CPD
Practical School CPD for Teachers and Leaders
Calm, practical and teacher-friendly professional development for schools, multi-academy trusts and leadership teams.
Led by Valentine Gale-Sides, an experienced school leader, educator and author of Education in Turmoil: How Reforms Broke the System They Meant to Fix. Each session is grounded in real school experience and tailored to the priorities of your teachers, leaders or trust.
About Valentine
Valentine Gale-Sides delivers people-centred school CPD grounded in more than a decade of educational leadership across state, independent and alternative provision settings.
His experience includes Head of Department, Curriculum Manager, Board Member and Vice Principal-level leadership. This allows his professional development to combine strategic thinking with a practical understanding of how school life actually feels for teachers and leaders
Every programme can be tailored to the needs and context of your school, multi-academy trust or leadership team.
School CPD Topics
Staff Retention
Practical approaches to building school cultures in which good teachers and leaders feel able, valued and motivated to stay.
Early Career Teachers
Meaningful support for Early Career Teachers that moves beyond compliance and helps them develop confidence, resilience and professional purpose
Leadership and Managing Managers
Helping senior and trust leaders develop middle and aspiring leaders without creating further overload or burnout.
AI in Education
Calm, ethical and genuinely useful approaches to artificial intelligence that support teacher thinking rather than replace professional judgement.
How Valentine Works with Schools and Trusts
Valentine’s CPD helps schools move beyond performative wellbeing and compliance-driven systems towards leadership that is clear, humane and sustainable.
- Calm and teacher-friendly
- Grounded in real educational leadership
- Practical and immediately usable
- Tailored to the school or trust’s context
- Designed to reduce noise rather than add to it
This is professional development that puts people first without lowering expectations
Book-Linked CPD: Education in Turmoil
Drawing on Education in Turmoil: How Reforms Broke the System They Meant to Fix, these sessions examine how constant reform, accountability pressure and policy overload have reshaped schools, and how leaders can protect both standards and people
- Why good teachers leave—and what improves retention
- Early career teachers: from survival to sustainability
- Middle leadership under pressure
- Managing managers without burnout
- Rebuilding professional trust and purpose
Delivery Formats
- Twilight sessions of two to three hours
- Half-day or full-day INSET
- Leadership and middle-leader development days
- Early Career Teacher and mentor programmes
- Trust-wide or cluster CPD packages
- Bespoke programmes tailored to local priorities
Who This CPD Is For
- School leadership teams
- Middle and aspiring leaders
- Early Career Teachers and mentors
- Trust leaders and central teams
- Schools seeking sustainable, people-centred improvement
Sessions can be delivered as standalone workshops or combined into a tailored professional development programme for your school or trust.
Enquiries
Sessions can be tailored to your priorities and delivered in a format that suits your school or trust.
Interested in practical school CPD for your teachers or leadership team?
Valentine Gale-Sides can also be found online as @valentinedsides.