The rate of change in the educational environment, both at home and abroad, continues to place demands on school boards and school heads. Some of the key areas in which Godsil Education specialises are marketing and brand development, designing appropriate senior management structures, providing targeted Continual Professional Development (CPD), advising on suitable academic programmes, and developing strategic plans for schools.

In addition, we offer services in the following:

• Assuring governance arrangements
• Conducting senior salary reviews
• Performance appraisals
• Leadership coaching and mentoring
• Support with offer and negotiation
• Leadership audit and review

Knowing exactly how education is advancing globally allows us to maximise contributions to the educational marketplace. E-futuring – educational futuring – is the attempt to forecast trends using existing global data. Godsil Education can provide this knowledge to companies and advisory bodies wanting to maintain a competitive advantage.

Schools are required to formulate policy in a variety of areas, some of which are required by law. Godsil Education provides clear and definitive advice on all policy development for schools, providing templates and consultation to ensure that schools are, in the first instance, fully compliant with all statutory requirements and secondly and are tailored to ensure that they are ideally suited for their particular schools.

…to ensure that all aspects of the school are operating to the highest levels to ensure that the delivery of the education they offer is of the highest calibre.

Currently the following school assessments are supported by Godsil Education:

• SSE – School Self Evaluation
• MLL – Management Leadership and Learning
• WSE – Whole School Evaluation
• ECIS/NEASC Joint Accreditation

Frequently, the Department of Education and Skills (DES) inspection reports recommend greater integration of IT into the curriculum. The difficulty for schools lies in deciding:

• How to go about the process taking into account the financial implications and whether the educational outcomes justify the substantial investment in infrastructure.
• On the issue of staff readiness and the amount of CPD necessary.
• Reaching agreement of whether to standardise students’ devices.

However, the key to success in this area lies in developing a school-wide IT Strategy and Plan. Typically IT Plans are designed for 3 to 5 years with built in annual reviews detailing how yearly objectives have been met and how budgets have been controlled.

Godsil Education advises on and assists with

• Critical incident
• Strategy and Planning
• The particular needs of the school
• All aspects of the IT rollout

In conjunction with the school we specialise in developing:

• The Website
• The Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
• The students and parent portals

We also advise on the choice of:

• The Management Information system (MIS)
• The Hardware and devices to be used by students and staff
• Display and presentation products

Ultimately, the goal is to provide a contemporary learning environment for each child using information technology to assist her or his access to the curriculum. All too often investment in IT has been rushed and results in excessive financial outlay without the expected educational returns for the students and staff.

Change is inherent in all modern schools and the importance in investing in a comprehensive and teacher directed programme of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) cannot be overemphasized. Curricular change places on-going responsibility on teachers to ensure that they are cognizant of course requirements and the changes which from time to time are introduced. The DES provides In-service training in this area. See the PDST website for more.

However, CPD encompasses the totality of the teachers’ professional development. Godsil Education provides training and professional development across all aspects of teaching. 

Clear policy manuals for board members detailing their role prior to appointment is advised. Equally, the role of the Head of school needs to be defined at the outset to avoid any conflict of responsibility. Godsil Education provides interactive seminars to assist new boards and school Heads to manage their aspirations and responsibilities for a harmonious relationship. Template manuals are used to define the roles of management and governance.

Management Training

Administration, management and leadership are the cornerstones on which school Heads build the reputations of their schools. The greatest of these is leadership. A school Head needs to be a good administrator and a good manager, but she or he must be an excellent leader for the school to become truly successful.

The Head of school and her/his Leadership Team can benefit from interaction with other management teams. To this end Godsil Education provides both on-site and off-site day and half-day seminars concentrating on the essentials of running a successful school. The focus is always on excellent leadership skills.

One aspect of the research required by accreditation agencies is the need to provide accurate data in order to inform decision-making and improvement strategies in schools. Godsil Education can organise and administer educational surveys for your school. Surveys are normally provided for students, staff, parents, boards and alumni. They are conducted online.