School Improvement Services from Mike Gershon

Targeted, Ongoing and Bespoke Support Packages

Develop Teaching and Learning in Your School

What Mike Does

• ✅ Listens to your needs, circumstances and unique challenges.
• ✅ Solves problems with you – however difficult they might feel.
• ✅ Acts as a critical friend, giving you honest, direct, actionable targets and advice.

What Mike Doesn’t Do

• ❌ Suggest solutions or changes that he wouldn’t be happy to implement, advocate for or demonstrate himself.
• ❌ Tell you what you want to hear.
• ❌ Claim there’s a single right way of doing things when it comes to school improvement.

For me, there are three things that are fundamental to effective school improvement.

Teachers, systems and leadership.

• ✅ Teachers are the most important, most influential and most valuable asset in any school. Helping them to develop, grow and take control of their classrooms is at the heart of all school improvement journeys.
• ✅ Systems are the processes that direct action, set incentives and connect leadership and teachers in pursuit of a common goal. An effective system helps everyone in school channel their efforts in the same direction. An ineffective system does the opposite.
• ✅ Leadership comes in many guises and there is no given method that schools should follow. However, in my experience a number of common themes tend always to be key when it comes to school improvement. Commitment to change; attention to detail; consistent and clear communication; facilitation of staff growth; and the flexibility to adapt in response to feedback.

Over the years, I’ve worked with primaries, secondaries and colleges on improvement journeys of many kinds, in many different settings.

I’m always happy to:

• 🎯 Conduct paired or solo observations
• 🎯 Provide constructive feedback
• 🎯 Teach demonstration lessons
• 🎯 Create and deliver training materials
• 🎯 Analyse planning
• 🎯 Develop policies
• 🎯 Build development pathways for individuals or groups of staff
• 🎯 Guide senior leaders in their efforts to improve teaching and learning

And, needless to say, all of the above is first and foremost a collaborative endeavour.

One undertaken with leaders like you, in schools like yours.

Leadership Training

Change How You Understand Human Behaviour and Transform Leadership Thinking in Your School

The Leadership NPQs are excellent programmes.

I’ve worked with hundreds of heads and senior leaders who have participated in them and had great experiences.

I always recommend them to new and aspiring leaders.

My analysis of the course content does suggest one thing is missing from the curriculum, though.

Understanding human psychology.

School Leadership – In Fact, All Leadership of Any Kind – Is About People.

The people we lead and the people we work with side-by-side.

And what binds us all together is the fundamental psychology that shapes our motivations, our thinking and our behaviour.

While individuals are different, significant discoveries in human psychology apply to us all.

My Leadership Training focuses on this.

Helping you unlock the most powerful psychological insights that let you better understand yourself, both as a person and as a leader, as well as the people you lead.

The training is designed for your entire leadership team.

Sometimes we run it within the school itself, sometimes heads prefer to find an external venue to minimise distractions.

Together, we cover the following:

• ✅ Understanding the SCARF Model and what it means for effective leadership.
• ✅ Making sense of the locus of control and how you can create freedom and autonomy for your staff.
• ✅ Unpicking the key insights of behavioural psychology and applying these in school.
• ✅ Bringing the power of framing to bear on your messaging and communication.
• ✅ Listening to the subtext of what staff are telling you and using this to make better decisions.

Some leaders don’t view this as important.

And that’s fine.

The approach isn’t for everyone.

For me, however, understanding the psychology of why we do the things we do is key to creating a more harmonious, more collaborative, more joined-up team of teachers and support staff.

I’ve seen it work, and work with impressive effect.

And I’ve seen it make leaders’ lives easier, simpler and more enjoyable.

A full day starts at £1995+VAT, inclusive of all costs, electronic copies of the materials we use, and a follow-up support call/TEAMS within three months of the training.

Get in touch today and open up the insights of human psychology for your leadership team, and yourself.

Developing Teaching and Learning

A Suite of Whole-School CPD Materials You Can Use to Raise Achievement and Support All Learners

A few years ago I was contacted by a client.

