Kate has been providing Level 1 courses since 2007 as a national trainer for SAPERE and as an independent trainer. She is SAPERE trained to offer support to individual schools, including modelling sessions with students and advising on the development of P4C within the school. Her background includes being a Secondary school English teacher and Local Authority advisor on P4C and she currently works part time in a secondary school.

Kate led classroom sessions regularly in various primary schools for over 5 years from Reception to Year 6, as well as working with teachers in the delivery of P4C to. Kate has also been leading weekly P4C sessions with KS3 secondary school pupils for the past two years and has experience of working with sixth formers. She is leading the introduction of using thinking skills in all classrooms in her current school. She is in the process of establishing a networking group for her local area.

Specialist areas: demonstrating P4C sessions, supporting schools in the whole school organisation and implementation of P4C. Breadth of practical experience with primary and secondary age groups.

August 2014

Alison provides INSET, SAPERE Foundation & Advanced training and practical classroom support to teachers. She has been a Primary Teacher and School Manager for twenty years. Her work is based around her regular experience of P4C practice in the classroom.

Over the past three years Alison has led P4C in a local junior school. The school have since achieved a SAPERE Silver School Award. She works alongside teachers, planning P4C sessions and providing mentoring support. Additionally, in her role as Training Manager for SAPERE, she co-ordinates and advises on whole school training programmes, reviews school award applications and supports SAPERE trainer CPD.

Specialist areas: Pupil workshops and demonstration of P4C sessions, mentoring and teacher support, planning a whole school approach to implementing P4C (across the key stages) against the SAPERE school award criteria
Location: Gosport, Hampshire
Website: www.philosophy-for-children.co.uk

Having taught in a range of both primary and secondary schools for over 20 years, Gillian took on the role of behaviour support teacher working for the Local Authority in 2000. Gillian led the implementation of primary SEAL across the authority and achieved national recognition for this work with colleagues from other authorities learning from their good practice.

Gillian came across P4C through her work with Primary SEAL and went on to become a SAPERE Trainer. She piloted a project training Sixth Formers to Level 1 in order to support transition work with Year 6 pupils. This was the focus of an article published in Optimus Education - Social and Emotional Learning Update Aug 2010.

Gillian has also worked with schools to develop P4C with parents. She runs regular P4C network and study meetings for local schools and has developed resources within Southend to enhance P4C delivery.

Currently, Gillian is Assistant Principal in a large primary academy in Southend-on-Sea in Essex, and also the Executive Development Manager for a successful CPD company, providing services across the Essex and Thurrock area.

Specialist areas: Developing P4C with parents, Thinking skills, Implementing P4C across the keystages in a primary setting
Location: Southend-on-Sea, Essex
Website: http://www.carillonstrategic.co.uk

September 2014

Steve is a trained philosopher and teacher educator with a University of London PhD in Philosophy of Education. Steve provides P4C Level 1 training, INSET, and consultancy to schools, local authorities, charities and universities. He’s a regular P4C practitioner, working with young people in schools, with adults, and with a range of organizations including Widening Participation, Creative Partnerships, Open Futures and Gifted & Talented. Steve’s published works include: 'Metathinking for Teachers', 'The Educational Significance of the Interface', 'It's Good to Talk’, 'Opening Up Open-Mindedness', and 'Letting the Passengers Drive the Bus.' Previously Steve lectured Philosophy of Education at the University of London Institute of Education and as a teaching professor in Macau, China. He currently teaches teachers at Oxford Brookes and University of Hertfordshire, and is Training Director for the Biochemical Society.

Jason is the author of Thinkers’ Games and Pocket P4C, the most popular introduction to the method. His email bulletin of free resources is received by over 14,000 teachers in 90 countries. As well as his P4C training, writing and workshop practice, he runs Outspark, an outdoor education company, and from January 2016 will be Director of Studies at GIFT, Europe’s leading provider of day and residential workshops for gifted children. Jason’s workshops and training enrich P4C with techniques drawing on a wide range of pedagogies from public speaking training to improvisation. His approach emphasizes the use of physical thinking games to promote engagement, challenging questions that divide opinion and clear principles that help facilitators step back and help learners achieve independence. Jason lives on a narrowboat in Cambridge and is a keen hillwaker and caver.

A qualified primary teacher, Nick spent the six years prior to becoming independent working for one of the country’s foremost education action zones, serving an area of high social and economic deprivation. The needs of the pupils meant that creative approaches to the whole curriculum were vital in order to engage, motivate and inspire. This led him to co-write the Learning Skills Curriculum, a resource that shifted the emphasis from knowledge-focused learning objectives to ones centred around the development of essential and transferable skills, such as working with others, creative and critical thinking and communication. Now an independent consultant specialising in Philosophy for Children (P4C), Nick travels the country leading INSET and working with children and young people in nurseries, children’s centres, infant, junior and secondary schools and the further education sector. He also edited and contributed to the most recent SAPERE Level 1 Course Handbook and his most recent book (with Lizzy Lewis), ‘Philosophy for Children through the Secondary Curriculum’, was published in May 2012 (Continuum). This demonstrates how every subject area can be taught using the P4C approach, something he strongly advocates in his work with schools and children. He is also education consultant to Planet Nemo Animation’s ‘What’s the Big Idea?’, bringing philosophy to young children. This major series has been sold extensively around the world, including CBeebies in the UK. He has also worked directly with the BBC and other television companies. Nick writes resources monthly for SAPERE and is also a lead trainer, writer and online coordinator for Open Futures, the enquiry-based learning education charity founded by the Helen Hamlyn Trust. This involves training and supporting schools in implementing philosophy across the primary curriculum and across their other in-school programmes. He also manages the partnership between SAPERE and Open Futures that brings funding to schools across England to allow them to implement philosophical enquiry across the whole school. One of his biggest concerns in becoming independent was losing contact with children, so he regularly conducts sessions with children of all ages. He has been involved for three years with one particular school, working with children, parents and teaching staff, with the objective of raising attainment through philosophical enquiry. The school has recently achieved its highest ever set of academic results for the second year running and has been awarded the SAPERE Gold award in recognition of its achievements in P4C. When not working, writing or sleeping he can be found looking after a growing collection of animals, making music, wondering if his books will ever get finished and reminding his family who he is.