Welcome to Growing Together – Professional Development Opportunities
Grow your career: grow their futures
We are delighted to offer a range of professional development courses. These are drawn from all areas of our organisation, giving all of our colleagues the opportunity to make progress in their knowledge and skills.
Growing Together is what we call our professional development offer for all teaching, support and operational staff at Aldridge Education. The offer is based on areas we wish to see our organisation develop, particularly when embedding our four school improvement levers of driving an excellent school culture, robust curriculum planning, using instructional coaching to develop curriculum delivery, and utilising data driven instruction to improve learners outcomes.
The vision for Growing Together is that staff will have the opportunity to get better faster, regardless of role and career stage. We want to ensure that talent is nurtured and developed at every level to shape effective organisational management, excellence in every classroom, robust support systems for staff and students, and exceptional student attainment.
If you are a colleague from an Aldridge Education school, read on to see our full Growing Together brochure, or browse some of our highlighted courses on the sidebar on the right.
If you are an interested colleague from an external setting, please click here.
Once you have found the course for you, email growingtogether@aldridgeeducation.org to book your place. Bookings are subject to our terms and conditions, which can be found on our policies page. Alternatively, please complete our Enquiry Form below.
Browse our brand-new course highlights brochure:
Browse our full course offer:
We hope you find a course to suit your needs. If you have any questions, or suggestions for future courses you would like to request, you can contact the Professional Development Team on GrowingTogether@aldridgeeducation.org
The Aldridge Education Team deliver CPD of the highest quality, with strong core content adapted to the needs of the school and a house style of delivery that models outstanding practice. Participants are guided through learning that is highly interactive and can be applied in the classroom the next day."
Training participant, Brighton Aldridge Community Academy
Meet the Growing Together Team
Growing Together Team (ID 1261)
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Poppy NobesHead of School Improvement (including Professional Development)
Poppy Nobes
Poppy joined Aldridge Education as the Trust Lead for English in our London and South East region in September 2019. After graduating from a BA in English Literature at Sheffield University, she trained as a secondary English teacher through the Teach First programme in Yorkshire, going on to gain her MA in Education from the University of Manchester.
Poppy relocated to London following her training, teaching at an Ark school for five years. During this time, she fulfilled various roles including Lead Teacher for KS3 English, acting Head of Department and leading on initial teacher training within school, supporting both the Ark teacher training and Now Teach participants.
Additionally, Poppy contributed to the achievement of well above national average results, Summer 2019 seeing 90% of pupils achieve a grade 9-4 in English Language and English Literature. The department were also a part of the English Mastery pilot, awarded the Depth before Breadth award in the first year for the best Year 7 results in the Ark network.
Poppy further fulfilled the part-time role as Network Lead Teacher for English Mastery, supporting schools with their successful implementation of the programme over time.
In September 2021 Poppy took on the role of Trust Lead for Professional Development, championing the Trust's Growing Together professional development programme.
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Ted BunnSenior Trust Lead for Professional Development (ECTP Lead)
Ted Bunn
Ted Bunn joined Aldridge Education in September 2020. He is one of our Trust Leads for Professional Development, overseeing the Early Career Training Entitlement, forming part of the National Education team developing provision across the Trust. He now specialises in developing coaches and mentors using our See it, Name it, Do it model.
Prior to this role Ted worked as the Humanities Lead for the Trust. Before joining Aldridge Education, Ted worked for Ark as the subject lead for geography across London and the South of England. Previously, Ted has worked for Oasis Community learning and before that as a Head of Department in Northamptonshire.
Ted has a Geography Degree from Newcastle University. He is a Teach First ambassador, as well as a Fellow at the Royal Geographical Society. He has achieved his NPQSL and NPQH with Aldridge Education's Teach First provision.
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Rachel JohnstonTrust Lead for Professional Development (SCITT)
Rachel Johnston
Rachel joined Aldridge Education in April 2024 as one of our Trust Leads for Professional Development, overseeing our School Centred Initial Teacher Training. Rachel specialises in working with novice teachers and their mentors and implementing the Core Content Framework. Prior to joining Aldridge worked at Teach First leading ITT delivery in the North West and ECF delivery nationally.
Rachel previously taught and led Science in Liverpool and is a Teach First Ambassador. She has a PhD in Pharmacology and is a Biology specialist.
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Conor LilleyTrust Lead for Professional Development (SCITT Lead maternity cover)
Conor Lilley
Conor is an experienced teacher, coach and senior leader with a background in English teaching and whole-school improvement. Since 2014, he has led professional development, instructional coaching and teaching and learning as a Senior Lead Practitioner and Assistant Principal.
A qualified coach, Conor has played a key role in initial teacher training, including leadership within a large SCITT programme. He is passionate about helping teachers at every stage develop their practice and creating school cultures where staff and pupils thrive.
Outside of education, Conor is a Taekwondo competitor and coach, working with children and adults at national and international level.
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Jemma Naish-WilliamsTrust Lead for Professional Development (NPQ)
Jemma Naish-Williams
Jemma joined Aldridge Education as Trust Lead for Professional Development (NPQ Lead) in September 2025, where she leads the delivery of National Professional Qualifications across the Growing Together network. She specialises in leadership development, designing and facilitating high-quality, evidence-informed programmes that support leaders to drive meaningful change in their schools.
Prior to this role, Jemma worked as a Senior Leader, leading on teaching and learning, professional development, literacy and whole-school improvement. She has extensive experience in quality assuring teaching, developing staff at all career stages, and leading initial teacher training and mentoring across multiple schools and organisations.
Jemma is a WomenEd Network Lead and a Level 5 qualified Professional Coach. She is passionate about developing others through coaching and facilitation, with a particular focus on supporting women in education to grow in confidence, clarity and influence. Jemma previously taught Dance, Drama, PE, Citizenship and English, and holds NPQML and NPQSL qualifications.
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Andrea BeanTrust Lead for Professional Development
Andrea Bean
Andrea joined Aldridge Education as Trust Lead for Professional Development in September 2026. Prior to joining the Trust, she was Managing Director at the Teacher Development Trust, having previously led research and evaluation, as well as the design and delivery of NPQs and wider professional development programmes. During her time there, she authored a number of national reports on teacher development, including Teacher Development: The CPD Landscape 2025 and What is Didagogy? Exploring the Discipline of Teaching Teachers.
Before joining the Teacher Development Trust, Andrea spent 16 years in primary education. During this time, she held a range of senior leadership positions, including headship. Andrea is also Chair of Governors at a primary school and serves as a board member of a multi-academy trust. -
Karen HuntTraining and National Administrator
Karen Hunt
Karen joined Aldridge Education as Training and National Administrator in October 2022, working with the Trust's Professional Development team and the Executive Assistant to the CEO.
Karen has many years of administration and PA experience, both in the commercial banking sector and within education. She has also completed her Level 4 Diploma in School Business Management.
Karen is passionate about helping others achieve their goals within their own professional development and is always on hand to give direction and advice where needed.