They wanted me to create a suite of materials to help secondary schools focus on improving teaching and learning, across a local authority.

The client was keen to provide their schools with ready-made materials that would simplify the process of school improvement.

They also wanted to relieve some of the workload on their schools, by providing a CPD package that could cover between one and five terms.

Developing Teaching and Learning was born.

Bring Focus, Coherence and Simplicity to How You Develop Teaching and Learning in Your School

I identified five key areas of teaching and learning, all supported by strong evidence of what works, and built the resource suite around these:

• ✅ Metacognition
• ✅ Feedback
• ✅ Oral Language Interventions
• ✅ Reading Comprehension Strategies
• ✅ Peer Tutoring

For each area there is a detailed practical guide, a set of four videos, and a resource pack.

I designed these so senior leaders can pick them up, choose which areas they want to focus on, and then have a full set of CPD materials they can use to run professional learning communities (PLCs) in their school.

Minimal planning and minimal organisation required.

Supporting Teachers in Your School

The goal of the Developing Teaching and Learning resource suite is simple.

• 🎯 Provide schools with high-quality CPD materials they can use to help their teachers focus on pedagogy over an extended period, facilitating professional dialogue and growth, without adding to anyone’s workload.

One option is to take the materials and use them to run PLCs that focus on a single area, like metacognition, across your school as a whole.

This is easily done.

Everything you need to do is laid out for you in the user guide, giving you a step-by-step process you can follow to ensure all staff engage with the materials, think critically about teaching and learning, and do so in a collaborative, supportive environment.

Another option is to have staff choose the area on which they would like to focus.

You can then run multiple PLCs side-by-side, with teachers pursuing areas that feel most relevant to them.

In a large secondary, for example, this might result in three groups working on metacognition, two on feedback, one on oral language, one on reading comprehension and one on peer tutoring.

Delivery is simple.

Everything is fully planned and ready-to-use.

All you need to do is appoint a leader of each group, share the materials with them and set expectations for how they run their sessions.

And, of course, there is also the option for you to take the materials and deploy them in a way that is specific to your needs.

Prioritising Teaching and Learning

For schools where teaching and learning is lower down the priority list, I would not recommend engaging with the materials at this time.

In fact, I would counsel against it.

18-month licences are available for schools who are prioritising teaching and learning.

A degree of commitment is necessary to get the most from them, and I always advise schools to only look at Developing Teaching and Learning when the time is right for them to prioritise pedagogy.

Licences start from £8,995+VAT, inclusive of all materials, an in-person induction meeting to kick-start your journey, ongoing phone/TEAMS support, and an 18-month licence for your school.

That works out at £499+VAT per month, or roughly equivalent to less than 4% of the average school’s yearly spend on teaching assistants.

Why 18 months rather than a year?

To reflect both the commitment necessary to really maximise the impact of the materials, and to take account of the fact that time pressures in school always mean things can get pushed back or lengthened.

Therefore, 18 months gives you the breathing space to ensure you get the most from the materials, allowing you to create the focussed engagement with teaching and learning that matters for you.

To find out what might be possible in your school, for less than £500+VAT per month, get in touch today and start a conversation.

Help Your Child to Learn

Give Primary Parents the Confidence to Bridge the Gap Between Home and School

Engaging parents with their child’s education can be challenging.

Perhaps that’s because parenting itself is a challenge (and I can attest to this through personal experience!).

An enjoyable, life-changing one. But a challenge nonetheless.

In my experience of working with many hundreds of primary schools, communicating with parents is always crucial.

But there’s a difference between communicating effectively with them and engaging them with their child’s learning and development.

The latter doesn’t always come easy.

Not least because there is a qualitative difference between the role we play as teachers and the role parents play as, well, parents.

And that’s exactly as it should be.

One of the triumphs of civilisation is the effective outsourcing of education to expert professionals.

Teachers like us.

That division of labour is what allows society to function, and ensures children receive high-quality education from their youngest years through to the cusp of adulthood.

Meeting the Challenge

But the challenge of really engaging parents with how their child learns and develops has always interested me.

