How can Britpop help students understand identity, place and social change in 1990s Britain?
Join our upcoming Geography online course to explore this question and discover how music can be used as a lens to examine the socio-economic, political and cultural landscape of the 1990s🎶
We’re excited to welcome @msmirandasawyer as our guest speaker for this course. Miranda is an acclaimed journalist, broadcaster and author whose work has appeared in 'The Observer', 'The Guardian', 'GQ' and 'Vogue'. Her latest book, 'Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs', was published in 2024.
The course will be led by John Wilkinson, Head of Geography at @stedwardscoll , Honorary Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, and winner of The PTI’s Bernice McCabe Award 2024.
🗓️ Online | Monday 15 June | 16:00–17:30
📌 Book your place via the link in our bio!
📸 John Wilkinson taking part in The PTI Geography Enrichment Residential in 2019
Recently at The PTI✨
Our Hubs are reaching their final Hub days of the academic year! Here’s what some of them have got up to recently…
📍Romero Hub – day 3 was all about science, with Lorelly Wilson MBE and David Fairclough supporting teachers to deliver high-quality science lessons and use investigations to deepen scientific understanding.
📍@teesvalleyeducation Hub and @olhoc_ Hub – both Hubs ended the year with a focus on maths, exploring reasoning, problem-solving and fluency. Thank you to Louise Pennington FCCT, Vicky McMahon and Natalie Hutchins!
📍STOCCAT Hub – the final day in the SEND series focused on strengthening teachers’ understanding of social, emotional and mental health in schools, led by Dr Tristan Middleton.
Behind the scenes, we’ve been busy with exciting discussions, including our Secondary Academic Working Group, a meeting on inclusion and disadvantage, and a SEND panel meeting!
🔦 Spotlight School: @stmaryskl , Cumbria
This term, we're shining a light on St Mary’s CofE School – a primary school at the heart of Cumbria, dedicated to empowering pupils to flourish together.
St Mary's has been actively involved with The PTI since 2018 and now serves as Hub Lead for the South Lakes Primary Hub. It’s commitment to continuous improvement was recently recognised with The PTI Impact Award for transformative work in Art👏
St Mary’s shares The PTI’s belief in the power of passionate, motivated teachers. As Headteacher Brian Jones puts it:
“We are dedicated to delivering a rigorous, high-quality, and joyful education to every child... By fostering an environment where staff are inspired to lead, we ensure our pupils are equally inspired to learn.”
Want to find out more about St Mary's inspiring approach? Read Brian’s full article via the link in our bio!
🎤Speaker spotlight🎤
Olivia Taylor @sussexunigeog is one of the fantastic speakers joining us for The PTI’s first-ever Geography Symposium this summer🌍
Delivered in partnership with @rgs_ibg and @geographicalassociation , the Symposium is designed to empower and inspire Geography teachers to champion their subject both inside and beyond the classroom.
In this video, Olivia shares why she loves Geography – and why it’s so important that we encourage children to study it!
Find out more and book your place via the link in our bio.
On Tuesday, our Charnwood & Coalville Primary Hub held its final Hub day of the year!
18 teachers joined us for a music-focused day led by Jimmy Rotheram (@fevershamprimaryacademy ) and Asha Bishop (@charnwoodmusic )🎶
Together, they explored the transformative power of music to turn underperformance into high achieving, thriving school communities.
💬“An inspiring day which has left me with lots of practical ideas… The progress made in such a short time through active approaches was astounding!”
Thank you to Jimmy and Asha for brilliant delivery, and to all the teachers who attended and contributed🙌
We look forward to continuing this work next year!
Welcome back! We hope you had an enjoyable Easter period and a restful break.
Summer term is kicking off, and The PTI is offering a range of subject-specific courses to support teachers – including English, D&T, Geography, and more.
Book on our website🌟
Recently at The PTI🌼
Happy Easter! Teachers joined us online and in person to deepen their subject knowledge before a well-deserved break…
Subject Leaders completing the Middle Leader Certificate recently met online for an e-tutorial to discuss their schemes of work.
Also online, Geography teachers joined a course which explored changing rural communities.
We delivered two Hub days:
📍 Leeds Hub – Art teachers worked with @marciabrownart and @andrew_featon_fine_art to gain confidence in their sketching✏️
📍 South West Hub – Ryan Ball from @dtassoc2020 supported teachers to link the D&T curriculum to STEM skills and careers.
We were excited to host our first ever Technical Teaching Hub day at @utcreading , focused on sustainable engineering!
And we wrapped up the week with an English CPD day, diving into the world of the Gothic and its power to inspire creative writing.
