Susie Spolander – English Consultant
As an experienced English consultant, Susie works with schools, academies and partnerships to develop and improve all aspects of English across the primary age range. Using her knowledge of the curriculum, assessment and effective teaching and learning practices, she successfully supports many schools — leaders, teachers and support staff — to improve outcomes for their pupils. During her 20+ year career in Education, Susie has enjoyed classroom teaching, as well as holding a range of senior leadership posts. Prior to establishing her own consultancy business, she worked as an English Consultant for Oxfordshire County Council’s School Improvement Service. Susie has written, developed and led a wide variety of training events, programmes and projects to address current local and national educational priorities and, in recognition of this work, has been awarded the Gold Quality Mark for Professional Development by the London Institute of Education. Susie is an accredited trainer for several reading intervention programmes and has recently worked with OUP to write and present a new online professional development package for their Project X CODE intervention.
Susie is passionate about finding innovative ways to inspire teachers and engage learners. Her face-to-face and online training is of high quality: rooted in the curriculum, with evidence-based practice coupled with creative teaching and learning approaches. She believes in a bespoke approach to school support, working alongside school leaders, class teachers and support staff to develop practice through a range of leadership and classroom-based strategies, always precisely tailored to the identified needs of the school.
Susie provides training, resources and school support in partnership with local and national organisations, such as Quest for Learning, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire Teaching Schools Alliance and Oxford University Press.
Over 20 years’ experience in primary school teaching and leadership, as well as advisory work for Oxfordshire County Council’s School Improvement Service contributes to high quality work with schools:
-
In-depth knowledge of the English curriculum and its related assessment
-
Knowledge of the most effective approaches and pedagogies for impactful teaching and learning
-
Broad experience of working in and with a range of schools and partnerships
-
Expertise in using effective approaches to support schools and their staff to improve teaching and learning
-
Purposeful challenge and support for school leaders, teachers and support staff
-
Extensive experience of researching, developing, writing and delivering a range of CPD packages and projects for schools, trusts, partnerships and national organisations
-
Associations with national organisations for English and advisory
-
Current knowledge and experience of school governance
Assured Quality
Accreditations from independent bodies assure the quality of my work: a Gold Quality Mark for Professional Development has been verified by the Institute of Education, University College London. I maintain close links with Higher Educational Institutions such as Edge Hill University and professional organisations such as the National Association for the Teaching of English, National Literacy Trust, United Kingdom Literacy Association and the National Association for Advisors of English.
​