In 2021, after the pandemic, I developed an online platform called Help Your Child to Learn.

This met the challenge head-on, providing schools with a fully resourced platform they could share with parents, including a whole range of materials designed to help them think about and support their child’s development.

It was awarded a runner-up spot at the BETT Awards in 2021 and was used by hundreds of primaries across the UK to engage parents with their children’s education.

But what worked post-pandemic doesn’t necessarily work now.

One thing that stood out for me was the size of what I’d created.

It was too much.

Too many videos, too much material.

In a world where our options were limited and restrictions were in place, this was fine.

Parents had lots of time to explore a big library of content.

But now?

Their needs are different.

So, in 2025, I revisited the materials, pared them back and brought them up-to-date for today’s world.

Weekly Bite-Sized Support For Your Parents

I took the ten handbooks I created back in 2021 and divided them up into a series of easy-to-read, practical weekly guides.

Each gives parents ideas and insights they can use to better understand how their child learns.

As well as strategies they can use to support their child at home.

There are 39 guides in total, each between two and four pages in length.

One for every week of the school year.

They cover:

• ✅ The Golden Rules of Supporting Your Child’s Education
• ✅ How to Foster Your Child’s Learning
• ✅ Helping Your Child to Think and Grow
• ✅ Developing Your Child’s Confidence to Speak
• ✅ Making Sense of How Language Drives Learning
• ✅ The Power of Play
• ✅ Building Connections in Your Child’s Mind
• ✅ Telling Stories with Your Child
• ✅ How to Help Your Child Think Creatively
• ✅ Learning Together: You and Your Child

I wanted to ensure schools had a choice around how they used the materials.

For me, it’s always crucial to recognise the unique circumstances in which every primary operates.

I know from my experience of working with many hundreds of schools that, while all have similarities, each one is different.

So there are three options available, designed to give you the freedom to do what works best for you and your parents.

We always offer discounted pricing for small primaries, conscious of the considerable variation there is in the number of learners on roll.

There are a few points to consider before getting in touch.

• 🎯 Are you looking to support parents of learners in EYFS?

The guides are aimed at parents of 5-11 year-olds, so are not appropriate for EYFS.

• 🎯 Do you have a high proportion of parents for whom English is an additional language?

The guides may not be suitable as we don’t currently offer a translation facility.

• 🎯 Do you have your own programme of support materials for parents?

Having multiple sets of materials tends to muddy the waters and decrease engagement due to a perceived lack of clarity.

I always share these points as it’s crucial that schools understand what might disqualify them from being able to use the materials effectively.

For me, it’s essential that schools get exceptional value from Help Your Child to Learn, and we never seek to work with schools where we think the materials might not benefit them as much as they could.

Finally, I only encourage schools to purchase the materials if they are confident they can maintain a consistent approach to sharing them with parents (every week or every other week, depending on the package).

This can be done easily through email, a parents’ portal, or a VLE.

But it does need to be done.

A key part of the materials’ impact is driven by the consistency of sending them to parents, increasing their salience.

So, if you think your school meets the criteria for getting the most out of the materials, and you are confident that you can maintain a consistent pattern of sharing the materials with parents, get in touch to start a conversation around which package is best suited to your needs.

Together, we can help change how parents at your school think about their children’s learning.

Help Your Teen to Learn

Engage Secondary Parents by Helping Them Understand How They Can Help Their Teen

I first started thinking about bespoke support for parents many years ago.

Right at the start of my teaching career.

When parents would ask me for advice and guidance at parents’ evenings.

It occurred to me that almost every parent wants to help their child maximise the impact of their education.

But many have skills or experiences in other areas of life.

Not in teaching.

The idea stayed with me.

Years later, when the pandemic hit, I found myself no longer travelling.

All my training moved online.

Suddenly, I had more time available.

And schools were looking for ways to support parents.

First, I created Help Your Child to Learn, for primaries. (For more on which, see above.)

Then, I was asked by a client if I could create a similar package for secondary parents.

And that resulted in Help Your Teen to Learn.

