• Professional Development
  • Medicine & Nursing
  • Arts & Crafts
  • Health & Wellbeing
  • Personal Development

155 Educators providing Courses in London

Vanessa Potter

vanessa potter

London

Thanks for finding me here. I’m a self-experimenting author, speaker and wellness advocate, but it wasn’t always that way… On October 1st 2012 I sat in a hospital waiting room staring at a white notice board. When I’d arrived, the letters had been visible, but over time they’d started to fade. Punctuation marks dissolved, as if wiped off by a zealous cleaner. Every blink washed away more of my sight. Within 72 hours I was blind and paralysis had snaked up my body, leaving numbness in its wake. Losing two of my senses was terrifying and I didn’t know if I’d see my children again. For a while I lost connection with the outer world and my future was uncertain. Slowly my visual system rebooted, but the world didn’t look like it should. Grey wispy shapes swirled and eerie lines jiggled on the horizon. None of it made any sense. Over time I listened to the more subtle cues my body transmitted and learnt new ways to adapt. Months later when I started to feel, rather than see, the colour red and when blue objects fizzed and spat like a lit sparkler, my curiosity was ignited. I set out on a mission to better understand the incredible resilience and healing power of my mind. It was a journey that led to collaborations with scientists, my first book, Patient H69: The Story of my Second Sight, a TEDx talk and then a second book, Finding My Right Mind: One Woman’s Experiment to put Meditation to the Test. Nature played a huge part in my year-long recovery, so in 2021 I co-founded ParkBathe, a citizen science, green health initiative in collaboration with Derby University. The project encourages people who are wellness sceptics to experience a 1-hour version of forest bathing in urban parks and is funded by the National Lottery. Forest bathing is simply walking mindfully in nature while absorbing the woodland atmosphere via the senses. As the project is part of a research study, walkers are invited to wear heartrate (HRV) monitors which record their stress levels before and after each session. This provides each person with an individualised measure of the wellbeing benefits. Get the whole story and listen to interviews with walkers, scientists and nature guides on the ParkBathe podcast. I am partially sighted and live in London, UK, with husband and two children.

