Brand new opportunity for 2017

Hello and Happy New Year. This is a special blog to share with you the work we are currently doing across Europe with our C.O.A.C.H. programme to develop 100 teachers, head teachers and senior education professionals to become qualified coaches. The learning from the pilot programme will be disseminated later in 2017 and in the meantime we are offering opportunities for UK teachers and education workers to start this innovative new training in March 2017, to become professionally qualified school coaches. It is already being offered in Italy as a discrete Teachers’ CPD programme. Please take the time to read and reflect on our offering, share it with colleagues in the world of education and other interested parties and feel free to ask questions about how it adds value to schools, peers and students.

C.O.A.C.H. (Coaching schOols to fAce Change aHead) – project summary and thinking behind the offering.

EU 2020 and the Communication from the European Commission ‘Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcome’ highlight the need to drive up both standards and levels of achievement in education to match the present ever rising demands of society, as well as encourage transversal skills both in school leaders, teachers and students to ensure the capacity to face increasing inevitable changes.

Transversal skills such as the ability to think critically, take the initiative, solve problems and work collaboratively prepare individuals for today’s varied and unpredictable career paths. Self aware school leaders, and high quality, well-trained teachers and staff can help learners develop the competences they need in a global labour market, in fact evidence shows that a primary influence on learners’ performance is the quality of teaching and learning. However, School staff are facing unprecedented challenges and to stimulate and foster innovation they are now asked to introduce innovative approaches and creativity. The key focus is upon improving the levels of attainment of each and every learner. The pace of change in the world is so fast, that school leaders and teachers needs to keep their practice under constant, critical review and adjust it daily.

Coaching, developed in the mid-1990s as an independent discipline, has been chosen as the main individual and organizational development process having the largely proved benefits to bring fresh perspectives on personal challenges, enhancing decision-making skills, greater interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence. Moreover, those who undertake coaching also can expect appreciable improvement in productivity, satisfaction with life and work, and the attainment of relevant professional and personal goals.

Taking into account challenges and needs in education, our main objective has been to design a blended Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Programme to become a certified school coach. This programme is accredited by the ICF (International Coaching Federation) and coach trainers guide teachers/students/parents to adopt, adapt and evolve their own approaches, and reach their aims. There is an opportunity to achieve an ILM qualification in Coaching and Mentoring as well.

There are some strong goals underpinning the achievement of the above main objective:

1) To stimulate a given set of core competences in the school coach; In all situations and interacting with every type of coachee: colleagues, school staff, students and parents, a certified school coach is asked to co-create a positive relationship, establishing trust and intimacy, and to communicate effectively and facilitate lifelong learning and results.

2) To elicit transversal skills in school leader, teachers, and students through a cascade and a multiplier effect; The training programme supports personal and professional development and a discovery process leading to active listening, powerful questioning, direct communication, creating awareness, designing actions, planning and goal setting and managing progress and accountability.

3) To support increased openness to personal learning and development and generate improvements in individuals’ attitudes and performances; The participants develop self-awareness, gain more job and life satisfaction, and contribute more effectively to the team and the organization, taking greater responsibility and accountability for actions and commitments.

The C.O.A.C.H. programme invites school leaders, teachers and educationalists who are willing to develop professionally, to become school coaches. The C.O.A.C.H. main activity is a PDCA (plan–do–check–act) focused on the project programme to become a school coach. The pilot phase from 5 countries has highlighted the corrective actions to put in place for the release of the final programme.

The methodology of the programme is designed to give participants a cooperative working understanding of innovation and shifting perspectives in a learning process. Participants develop knowledge and skills to critically examine their skills and develop an attitude to cooperation and team work in line with interactive methodologies and constructivist learning theories. The training programme is purposely taught in an inductive manner through hands-on training opportunities to allow personal and working styles to emerge from experiences to better match individual goals. Most importantly, it is a fun programme.

The results of the above mentioned programme include:

1) A 60 hour programme (….face to face…online) to train school coaches plus 100 hours coaching practice will be required to obtain the Associate Accredited Coach certification (International Coaching Federation).