An Immediate Impact

In it’s initial incarnation, the package involved a large suite of videos, guides and support materials.

The response from schools and parents was immediate.

However, over time, both the schools and I started to notice a drop-off in engagement.

When I launched Help Your Teen to Learn, the pandemic was still impacting how we lived.

Parents had more time on their hands, as we all did, due to the restrictions on what we could and couldn’t do.

Plenty of time to engage with a large library of content designed to help them support their teens.

As things returned to normal, it became clear to me that what had worked for how we lived during the pandemic no longer worked when times changed.

So I set about revisiting, revising and reimagining the materials.

Bringing them up-to-date for how we live now.

Give Parents the Confidence to Support Their Teens

Today, the Help Your Teen to Learn package is simple, practical and streamlined.

Designed to help schools engage parents, build their confidence and give them practical tools they can use with their children.

I’ve taken the original materials and slimmed them down into seven guides.

• ✅ Helping Your Teen to Learn: An Introduction
• ✅ Thinking About Learning
• ✅ Fostering Resilience
• ✅ Deepening Knowledge
• ✅ Sharpening Skills
• ✅ Supporting Revision
• ✅ Play, Enjoyment and Engagement

The guides take parents by the hand and walk them through the ideas and concepts we as teachers take for granted.

They use simple language to help parents understand what they already do that benefits and supports their teen’s learning, and what they can do to take this further.

And, most importantly, they help emphasise the prioritisation your school gives to engaging parents, supporting them and making them a part of their child’s educational journey.

Revision and Resilience at Key Stage Four

I made the choice when revising the materials to focus on Key Stage Four.

We all know how crucial a time this is for every young person, as well as for their parents.

Targeting the guidance at parents of children studying for their GCSEs means recognising the pressures teens face during Years 10 and 11.

As well as the increased desire we so from so many parents to help their children as best they can.

If you’re looking for materials that cover Key Stage Three, I would suggest these aren’t for you.

Similarly, the guides won’t work for schools who like to keep parents at arm’s length.

You need to have in place a communication strategy of some sort for these guides to have an impact.

Otherwise, sharing them with parents lacks context and doesn’t build on existing relationships.

Finally, the guides shouldn’t be used by schools who deprioritise teaching and learning.

The basis of the guides is helping parents to understand what it means to support learning effectively and, as part of this, they reference key strategies and ideas teachers use in school.

If, for whatever reason, your school isn’t in a position to prioritise teaching and learning, I would advise you not to look at the guides until that changes.

Three Options for Schools Like Yours

For schools who:

• 🎯 Are focussed on supporting parents of KS4 learners
• 🎯 Have an existing communication strategy they use to engage parents
• 🎯 Prioritise teaching and learning

There are three packages to consider.

When selecting a package, I always encourage schools to think about the specific demands of their setting.

Having worked with many hundreds of schools over the years, I can say with confidence that while all schools share similarities, every school is unique.

What works for one, won’t necessarily work for another.

Hence why we offer three packages, giving scope for schools to select the option that best meets their needs.

When you’ve made that decision, based on your knowledge of your school and your parents, use the form to get in touch.

Revise with Mike

Strategies, Motivation and Wellbeing: A Complete Support Package for Your KS4 and KS5 Learners

A ready-made resource pack you can use to support learners in KS4 and KS5.

Three guides and twelve videos helping learners understand what good revision looks like and how they can keep themselves on track during this demanding period of their school life.

The package is divided into three sections:

• 🎯 Revision Strategies That Work
• 🎯 How to Maintain Motivation
• 🎯 Looking After Your Health and Wellbeing

Learners receive expert guidance in an accessible format, supplemented by over 30 strategies they can use to maximise the impact of their revision, keep themselves on track, and look after their health and wellbeing.

Help Your Teachers Support Their Learners

Revise with Mike is a fully resourced support package designed for Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 learners.

Senior leaders can use the materials to support teachers working across KS4 and/or KS5.

All the videos are bite-sized, meaning they can be deployed as a sequential programme of form-time revision support.

