My Way: blending professional development to support inexperienced teachers

The 'English My Way' programme provides meaningful professional development to ESOL teachers with little previous training in community organisations across England. This talk demonstrates how this has been achieved and looks at lessons learned.

About the webinar

The 'English My Way' programme has provided meaningful professional development to ESOL teachers with little previous training in community organisations across England. The talk will demonstrate how a blend of expert, online and peer support allowed us to do this with limited resources. We will evaluate the challenges faced, and suggest what lessons can be taken forward by other projects.

About the speakers

Julie Day has 29 years’ experience teaching and managing in ESOL/ EFL with learners of all ages in a large FE college and community and work based provision. With 13 years’ experience of line management including very large teams, Julie developed effective curriculums, ensured excellent Schemes of Work through quality procedures, and led Internal Verification over a number of years in various curriculum areas. She led teams during Ofsted inspections which were judged outstanding. Julie’s current role as Project Manager for English My Way involves managing a team to deliver learner resources and teacher and volunteer professional development while ensuring the quality of the programme.

Celine Castelino, former Head of ESOL Development at the Basic Skill Agency, has over 20 years of experience in working on ESOL local, regional and national programmes in Scotland, England and Wales. She was a consultant to the ESOL Nexus project and joint co-ordinator for the ESOL Offender Learning strand. Celine is now Content Editor for English My Way and works with the team developing teaching and learning resources for beginner ESOL learners, as well as professional development programmes for teachers and volunteers.

Phil Bird is a co-ordinator for the English My Way project, he also worked as a co-ordinator for ESOL Nexus. He has been teaching ESOL to adults and teenagers in London for 10 years and has also worked in Argentina and Paraguay.

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