2) The use of webinars as part of the training and a tool for the future use of coaches, who will have the chance of exchanging material and experiences with their peers, creating a network, using a cooperative environment.

3) The production of ‘C.O.A.C.H e-Guide’ that will include material on all the modules of the programme, with suggestions to lead effective coaching sessions. It will be in English, downloadable and available in PDF from the project website

4) An opportunity to receive the C.O.A.C.H. research, conducted by the universities, to highlight the benefits of coaching in schools and to compare results in the participating countries (currently Norway, Turkey, Lithuania, Romania and Italy).

The extended impact and benefits of C.O.A.C.H. at European level are in the project rationale itself. Above all, the efforts are addressed to the acquisition of a mindset, competences, attitudes and strategies to support schools and all relevant stakeholders to face changes and innovation and to take an active role in the teaching/learning process.

The long term benefits are designed to impact the whole school system, some of the dominant categories and positive effects will be felt on both individual and school wellbeing, on coping with obstacles and stress, on work and career related attitudes and on goal directed self-regulation.

How do I become qualified?

There are two programmes running in the UK in 2017.

• 4-12 March in Bath
• 16-24 September in Cambridge

Attending the Higher Professional Coaching Certificate Level 1 course will equip you with the tools and capabilities to coach at the most effective levels within your school. We get fabulous feedback and can put you in touch with previous attendees.

This programme will open your doors to the coaching world, and give you a diverse yet solid education in the principles, competencies, implementation and practice of coaching. It gives you the 60 hours of coach training required to become a qualified coach and a Member of the International Coaching Federation.

Our Methodology:

• We use double loop learning to ensure you learn about yourself, as well as the skills, knowledge and understanding you need to be the best coach you can be.
• Training methods are interactive with demonstrations and practice as well as knowledge input.
• We create an informal and relaxed yet challenging environment.
• We move from knowledge sharing and input to creative, experiential and interactive sessions through the course.
• We help you to solicit and generate high-quality feedback.
• We create space for group discussion and sharing interests.
• We work with cross-cultural examples.
• We tell real life stories about our own experiences in coaching.
• We find opportunities to play with the creative coaching tools.
• We develop ‘safe’ coaches who work with integrity.
• We walk our talk.
• We have FUN!

During the course participants will:

• Course Schedule: (we can run discreet modular courses in your school to suit your timings and workload if preferred).
• Be provided with a comprehensive resource pack and full versions of psychometric questionnaires for practice with clients. This intensive course is run over ten days. Indicative schedule as follows;
• Achieve the initial training content necessary to progress to full accreditation with the AC.
• Experience clear standards and criteria as defined by the Association for Coaching & ICF.
• Observe and assess peers in their coaching and use coaching to aid the planning and development of a personal learning programme.
• Be continually observed and assessed whilst coaching by peers and experienced coaches using the ICF and AC competences.
• Day 1: Introduction to coaching, the Professional Associations, Competences and Ethical codes. Course assessment process, introduction to contracting and boundary work.
• Day 2: The structure of coaching, presuppositions and PDP.
• Day 3: Transactional Analysis; Gardener’s Intelligences.
• Day 4: Questioning, Listening Skills Challenge, the GROW, SCORE and other models –building a meta-model.
• Day 5: Re-language and Clean Language
• Day 6: Creative coaching including Sandplay, Clean Cards, Coaching and Walking.
• Day 7: Neuro – Logical Levels, Archetypes of Change
• Day 8: Extended DISC psychometric facilitation
• Day 9: Spiral Dynamics, Lifelines coaching
• Day 10: Practical Assessment day Investment; All trainers have worked professionally in the education system, in schools and universities and therefore understand your daily challenges and can advise on what works (and what doesn’t).

Normally £3500, this special offer for those working in the education arena is £1750 – half the commercial price. This is to support our commitment to making the world a better place; a world to which people want to belong.

All trainers have worked professionally in the education system, in schools and universities and therefore understand your daily challenges and can advise on what works (and what doesn’t).