Thank you to everyone who joined us – it’s been an energising end to the Spring term!🐣
✨Teacher feature✨
Meet Lexie👋 Professional Development Lead and Maths Teacher at Eltham Hill School
Lexie has been involved with The PTI for 7 years, and is one of our Teacher Leaders. This year, she is also a Development Partner for the Maths Enrichment Residential.
In this video, Lexie tells us why she thinks the Residential is so great – and how it helped her reconnect with the joy of her subject.
The Subject Enrichment Residential is our three-day programme for subject leaders and teachers with curriculum responsibility – designed to deepen subject knowledge, strengthen curriculum design, and develop strategies to inspire students.
This year, the Residential is running in five subjects: D&T, English, History, Maths, MFL – plus our first-ever Geography Symposium.
Click the link in our bio to find out more and book your place!
Recently at The PTI🌈
Last week was a busy one!
We kicked things off with a Geography CPD day exploring the changing geographies of coastal communities - led by Jack Cockayne, John Wilkinson @stedwardscoll , and guest speaker Richard Yarwood @plymuni .
We had two online courses:
🏃 Creating an outstanding KS3 PE Curriculum
🤝 Strengthening internal SEND provision
On Friday, we ran three Hubs:
📍 Loughborough & Coalville Hub – Michael Noonan @qebarnet1573 and Freddie Reay @juddschool explored D&T skills in industry which can be developed in the classroom.
📍 Fortis Medway & Kent Hub – Liberty Melly @migrationmuseumuk and Alex O’Halloran @saintolavesschool focused on decolonising the History curriculum and amplifying diverse narratives.
📍 Norfolk Hub – James Fraser @eatsleepictrepeat empowered teachers to lead Computing with confidence.
And on Saturday, we delivered Day 2 of our Subject Expertise Certificate in Leeds and Manchester, supporting teachers to deepen their subject knowledge in English, Geography and Physics 📚🌍🔬
✨Teacher feature✨
Meet Joe👋 Curriculum Team Leader for the English Department at The Warren School.
Joe first attended the English Enrichment Residential in 2023, and in this video he shares his favourite part of the experience and how it has shaped his teaching.
💡 The Subject Enrichment Residential is our 3-day programme for subject leaders and teachers with curriculum responsibility – designed to deepen subject knowledge, strengthen curriculum design, and develop strategies to inspire students.
This year, the Residential is running in five subjects: D&T, English, History, Maths, MFL – plus our first-ever Geography Symposium.
Click the link in our bio to find out more and book your place!
Recently at The PTI🎉
We started last week with a SEND panel, bringing together school leaders to discuss the innovative work taking place in their schools.
Next, we headed to the @aqaeducation offices for our second powerful knowledge roundtable, where we explored assessment as we know it and as it could be.
Our Primary team delivered two Hub days:
📍 Greenwich Hub – Kulvinder Kaur Johal @pstt_whyhow explored science across the curriculum and how to make cross-curricular links.
📍 Brampton and Carlisle Hub – Dr Tim Mills @educationgovuk unpacked the new writing framework, focusing on the importance of feedback and redrafting in developing students’ writing.
Online, our Virtual Primary Hub focused on developing inclusive practice in EYFS. We also welcomed Department Development Programme members to our Spring Forum, where they connected with colleagues and reviewed their progress so far.
And last but not least, we’re delighted to welcome Cat Scutt as our new CEO! Cat has already been busy meeting the team and getting involved in events – including @ascl_uk conference on Saturday. We’re excited for the next chapter of The PTI under her leadership🙌
Recently at The PTI💫
Last week, 249 teachers joined us online and in-person to deepen their subject knowledge and improve their teaching strategies.
We ran five online courses:
🎵 The Inclusive Music Classroom
📖 Fostering independent research skills at sixth form
✍️ Using grammar knowledge to develop student writing
🗺️ The Conquest of Mexico
🌍 MFL Virtual Primary Hub
Primary teachers joined our Hub days across the UK:
📍 Greenwich Hub – @emma.jacobs.art and Elmaz Soyal explored the purpose of sketchbooks in Art and experimented with textiles through hands-on wet felting and shibori workshops.
📍 Bolton Hub – @topsypageoracy led sessions on the importance of oracy and how to embed it across the curriculum.
📍 STOCCAT Hub – Ryan Ball @dtassoc2020 focused on progression, assessment, and food and nutrition in D&T.
📍 Truro Roseland Hub – James Fraser @eatsleepictrepeat introduced teachers to using AI in the primary classroom.
Finally, on Saturday we welcomed teachers to day 2 of our Subject Expertise Certificate in London. Speakers from leading universities delivered high-quality subject enrichment across ten disciplines – from genetics and biotech to Shakespeare’s tragedies!