New School Of The Anthropocene

new school of the anthropocene

London

The New School of the Anthropocene is a radical and affordable experiment in interdisciplinary higher education for the digital era in collaborative association with October Gallery in London. We are an ensemble of experienced academics from the higher educational world who, in the company of diverse artists and practitioners, wish to restore the values of intellectual adventure, free exchange and creative risk that formerly characterised an arts education in the UK and beyond.    The New School is registered with Companies House as a Community Interest Company and is run cooperatively. We think of ourselves as a purpose or condition, rather than an institution, open to collaboration and gathering. Our curriculum is dedicated to addressing ecological recovery and social renewal through the arts. Learning styles flex to accommodate the domestic and employment responsibilities of our students. The age-range within this heterogenous community extends from 18 to 75 and qualification-levels range from GCSE to PhD. We regard our participants as researchers from the start and they co-design their work with an emphasis on critical intervention fused with creative process. The collaborative work of the body – learning, for example, about food resilience at Calthorpe Community Garden and rainforest restoration in Puerto Rico - is assigned equal prominence to more conventional university-level activities such as textual analysis, philosophical discussion and filmmaking.    We opened our doors to a first yearly cohort of 26 students in September 2022. They have joined us for 28 weekly Anthropocene Seminars led by the likes of Marina Warner, Robert Macfarlane, Gargi Bhattacharyya, Adam Broomberg, Ann Pettifor, Assemble Studio, Michael Mansfield, Robin Kirkpatrick, Esther Teichmann, Anthony Sattin, Chris Petit and Mark Nelson (Biosphere 2), whose work covers the entire range of subjects falling within the framework of the Environmental Humanities. These vigorously participatory sessions are prefaced by a movement class and are run in-person and streamed on-line to enable our planetarians to join us from Tajikistan, Egypt, US, Niger, Ireland, Scotland and France. Our teachers are gathered within an ever-extending Ensemble, not an exclusive faculty, and are paid at UCU-recommended rates for their contributions.  All NSotA students also work on a research project that is individually supervised and benefits from five meetings a year with at least two Ensemble members. This contributes towards a Diploma in Environmental Humanities, rather than a degree: a means of countering an anxious culture of accreditation, which we differentiate from the principle of recognition. Our students instead carry forward a supervised portfolio of their critical and creative work accomplished over the year as testament to their development.  While seeking to maintain a genuinely inter-generational student body, our recruitment continues to prioritise applicants from those with no prior experience of university. Our pay-what-you-can-afford scheme means that our students typically pay between 0.5% and 5% of the average cost of a UK postgraduate degree and enjoy double the number of contact teaching hours. This means that no one with the aptitude and desire to participate need be excluded. We have also set aside free places for forced migrants fleeing conflict across the world, which are awarded in association with Revoke and Birkbeck College’s Compass Project.   The New School is to be simultaneously regarded as an applied research project that explores how an agile, self-organising model for higher education might be effectively constituted. Its processes have been fully archived with the intention of creating an open-source toolkit for educators who might seek to emulate this prototype and co-establish a sisterhood of corresponding initiatives. We are a contributing partner of the Academia Biospherica Alliance, which from 2024 will offer on-site educational programmes under the auspices of October Gallery’s parent organisation, the Institute of Ecotechnics, across the five main earth biomes of mountains, oceans, forests, desert grasslands and cities in locations such as Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Iraq, Italy, Catalonia and Egypt.    This reflects our expressly collaborative ethos, as manifested further in our participation within the Ecoversities Alliance and Faculty for a Future, alongside established associations with Embassy Cultural House (London, Ontario), the London Review of Books and Birkbeck College Library, where our students enjoy borrowing rights, and prospective academic partnerships with the Central European University and Global Centre for Advanced Studies. We are also in the process of gaining recognition as a UNESCO Futures Literacy Laboratory. Our public launch in November 2021 was marked by a symposium on the future of the university in relation to biopolitical emergency, timed to coincide with COP26. It features recorded dialogues with leading thinkers available to view on our website: www.nsota.org [http://www.nsota.org].    In February 2023 the New School hosted a seminar jointly with Birkbeck’s Institute for Social Research to announce the relaunch of the Stories in Transit project founded by Marina Warner with the intention of initiating a collective research project for NSotA students. This will form a central component of a continuing second year active engagement with the present cohort following the end of the academic year in June, which is currently under collective discussion.    From September 2023 our first-year cohort size will be increased to 40 students drawn from the UK and around the world. The programme will be augmented by small-group creativity classes as a means of building a collaborative environment and preparing scholars for the intensity of their project work. NSotA's debut cohort established an additional self-organised reading group, meeting on-line on Sunday afternoons with the purpose of extending discussions broached in previous Anthropocene Seminars. For the next academic year this will be formally incorporated into the curriculum. Long-term plans include the founding of a research agency with D-Fuse intending to explore innovative multi-modal representations of biocidal emergency in civic spaces.   We are keenly aware that today’s university system is outmoded, sclerotic and wasteful; yoked to punishing systems of debt finance and managerial bureaucracy; and falling short in its responsibility to nurture future generations as confident participants within the complex universe in which we are all embedded. In proposing an affordable interdisciplinary education, the New School of the Anthropocene seeks to rejuvenate the core values of an adventurous education that are under sustained threat across the world. In so doing, it represents a genuine alternative for those who consider experimentation across the critical-creative seam to be the prerequisite to personal resilience and cultural renewal.

DontGoToDramaSchool

dontgotodramaschool

London

Train for the screen, not the stage DontGoToDramaSchool offers you a low cost, industry relevant, practical 21st century approach to drama training. A traditional drama school/University drama education is very expensive (£27,000+ over 3 years) heavily over-subscribed; and involves the student moving away from home to study for several years, often learning outdated stage acting techniques and drama theory Little opportunity exists for aspiring actors to access industry relevant training and develop their own unique acting style. Statistics show that most acting graduates give up on their acting career dreams within 6 to 12 months of leaving drama school. DontGoToDramaSchool is determined to change this! Teaching the Hollywood endorsed Chubbuck Technique, Meisner Technique, and TV & Film acting techniques, students of DontGoToDramaSchool.com will learn: * An easy to grasp, modern emotion-based interpretation of the classic Stanislavski theories * Empowering techniques to create a personalised performance in any dramatic situation * Intensive mental focus techniques, creating strong characterization & audience engagement * Technical aspects unique to film and television acting * Acting for single camera drama * Screen continuity * Effective use of costume, props and scenery * A systematic approach to script analysis * Audition technique, career advice and life coaching/mental resilience training * Success mindset coaching * Sales and marketing hints and tips to help students develop their career after training Our website training will allow students of all ages to study the acting techniques of the Hollywood stars in the comfort of their own homes. With each workshop, students receive a training video, accompanying study notes and scripts, teaching a new acting component. Students will need to engage in a number of practical drama exercises and act out a number of dramatic scripts. Some scenes will require an acting partner. This training is ideal for TV drama directors wanting to fully understand how to effectively work well with actors. And scriptwriters wanting to understand how to create psychologically multifaceted characters full of story potential. * This training is unaccredited *