The guides get to the heart of what matters for learners.

They emphasise best practice, evidence-based approaches, and the strategies we as teachers know work best.

That means they echo and complement the messages schools are already delivering to their KS4 and KS5 learners.

Consistency of messaging is crucial during this period.

It gives learners confidence that what they are being told is the right thing to do.

The resource package is designed to take workload away from individual teachers and middle leaders, while simultaneously supporting the messages they are giving to learners and parents.

Expert Guidance, Tailored for Learners

This is not an online platform.

It’s not a pay-per-learner course.

And it’s not a recurring cost.

Revise with Mike is a resource suite you can purchase for your KS4 and KS5 learners, share with them, and feel confident that they are getting expert guidance from a recognised authority in teaching and learning.

Schools have deployed the materials in different ways.

Some deliver them through form time.

Some share them via their VLE or MLE.

Some have taken the materials and adapted them to create a sequence of mini-lessons that are sufficiently flexible to be delivered by subject specialists, form tutors or for learners to work through independently.

And, don’t forget, everything is suitable to share with parents, giving you the additional benefit of guiding and supporting them as they help their children through the exam period.

Pay Once, Use Again and Again

Revise with Mike is a single payment for an ongoing licence.

Everything is included, with no additional costs or bolt-ons.

Once your school purchases the materials, you can continue to use them into the future.

For me, this is the most equitable way to deliver the resource suite to schools.

It means that however you choose to disseminate and share the materials, you know you’ll be able to repeat the process next year, and the year after that, with each successive cohort of learners.

When you purchase the package, you will receive:

Fully Designed Guides

• ✅ Revision Strategies That Work
• ✅ How to Maintain Motivation
• ✅ Looking After Your Health and Wellbeing
• ✅ Thirty Strategies in Total, Ten Per Guide
• ✅ Fully Designed, Branded and Illustrated for Your Learners

Videos – Revision Strategies That Work

• ✅ Flashcards, Practice Tests and Quizzing
• ✅ Creating a Revision Timetable and Spaced Practice
• ✅ Mind-Maps, Graphic Organisers and Revision Walls
• ✅ Using Games to Revise and Practice
• ✅ Wallpaper of Knowledge, Past Papers and Teaching Others
• ✅ Revising with a Friend, Parent or Sibling

Videos – How to Maintain Motivation

• ✅ Breaking Things Down and Creating Mini-Goals
• ✅ Understanding How Memory Works
• ✅ Jam Jars, Pint Glasses, and Blank Paper
• ✅ Psychological Tips, Tricks, and Hacks

Videos – Looking After Your Health and Wellbeing

• ✅ Balance, Perspective, and Staying Calm
• ✅ Emotions, Feelings, and Getting Help

Everything comes with an on-going licence to use in your school, with your learners, and to share with parents.

A Package for Schools That Plan Ahead

The nature of Revise with Mike means that it is not designed for schools who struggle to plan ahead, for whatever reason.

Three guides and twelve videos is too much to throw at learners the day before exam season kicks in.

The package is intended to be used in concert with your existing plans and systems.

If you don’t have those in place, I would suggest this isn’t the right time to purchase the package.

Better to get those up and running first, then come back to start a conversation.

If you are well-placed as a school, with clarity in your KS4 and/or KS5 calendar, and can see how the package can be effectively shared with learners and, where appropriate, parents, then this is the right time to get in touch.

There are two options available, depending on what year groups your school covers.

For schools who don’t fit the average, and for sixth form colleges, we offer bespoke packages, tailored to your size.

Before you get in touch, consider these three questions:

• ✅ Are you confident that your KS4 and/or KS5 calendar is sufficiently planned and embedded for you to share the materials with learners in a meaningful way?
• ✅ Do you have an idea in your mind of how you can share the materials – be that through tutor time, in lessons or via another method?
• ✅ Are your learners ready to engage with strategies and ideas they can use to improve the quality of their revision?

If you can answer ‘yes’ to each question, this is the right time to get in touch and talk about a license.

Simply use the contact form to start a conversation.