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School improvement consultancy and training for primary schools
Navigating school improvement
Freelance School Improvement Services for Headteachers and Senior Leadership Teams
Are you looking for effective, practical support to improve your school? Are you look for a true partner that will help you make changes? If you want to extend your capacity, if you want to work together, I'd like to help you.
I offer freelance school improvement services tailored to your needs — including one-to-one leadership coaching, strategic planning and professional dialogue, senior leadership team and individual development and teacher CPD.
As a highly experienced School Improvement Partner, I work with primary schools to deliver measurable progress. My approach is grounded, realistic, and designed to support staff at every level — from classroom teachers to SLT.
Whether you're seeking guidance on a specific issue or looking for someone for the longer journey, I provide high impact school improvement consultancy tailored to your objectives.
Let’s unlock what’s possible — together.
In addition to focusing on leadership development, my expertise is in raising academic achievement, and particularly closing the gap for disadvantaged pupils. Oracy, metacognition and reading comprehension are all areas I have studied extensively as part of improving the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils.
The right school improvement partner?
Finding the right school improvement partner for you and your school is essential for achieving school excellence and thriving as a headteacher. School improvement partners all have unique strengths, experiences and areas of expertise, as well as having differing personalities, styles and philosophies.
You can book a free 60 minute consultation to discuss your needs and find out if I am a good match for your school.
STRATEGISE
In my top 5 Clifton Strengths are strategic, futuristic and problem solving. I am a good person to strategise with. I enjoy grappling with complex problems, spotting patterns, working out solutions, digging into data, and analysing systems and processes.
harness research
'Learner' is also in my top 5. School leaders appreciate my wide knowledge of research and my ability to turn this into practical solutions.
REAL
My feet are firmly planted in reality. The leaders I work with appreciate this, and quickly feel able to be very open and honest, which is essential for a great partnership.
COMMITMENT TO YOU
My approach is totally tailored to your needs. I am generous with my time, flexible in the support I provide, and work as a true partner.
TESTIMONIALS
Quality of school improvement service:
Confidence in the person providing external support is paramount. I work with passion and integrity, but don't just take my word for the quality of support I provide. Hear from people just like you who have used my services:
"Vicky is an excellent trainer and has worked with us at Allerton CE Primary, for several years; both in developing individual leaders but also the work outlined here. Truly exceptional in tailoring to our school, my vision and also the staff rather than just being generic. Love her!“ Helen Stott, Headteacher, Allerton CE primary.
"Working with Vicky Crane on all areas of school improvement is a dream. Bespoke packages backed up with up to date thinking and research means that schools can be at the forefront to drive positive outcomes for their children. Vicky’s style is a combination of information sharing, enquiry based questions and a coaching model that provides both challenge and support to all leaders and staff in school. I thoroughly enjoy working with Vicky, it supports and challenges me to be a proactive leader." Rupa Barson, Headteacher, Churwell Primary.
"Thank you for being so generous in your support. I have been inspired and energised to keep going. Truly a well timed and informative session that I can practically put into practice for IMPACT.” Deputy Headteacher.
"We are really pleased with how well the inspection went - lots of hard work has been put in over the last few years, so great to get the report we received. Thank you for your part in it - the subject leaders were confident and knew their subjects inside out!" Headteacher (a mix of HT conversations, subject leader training, and 1:1 sessions across the year).
“The training was brilliantly constructed. One of the best courses I have attended in years. I wanted to be challenged and provoked, but also given some new ideas to work with and the day achieved all of this.” Headteacher
Areas of school improvement expertise:
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Being a school improvement partner focused on helping your school to excel - extend your team, your reach and your impact!
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Coaching and development of school leaders - ensure everyone excels and thrives;
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Facilitation of strategic thinking - help your team to think more effectively;
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Headteacher performance management;
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Senior and middle leadership training;
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Working with leaders to analyse current practice;
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Seeking to remove barriers to academic progress;
My qualifications include ILM 7 Executive Coaching and Mentoring
Areas of training specialism
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Leadership development - bespoke courses developed for teams
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Happiness at Work - a strategic approach to thriving
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Metacognition - a practical approach to implementation
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A fresh look at reading comprehension & developing teacher expertise
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Oracy - great frameworks and teaching guidance
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Improving academic performance of disadvantaged pupils (a passion)
Experience:
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25 years of expertise and knowledge of schools & education;
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15+ years of experience in school improvement;
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Leadership posts in schools and a large local authority;
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Substantial experience in designing and delivering training;
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Experience of headteacher performance management;
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Training, co-ordination, support and quality assurance for school improvement professionals, e.g. LA consultant team, Specialist Leaders of Education, Advanced Skills Teachers, school-based lead professionals. Helping others to make a difference in school improvement.
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Leading & quality assuring city-wide networks;
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Creation and development of online learning;
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Chair of governor experience;
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Secondary and primary experience.
Training courses
I design and deliver leadership programmes, e.g. DHT training, phase leader training, subject leader training. These can be bespoke, and designed for an individual school or for a group of schools. I also offer a suite of central courses each year. I'm based in the Yorkshire region for face-to-face training.
Multi-academy trust school improvement support
Do you have a central school improvement team in your MAT? Would they benefit from coaching and training? Having lead teams of ASTs, SLEs and local authority consultants, and having extensive experience of supporting schools myself, I can provide training and development for a range of different school improvement personnel. This can be direct training, coaching, or team facilitation.
Contact me for supporting in creating courses and training programmes for MATs and groups of schools who wish to work more closely together, or to contribute to an existing programme.
Where am I based?
Whilst I am based in the Yorkshire region, I offer services to schools across England. By working remotely, you can be based anywhere and receive the support you need.
By not always travelling to physical sites, I can provide more responsive, flexible support for schools. Headteachers find it useful to book sessions from just an hour to a full day, and from planned support to responding as needed. Coaching, regular meetings, involvement in projects, providing support for teams and individuals are all possible.
Telephone, zoom and email support can be combined with on-site work, enabling you to select the right type of improvement activity and ensuring that you feel constantly supported in achieving your goals.
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