What’s special about this course?
Get personalised feedback on how to tackle the parent problems that keep you up at night, and share your stories with a supportive, non-judgemental team of peers.
Class 1
Tuesday 26 November
4pm to 5.30pm, on Zoom
With Ben Levinson OBE
Nailing parental engagement to start with
Learn how to:
- Get every parent to buy into your vision and values
- Make your local community an asset for your school
- Keep your focus on pupils’ learning, while managing the school-parent dynamic
Class 2
Tuesday 10 December
4pm to 5.30pm, on Zoom
With Ben Levinson OBE
Dealing with trickier parents and complaints
Learn to:
- Tackle difficult conversations with confidence
- Follow the right process and move forward with optimism, no matter what the complaint
- Stay resilient – every peer in this class has had a complaint at some point!
Your expert course trainer
Ben Levinson OBE
Ben Levinson OBE is director of school and trust improvement and executive headteacher at The Tapscott Learning Trust.
Ben has a track record of putting relationships with parents at the heart of the school improvement journey and building successful partnerships with both parents and local communities. As headteacher, he led Kensington Primary School to win 3 prestigious awards in 2020, including Primary School of the Year.
He is a national leader of education and has sat on several advisory groups and boards aimed at improving the wellbeing of children and education staff.
Who can attend
This course is for you if you’re:
- Feeling new to headship
- Preparing for a new headship role
- Aspiring to headship any time soon
Relevant to all phases and settings.
This course is exclusively available to The Key's Whole School members. If you're not yet a Whole School member,
find out more here.
More reasons to love this course
Learn with others in similar situations
Work with a supportive ‘team’ of peers, who understand the unique difficuties you face. This course will be rich in energising interaction between you and your colleagues. It's your safe space to ask questions, discuss real challenges, seek feedback, and make connections for life.
Active learning, not passive instruction
Your live classes won't be lectures. Ben will engage the class, invite discussion, prompt breakout activities and leave plenty of room for Q&A. You'll learn by doing, with practical tasks between classes and regular feedback from the trainer and your class colleagues.
Develop your own menu of practical strategies that work
Get personalised feedback on the real-life parent-engagement challenges you face. Apply what you learn straight away, with practical strategies drawn from expert advice and excellent practice. Adopt the best of what works, for immediate change and lasting impact on your school-parent dynamic.
Earn a certificate of achievement
Complete your classes and get a certificate of achievement from The Key for your learning record.
What other participants have said about our courses
“I now know what steps
to take to be an
effective leader"
“This course gave me confidence, opportunities to share good practice, and up-to-date research”
"The tasks were very practical and a brilliant way to
secure that knowledge"
Frequently asked questions
Live classes are held on Zoom, and you’ll collaborate on practical tasks with small groups of colleagues in breakout rooms. You’ll have practical tasks to complete independently between your two classes, and 24/7 access to your own online course community forum.
Ideally, yes! Working together with your colleagues is where much of the magic happens, and you’ll have opportunities to ask Ben questions directly. But we know that some school days run away, so you’ll be able to catch up on-demand if you have to miss a class. We’ll let you know when the class recording is available.
Deeply practical tasks. They’ll help you put learning into practice immediately and get ahead on work you need to complete in your day-to-day role. You might work with colleagues on a task, and get supportive feedback.
Yes! This course was built for full-time school leaders. You'll attend two 90-minute classes in November and December, after school at 4pm. Outside of that, expect practical tasks to complete, and an on-tap peer community to engage with as you like. All your practical tasks will directly relate to your day job – they’ll never take you more than an hour.
Yes! You’ll get a certificate on completion of the course.
Just email any questions to cpd@thekeysupport.com. We’ll get back to you within 2 working days.
These courses are included as part of The Key's Whole School membership and places are exclusively available to those members.
If you're not yet a Whole School member, find out more here.