Professional Learning in Australia & NZ
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Develop your classroom culture
James Nottingham created the Learning Pit when he was a classroom teacher seeking to encourage his students to value the learning process. He witnessed their fear of failure and their resistance to engage in challenge and had a vision to create a classroom culture where students seek challenge and understand that deep learning happens when they make mistakes, understand their mistakes and shift their thinking and understanding in response to the mistake
When you engage with the Learning Pit team, you will be joined by educators who have been in the classroom, who continue to work with students, and who have a strong commitment to developing learning cultures. We know there are amazing things happening in the classroom, and it is our intention to shape and build rather than replace and restructure your classroom practices.
We can help you to develop your classroom culture so that your students:
- Are more willing to take intellectual risks, ask thoughtful questions, and engage in challenging tasks with a sense of efficacy & resilience
- Are more likely to value feedback, using it to effectively deepen their learning
- Engage in dialogue more frequently as they progress from surface knowledge to deep learning
- Are more likely to value the quality of education and the expertise of staff
- Understand the concept of ‘progress for all’ so that improvement and attainment become the basis for holistic and lifelong learning
Develop your school culture
Our company was started by James Nottingham in 2006 to develop the research based ideas and strategies he had been sharing with educators into a consultancy group intended to encourage long term and sustainable cultural change. Since then, we have supported more than 400 schools, preschools, colleges, and school districts with long term projects designed to deepen a culture of learning for all students. When you engage with our team, we will help you to carefully assess your current culture in relation to your vision, then we will help to build your capacity to make the changes you want to make.
Our Australian and New Zealand consultancy is conducted primarily by our Australian Director, George Telford – formerly a primary school principal in Gippsland, VIC. James Nottingham also makes 3 – 4 visits a year and can provide keynotes, in person or virtual professional development for leaders and staff, and demonstration lessons.
Independent evaluations of our work with schools show positive effects on learning including:
- Increased staff engagement and job satisfaction (which in turn, is leading to significant savings on substitute teacher spending)
- Better student learning outcomes (increases in standardized and local assessment scores)
- Improved use of feedback, questioning and dialogue to enhance student learning
- Improved student motivation, resilience and curiosity, which reduces student behavior concerns
- A healthier attitude towards challenge, progress and achievement which improves social emotional regulation
Support with your Annual Implementation Plan
Our long-term work with schools will support your team in conducting your annual implementation plan. The following components are included in the Learning Pit Process:
VISIONING: We help your team to clarify your shared vision for learning
BASELINE: We collaborate with you to conduct a baseline visit to assess your current learning environment in relation to your vision
WORKSHOPS: We design workshops and provide resources to help you move from where you are to where you want to be
PARENT INVOLVEMENT: We work with your team to enhance parent engagement through workshops and dialogue development
IMPACT: We collaborate with your team to monitor and measure impact on learning throughout the process
Support with your Strategic Plans
James Nottingham has been working in Australia for close to 20 years and George Telford has dedicated his career to education in Australia. The support you receive from our team will be based on current educational research and best practices, but also a deep understanding of the educational landscape in Australia.
We have a wide range of topic and theme offers so that we can offer you exactly what you need for your strategic planning. We also have a variety of delivery options to address the most common priorities:
HIGH QUALITY INSTRUCTION: We have developed resources to support instructional planning and implementation and we offer personalized workshops and demonstration lessons to build strong pedagogical strategies
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP: We provide specific offerings for leaders to build their capacity and support their teams
PARENT AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: We guide teams in the development of community engagement plans, and offer workshops for parents and carers
ACCOUNTABILITY AND REPORTING: We collaborate with your team to develop ongoing monitoring to guide improvement and assessments to measure learning growth
Reach out to discuss how we can help you.
Please feel free to email me, call +61 457 632 398,
or fill out the form below
Who do we support
We work in pre-K-12 educational settings, including individual and groups of schools; districts; at risk, charter and academy schools. We guide teachers, leaders, support staff, and administrators. When partnering long term, we also work with parents and community members.
Why choose us
Our consultants are expert teachers and leaders who will inspire you, give you lots of practical strategies, and coach your team until your aims are achieved.
We’ll even put our money where our mouth: give us any group of students, any age, and we’ll demonstrate some of the best teaching techniques working in practice.
What's the impact of our work?
First and foremost, we can help you to improve your learning culture. This includes:
- Ensuring your students use feedback brilliantly
- Improving your students’ attitudes and approaches towards challenges
- Stoking curiosity and engagement in all classes
- Building collective and self-efficacy
- Strengthening social and emotional learning (SEL)
- Deepening learning so that students build robust and relevant attitudes, skills and knowledge
Through our continuing multi-day and long-term projects across the USA & Canada, there have also been gains in school ratings and student grades; a decrease in staff and student absence, as well as student behavior referrals; and a growing sense of efficacy and professional joy across school districts.
What makes us different
- All our consulting work, books and resources are unified by a clear set of values and themes, making us the very antithesis of the bandwagon companies with their scattergun approach! Professional learning with us will always be consistent, clear and galvanizing.