Charmaine Pollard

charmaine pollard

London

In my own life I have had to face many challenges, find my own strength and rely on my inner resources. This is why I became a counsellor, I qualified in 1998 and later achieved my registered/accredited status with British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). Personal counselling helped me accept myself and gain a better understanding. It has also made me much more resilient in dealing with whatever issues life threw at me. Now, I help others to find their own strength and sense of self through counselling and more recently, poetry therapy. We are all unique and follow our own paths towards change. I know you can change, if that’s what you desire. Having a confidential space, where someone listens to you attentively, and in a non -judgemental manner is the first step. Together, we can explore the sensitive issues which you would prefer to put to the back of your mind, but which keeping nagging at you. I have been on this journey myself, and for over twenty years I have worked in various capacities with people from all walks of life and have seen great results. Contact me for an initial conversation. Additional experience In addition to managing a counselling service working with trauma and abuse. I have extensive experience as a supervisor of other therapists. I also teach personal development courses at City Lit, adult education college in Central London. I have also facilitated personal development groups for counselling diploma students. Poetry therapy Over the past decade, I have come to experience the transformative power of words. I have facilitated poetry therapy groups and therapeutic writing workshops in a wide variety of settings, including clinical settings, schools, churches, libraries, museums, prisons and The National Archives. I am one of a handful of Certified Poetry Therapists in the U.K, who have completed their training with the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy in U.S.A.I trained under the mentor ship and supervision of Victoria Field. Currently I only offer poetry therapy in groups. Do visit my workshop page to find out about current workshops / groups or sign up to my email list below. My Book: Writing for Resilience After implementing therapeutic writing programmes in a wide range of settings. I have used this expertise to produce a workbook. The book began its life during a poetry therapy group that I facilitated for women survivors of trauma in Central London. Together the group decided that they wanted to offer hope to those who had been through similar circumstances and introduce other people to the fantastic resource that is, writing as therapy.

Every Day A Mindful Day

every day a mindful day

London

Well-being in schools and colleges Would you like to bring mindfulness (and yoga) to your students? Whether they are experiencing exam stress, difficulty in settling in or need to improve their attention and focus, we have a programme to offer you. Perhaps you might want to consider mindfulness as an alternative to detention, offer it as a lunchtime or afterschool club or as part of your PE or PSD provision? Maybe your school’s/college’s teaching and support staff could benefit from relaxation practices and learning how to find more space in their days? Or you could be a group of parents who are home schooling and would like access to mindfulness to help build resilience and confidence. Lydia has 16 years’ experience of teaching in state schools in the Buckinghamshire area and understands the issues facing students, teachers and parents. She can offer a range of programmes for all Key Stages, INSET training or taster sessions, online or in-person. Well-being for people with limited mobility Do you know an individual or a group who could benefit from yoga or meditation? Lydia has recently qualified as a Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga teacher and can design and deliver classes for seniors, people in wheelchairs, people with dementia and anyone who finds it difficult to do yoga on a mat. All the benefits of yoga can be made accessible to anyone, this includes: range of physical movement; cognitive ability; bone density; muscle strength; managing stress and anxiety; better sleep and improved confidence and self-esteem. We are happy to travel to care homes, communities or rehabilitation facilitates etc. Or we can offer on-line sessions. Well-being in corporate settings Research by the HSE suggests that stress, depression and anxiety generate around 17.9 million sick days in the UK each year. Eighty-three percent of businesses report people turning up to work who are not well enough to be productive and this costs the UK businesses about £15.1 billion each year (Mind, 2011). Almost half of the UK’s workers report that they have considered leaving a job because of the stress levels with 60% saying they would be more motivated if employers took action to support their mental health and well-being (Mind, 2013 & 2020). Lydia and Doug both teach chair yoga, a form of yoga that can be done at a desk and is specifically designed to target the physical stresses of sitting all day. We are also both trained in teaching a range of mindfulness practices to adults and younger people. We would be happy to discuss a programme to suit your company’s needs that could be delivered in-person or online. Contact us today and begin a discussion that could change lives.

