exceptionally useful, highly relevant & personalised to our school. I cannot recommend…
INSET: Great Literacy Teaching in Primary Schools
Welcome to our course on Great Literacy Teaching in Primary Schools for class teachers & teaching assistants from early years to Year 6. This course is designed to equip educators…
Primary INSET : Challenging High Achievers in Maths lessons
I feel particularly inspired. Unlike many courses, this felt achievable. Alison Tanner, Year 5/6 Teacher Cameley Primary School Maths is an exciting subject. The National Curriculum provides a framework to…
INSET : Improving Reading in Secondary Schools
‘Really helpful – lots of ideas regarding whole school literacy, as well as in department. An excellent understanding / knowledge of how the Ofsted framework will impact schools – thank…
Science INSET : Challenging able pupils in Science
“Impactful , positive & inspiring – highly recommended “ Jenny Carruthers HOD , Cleeve School The PISA 2022 report reveals that in the UK, 10% of students were top performers…
INSET: Reasoning in EYFS and KS1 Maths
Coming away from the KS1 Maths reasoning course I felt inspired to share the guidance and motivate staff at my school to integrate and teach reasoning. I love how we…
INSET: Developing Reasoning in KS2 Maths
A great hands-on course with valuable messages of how to deepen reasoning in KS2 Maths with all abilities. The children are already reasoning at a deeper level in such a…
INSET: Building confidence in KS3 & 4 Physics teaching
This INSET builds subject knowledge, confidence and pedagogy for those teaching KS3 and KS4 Physics without a Physics specialism. Non- specialist teachers in Science at Key stage 3 &4 Science…
INSET: Challenging the most able Physics students
Does your teaching stretch the most able Physics students?Are your students able to access top marks in public exams?Are you preparing your students to study Physical Science and Engineering beyond…
Literacy opinion: Closing the Vocabulary Word Gap
“Nothing matters more than words.” Geoff Barton (General Secretary, ASCL) Even prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, there were concerns about literacy & vocabulary barriers to the curriculum, with a quarter of students…
INSET: Primary Science Investigation & Scientific Enquiry
For primary school children to operate as successful scientists, they should be taught a wide range of essential science investigation & enquiry skills. These skills should build upon earlier opportunities…
INSET: Improving Memory & Learning with Cognitive Science
“Incredibly engaging and Inspiring”Katherine Letts, Assistant Head, St Laurence School Teachers of all subjects can benefit from Cognitive Science. It includes two disciplines: cognitive neuroscience, which looks at how the…
INSET : Raising Achievement in Primary Literacy & Reading
“Thank you again for the INSET on the Primary Curriculum, the staff were buzzing afterwards! “Karen Coles, Director of Studies, Fulham Prep School Supporting a rich and ambitious Primary Curriculum…
INSET: Improving Literacy through Metacognitive Strategies
“Fab ! Best thing I’ve ever been on”.N. Betts, Assistant Head, Sandbach High School Support your pupils to embrace metacognitive strategies to improve literacy outcomes. How can we get pupils…
INSET : Challenging able Chemistry students to reach their true potential
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INSET: Metacognition in STEM / Science / Maths Teaching
“Left inspired!” Kim Carmichael, Head of Science, Longcroft School Train your pupils to think for themselves • Do your pupils prefer recalling information to “real” thinking? • Are you fed-up…
INSET: Developing a Knowledge Rich Curriculum in Science
“Really engaging tutor who clearly knew his stuff” Sadia Mirza, HOD, Dr Challoners High School Discover more from JMC INSET Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email….
INSET : Improving Boys Literacy & Reading
Highly engaging and motivated the staffRochelle Thompson, Deputy Head, Kings School Boys Literacy : History of Underachievement Boys’ underachievement in literacy is a significant concern for schools across the country….
Secondary INSET : A/A* Strategies for Biology A level
Challenging able Biology students to reach their true potential “Really worthwhile and applicable, felt like I was actually learning something!”Jack White-Foy, Dulwich College Does your Biology teaching really stretch the…
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