- We have a core team, employed full time to deliver outstanding support to our partners. You will always know who to contact and how they’re going to support you. No longer with you need to juggle a wide range of 1099’s. As one of our long-term partners likes to say, cut one of our team and they will bleed the Learning Pit!
- Our founder and CEO, James Nottingham is the creator of the Learning Pit. We also work closely with professors Carol Dweck (Mindset) and John Hattie (Visible Learning). All of this – and more – ensures we bring a rare blend of academic rigor and practical expertise that sets us apart from the rest.
Who do we support?
We work in pre-K-12 educational settings, including individual and groups of schools; districts; at risk, charter and academy schools. We guide teachers, leaders, support staff, and administrators. When partnering long term, we also work with parents and community members.
Why choose us?
Our consultants are expert teachers and leaders who will inspire you, give you lots of practical strategies, and coach your team until your aims are achieved.
We’ll even put our money where our mouth: give us any group of students, any age, and we’ll demonstrate some of the best teaching techniques working in practice.
What's the impact of our work?
First and foremost, we can help you to improve your learning culture. This includes:
- Ensuring your students use feedback brilliantly
- Improving your students’ attitudes and approaches towards challenges
- Stoking curiosity and engagement in all classes
- Building collective and self-efficacy
- Strengthening social and emotional learning (SEL)
- Deepening learning so that students build robust and relevant attitudes, skills and knowledge
Through our continuing multi-day and long-term projects across the USA & Canada, there have also been gains in school ratings and student grades; a decrease in staff and student absence, as well as student behavior referrals; and a growing sense of efficacy and professional joy across school districts.
What makes us different?
- All our consulting work, books and resources are unified by a clear set of values and themes, making us the very antithesis of the bandwagon companies with their scattergun approach! Professional learning with us will always be consistent, clear and galvanizing.
- We have a core team, employed full time to deliver outstanding support to our partners. You will always know who to contact and how they’re going to support you. No longer with you need to juggle a wide range of 1099’s. As one of our long-term partners likes to say, cut one of our team and they will bleed Challenging Learning!
- Our founder and CEO, James Nottingham is the creator of the Learning Pit. We also work closely with professors Carol Dweck (Mindset) and John Hattie (Visible Learning). All of this – and more – ensures we bring a rare blend of academic rigor and practical expertise that sets us apart from the rest.
Upcoming Events
Common Questions & Answers
How does the Learning Pit link to Standards?
The Learning Pit is intentional in developing resources and professional learning that will persist over time and are applicable in and scalable to all situations. Learning Standards, however, change periodically and are not consistent across all systems. What we have seen in our work with school, is that when there is a common purpose and language of learning in a community and when students are consistently challenged, they are more engaged in their own learning. When students have more engagement in the learning process and understand the value of challenge, the content in the standards can be used to collect evidence of the positive impact on student learning.
Why should I choose the Learning Pit rather than another provider?
Our consultants work with us full-time, allowing us to bring a consistency of values, processes and strategies that are remarked upon time and time again. This model contrasts with many other educational consultancies who tend to be sole traders or loose affiliations of many sole traders.
We invest in our team by challenging, encouraging and coaching throughout the year, as well as coming together every six months – all staff from 6 countries – to focus on vision, values and recent research. Our consultants stay current through pro bono work in a variety of classrooms and contexts; and our office staff are always a central part of all our professional learning. Engage with us and you will meet a team serious about learning who never take themselves too seriously. We’ll send you consultants with ‘the Learning Pit in the blood’ and our office staff will be just as dedicated. We’ll support you with preview documents; progress reports; teaching resources; and a named point of contact. We’ll be on hand when you need us to reassure, challenge, inform and encourage. Choose us and we’ll prioritise you from start to finish.
What does an international company know about my state?
Over the last 15 years, we havesuccessfully supported over 450 schools in 11 countries. We have learned a lot about the various nuances associated with different schools. We also have team members from different parts of the world who make it a priority to learn as much as possible about the education structures in their area. More importantly, we focus on learning and learners, and the basic tenets of successful learning are strikingly similar the world over
Does Challenging Learning work in New Zealand?
The Learning Pit has proven to work in any context because of our focus on shifting the culture of learning, which can be done in any place where there are structures built to support the change. Our resources, our process, and all of our workshops are designed to provide participants with research-based strategies and approaches that can be used in a variety of ways depending on the context and the experiences of the educator.
What’s the best type of professional development for my team?
Get in touch and we’ll help you decide! We’ll ask you a few questions about your context and your aims, then offer some suggestions for your next steps. We won’t push and we won’t offer you a pre-formulated package. Instead, we’ll listen carefully to your thoughts and then help you design the best blend of resources, support and consultancy that builds capacity and leads to significant and sustainable improvements in teaching, learning and leadership.
Regional Contacts
Head Office (UK)
engage@learningpit.org
T: +44 1670 330036
USA (CST)
engage@learningpit.org
T: +44 1670 330036
Japan
Clare Barnfather
T: +81 90 6434 1256
Head Office Address
Challenging Learning,
2 Linnet Court,
Cawledge Business Park,
Alnwick, Northumberland,
NE66 2GD, UK