Woodford County High School

woodford county high school

Essex

What first strikes visitors to our school is a palpable sense of community. The atmosphere is vibrant, purposeful and very friendly. Relationships are strong and supportive. There’s always a lot going on and, to an extent which is perhaps unusual, girls of different ages work unselfconsciously together, collaborating on the colourful range of events and activities that make up the fabric of the Woodford school year and contribute to the distinct ethos of the place. What first strikes visitors to our school is a palpable sense of community. The atmosphere is vibrant, purposeful and very friendly. Relationships are strong and supportive. There’s always a lot going on and, to an extent which is perhaps unusual, girls of different ages work unselfconsciously together, collaborating on the colourful range of events and activities that make up the fabric of the Woodford school year and contribute to the distinct ethos of the place. It’s a happy and cohesive community and an environment which liberates young women to take the risks and embrace the challenges that will prepare them for their future roles and responsibilities as leaders in tomorrow’s society. Woodford’s success is the result of striking a fine balance between tradition and innovation. Our values are traditional ones and we offer an unashamedly academic curriculum. We are keenly aware, however, that we are preparing our students for a working life none of us can yet anticipate. Our focus, therefore, is on developing the skills, attributes and habits of mind that will equip them as life-long learners. Woodford leavers are articulate, self-confident and skilled in the use of modern technologies. Our aim is to launch them into the world as self-starters, focused but flexible, armed with the courage to grasp opportunities and the resilience and humour to negotiate setbacks along the way. Above all we want them to be equipped to lead happy, fulfilling and useful lives, wherever and however they choose to lead them. Woodford enjoys an enviable reputation for intellectual, artistic and sporting achievements. In all of these domains, and others beside, we encourage and support our students in exploring their own potential, nurturing existing talents and interests and discovering new ones along the way. Our community, of course, is made up of individuals. To ensure we enable each and every girl to fulfil her potential, an emphasis is placed on personalisation, on proactive mentoring and on pastoral care. And the academic curriculum is complemented by a wide and stimulating range of extra-curricular activities. There is something for everyone. Our students will embark upon adult life conscious of their worth, ambitious for their futures and aware that they are lucky indeed to have been educated here. Woodford is a very special school. If you want to see how special, you are warmly invited to pay us a visit.

Chelsea Academy

chelsea academy

London

Having opened in September 2009 we are now an established, successful and oversubscribed Academy. Every year, over 700 students want to join us in Year 7. Our brilliant Sixth Form also attracts hundreds of external applicants every year. Throughout their time at Chelsea Academy students flourish, benefitting from a rich academic curriculum and strong pastoral care. Learning is designed to excite, inspire and challenge. Through our science specialism we ensure that every student has a thorough understanding of science and we offer a unique range of scientific opportunities and visitors to students from Year 7 through to Year 13. Our vision: ‘Learning together to flourish’, is lived out every day; a vision informed by our Christian values. These values of forgiveness, joy, perseverance, charity and servant leadership are an integral part of our journey to success. Visitors always comment on the sense of purpose, of belonging and of our commitment to diversity and inclusion. Our mission: Work Hard, Be Kind, No Excuses provides students with a compass to guide and direct their journey. The Chelsea Academy Way for Behaviour clearly sets out our expectations so that every student understands how they should conduct themselves. We have a longer school day than most other local schools. Each day (apart from Wednesday) is made up of six, 55 minute lessons. Our curriculum is broad in Year 7, 8 and 9, allowing students to discover subjects such as Citizenship and languages, in addition to the core building block subjects such as English, Maths and Science, before they choose their GCSE options for the two year GCSE programme starting in Year 10. Our Extended Curriculum offer ensures that our students also benefit from having a rich ‘all round’ experience. By the time students leave the Academy they will have developed the resilience, wisdom, hope and skills with which to lead happy, healthy and fulfilling lives. This website holds a range of information no matter your interest in the Academy. The news section of the website and our twitter feed are regularly updated with what we have been up to. Please take a look! Parents and carers, do visit the Parent Portal, which has content specifically for you. If you are interested in joining us as a member of staff, then the careers section has what you need. Current students and staff can access emails, calendars and Google drive through the Chelsea Academy Learning Cloud (CALC). I am exceptionally proud and privileged to lead Chelsea Academy. It is a wonderful, dynamic and fast moving environment. We benefit from being in a fantastic London location and take advantage of excellent partnerships, both local and further afield. The Academy is also very fortunate to have an outstanding board of governors. They are very much invested and interested in the Academy. Please feel free to arrange a visit to the Academy or to contact us for further information. If you are intending to visit and find out more about the Academy for your Y5 or 6 child please do visit our Admissions page, where you should find all the information you need.