Course overview

Build Pupil Engagement and Belonging will help you to explore evidence-informed approaches and building blocks to develop pupil engagement in your setting.

> Length: Ten weeks
> Delivery: Virtual online conferences
> Cost: £2,500 +VAT (for two participants)
> Support: You'll received three coaching sessions

You'll take part in four live full-day conferences that will focus on developing your understanding of self-determination theory – in particular the three drivers of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Each of these theoretical ideas will be matched with a range of practical examples – both to illustrate them and as a starting point for changes that you might want to make in your setting.

In addition to the conferences, you will benefit from three coaching sessions these are with both colleagues from the same school with an experienced coach from Ambition. The coaching sessions will help you to analyse the needs of your teachers and match insights and strategies from the conferences to your teachers and pupils. They will also help you to plan to implement new approaches over an appropriate timeframe and monitor their impact.

What you'll learn

You will explore evidence-informed approaches and building blocks to develop pupil engagement in your setting.

This ten week programme is delivered over four conference days:

Conference one: What is pupil engagement and how can we enhance it?
This conference focuses on defining pupil engagement and the wide-ranging benefits it can have for your pupils. You will then consider the role that self-determined motivation can have in fostering pupil engagement.

Conference two: Build pupil competence and relatedness.
This conference shares theoretical insights and practical examples around two key psychosocial needs – competence and relatedness.

Conference three: Autonomy-supportive teaching.
This conference focuses on pupils’ need for autonomy, what this does and doesn’t mean, and how you can manage this is the context of a school environment.

Conference four: Implementation.
This conference analyses the challenges and trade-offs around refining teachers’ and leaders’ day-to-day interactions with pupils.

How you'll learn

The content is delivered via four virtual conference days, enabling you to learn together with your peers.

The virtual conference will be held in groups sessions, with plenty of time for discussion, questions and analysis.

Virtual coaching sessions will provide an opportunity for you and your colleague to consider the needs of your context and how to address them most effectively.

Am I eligible?

This programme is for one senior leader and one middle leader. Each school will be allocated two places. One of your participants should be a senior leader (ideally either responsible for behaviour, or teaching and learning), and the other should be a key middle leader.

Who should apply for this programme?

To apply for this programme you should:

Hold Qualified Teaching Status (QTS) and be currently working in a mainstream secondary school or trust in England.
Two colleagues from each school should apply for this programme – preferably one senior leader and middle leader.
Have the opportunity to apply the learning from the programme within a wider team. This might involve shaping whole-trust or school policies and approaches or refining the classroom practice of other teachers.

How much does it cost?

This pilot programme costs £2,500 +VAT for two participants.

This is a pilot programme and we’re looking for organisations who share our mission and evidence-informed approach to help us shape a compelling offer to schools and trusts. By taking part in the pilot, you will have an opportunity to provide us with feedback, to feed into the design, and to disseminate some of the findings. The pilot is therefore being offered at a subsidised price and to a limited number of schools.

Please consider how you will fund the cost of this course. You may need to seek approval from your school or trust if this is not funded by yourself.

Why train with Ambition?

40 years of research. Build Pupil Engagement and Belonging draws from a wealth of research based on self-determination theory. Our expert team has evaluated this research and translated into ways you can build pupils’ motivation to engage with school.

Evidence-informed. Evidence suggests that when schools focus on teachers’ and leaders’ day-to-day interactions with pupils this can improve how much pupils value and enjoy school. This programme will help schools and leaders identify a wide range of tools that foster intrinsic motivation through autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Putting theory into practice. We’ve gathered examples of concrete strategies from studies where these approaches have been tried-and-tested in schools. We will help you select the most appropriate ones for your context and plan how to implement them.

Benefits for you

Tailored to your context
This programme is designed to help you analyse the strengths and limitations of your school or trust’s current approaches to building pupil engagement.

Support your team
Whether you work in a pastoral or teaching and learning role, this programme will help you to guide your team in making their interactions with pupils more purposeful.

Foster meaningful change
By having two participants from your school on the programme you can make change at different levels while senior leaders can focus on whole-school policies and processes that affect how pupils value school while middle leaders can focus on supporting colleagues to foster pupil engagement in lessons.

Working with a colleague also allows you to collaborate, challenge each other and support sustainable implementation.

Focused support
You and your colleague will receive three hours of bespoke support to help you analyse and apply your learning from the programme to your school.

Benefits for your school or trust

Focused on your pupils’ needs
At the beginning of the programme you will have an opportunity to survey your pupils to understand their needs. You can also revisit this survey over time to analyse the impact of your work and refine your implementation.

Building your culture
You will be able to take the strengths of your existing school culture – for example predictable, calm and purposeful classrooms, and develop these by considering how to reduce pupil passivity and increase active engagement in school life.

Working across school
You may decide that you want to focus on a whole-school change. For example, planning in opportunities across the school year for pupils to feel seen, known and valued by a wide range of staff and pupils. This might include changes to form time, extra-curricular activities or wider learning opportunities.

Alternatively, you might select a group of teachers to pioneer new approaches at a classroom level. This could involve coaching them to present learning in ways that help pupils to see the value and interest in all parts of the curriculum – improving their motivation in lessons.

Improved teacher job satisfaction
As well as benefits to pupils, there is evidence that enhancing the school environment also evidence improves a teachers’ job satisfaction.

How to apply

Please complete the Build Pupil Engagement and Belonging enquiry form and we'll be in touch about future cohorts.

Our application process in seven simple steps

Step 1: On the programme page, Build Pupil Engagement and Belonging

Click ‘Apply now’.

Step 2: Set up your MyAmbition account
Create an account with your name, email address and password. Confirm your email to activate your account.

Step 3: Complete your application
Log in to MyAmbition, fill in your personal and professional details, and answer the application questions. Attach any required documents.

Step 4: Submit your application
Review your answers and click ‘Submit’.

Step 5: Application in review
We will review your application and contact you if we need more information.

Step 6: Place offered
If your application is successful, we will send you an offer by email.

Step 7: Place accepted
Accept your offer on MyAmbition to secure your place.