Growing Together Blog
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Monday 21 September 2026 Growing Together Spotlight - Conor Lilley Conor joined Aldridge Education's Growing Together team this year, bringing with him 12 years of experience working in secondary education. Having initially trained as an English teacher, he held a range of curriculum and departmental roles before moving into teaching and learning leadership.
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Monday 14 September 2026 Growing Together Spotlight - Andrea Bean Andrea Bean joined Aldridge Education this year as Trust Lead for Professional Development. Prior to joining the Trust, she was Managing Director at the Teacher Development Trust, having previously led research and evaluation, as well as the design and delivery of NPQs and wider professional development programmes. During her time there, she authored a number of national reports on teacher development, including Teacher Development: The CPD Landscape 2025 and What is Didagogy? Exploring the Discipline of Teaching Teachers. Before joining the Teacher Development Trust, Andrea spent 16 years in primary education. During this time, she held a range of senior leadership positions, including headship. Andrea is also Chair of Governors at a primary school and serves as a board member of a multi-academy trust. Here we find out more about Andrea, her motivation for working with Aldridge and what professional development means to her. What attracted you to Aldridge Education and the G
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Friday 20 March 2026 Growing Together: Management Mastery - a new course for a new age of managers In spring 2025, I was approached by the HR team with a problem. Our leadership programmes were doing a lot of good to support people to have vision and aspiration, make evidence-informed decisions, and talk with confidence about the theory of being an effective leader… but there was something missing. Being a driven person with vision and values is not enough to excel in a role with managerial responsibilities. Colleagues were excelling in their former roles, and so earmarked for promotion. They were making the next step, complete with line management responsibilities, and then just left to work out exactly how to do the job practically day to day.
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Friday 13 February 2026 Early Career Training Programme at Darwen Vale High School Blog
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Wednesday 17 September 2025 Preparing for your NPQ Assessment Preparing for Assessment
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Wednesday 17 September 2025 Growing Together Meet Our New NPQ Lead - Jemma Naish-Williams In this blog series, we shine a spotlight on the NPQ courses we have on offer in partnership with Teach First, including showcasing some of our fantastic programme members and leaders.
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Friday 23 May 2025 Growing Together ECF Pathways - Molly Reynolds
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Tuesday 13 May 2025 Growing Together NPQ Spotlight - Sarah Carroll
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Friday 14 February 2025 Growing Together NPQ Spotlight - Lou Brown
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Monday 20 January 2025 Growing Together NPQ Spotlight - Jodeth Parkinson
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Thursday 12 December 2024 Growing Together NPQ Spotlight - Matt Carlin
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Tuesday 26 November 2024 Growing Together ECF Pathways - Beth Waddicor Why did you get into teaching?
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Wednesday 13 November 2024 Growing Together NPQ Spotlight - Martyn Millard
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Wednesday 13 November 2024 Growing Together SCITT Spotlight - Harvey Austin
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Wednesday 25 September 2024 Blog Post - How instructional coaching shaped my teaching - and my wellbeing - Poppy Nobes There are plenty of blogs already written which go through the evidence base for instructional coaching. I am sure we have all heard Dr Sam Sims's research about it being our best bet form of professional development which has an impact on learning and outcomes[1]. Plus, the ever-present Dylan Wiliam quote about teachers getting better always because we all need to continue to develop across our careers[2].
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Tuesday 7 May 2024 Growing Together ECF Pathways - Georgia Newsham
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Wednesday 1 May 2024 Growing Together NPQ Spotlight - Ted Bunn
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Tuesday 23 April 2024 Growing Together Spotlight - Karen Hunt
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Wednesday 27 March 2024 Growing Together Beginnings - Rachel Johnston
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Friday 15 March 2024 Growing Together NPQ Spotlight - Saida Ali