Cambridge English courses offer you the opportunity to improve your English skills. The course is aimed at improving your reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Prior to the course, you will take an intake test so you can be assigned to one of the three levels. There is also the possibility of taking an exam to obtain an internationally recognised Cambridge English certificate when you’ve achieved the required level. After completing the course (with at least 70% attendance), you will also receive a BLTC certificate.

The courses are offered on location and online at the following levels: Cambridge First (B2),  Cambridge Advanced (C1) and Cambridge Proficiency (C2).

Duration: Term one :12 lessons of 2 hours - 24 hours / Term two: 12 lessons of 2 hours - 24 hours
Time: 16:00 - 18:00
Cambridge Advanced (C1): Tuesdays & Thursdays (16:00 - 18:00).
Cambridge Proficiency (C2): Mondays & Wednesdays (16:00-18:00).
Fee: €470,-

The examination fees are:
Cambridge First (B2) €250,-
Cambridge Advanced (C1) €266,-
Cambridge Proficiency (C2) €280,-

Your school will pay the course fee, so make sure you have discussed your participation with your line manager.

Are you a specialist teacher and working at a school that offers English-language education, but still uncertain about your English proficiency? Then this course could be something for you. It aims to provide teachers with the knowledge and skills required to teach their own subject in English effectively.

Starting level: participants in this course are required to have a minimum English speaking skill level of B2.

The course content:

- Developing strategies for teaching specific subjects in English
- Learning classroom dynamics and classroom management in English
- Improving teaching skills in English
- Understanding the students’ perspective – learning in English
- Teaching practice and feedback on using classroom English
- Teaching mini-lessons and presentations in English
- Functional expressions and phrases appropriate to the classroom
- Specialist vocabulary and paraphrasing skills
- CLIL theory in practice

The course consists of four workshops of three hours. After completing the course, and provided your attendance record is 80%, you will receive a certificate of participation.

Your school will cover the costs of this course, so make sure you have discussed your participation with your line manager prior to attending.

Prior to the course, all participants will complete an intake test to determine their current level of English. Due to current circumstances, the training may be conducted online. In that case, the courses will be conducted via Zoom. During the intake process it is possible to practice with Zoom.

Duration: 12 hours: 4 workshops of 3 hours.
The training has already started

Location: Marcanti College (Esprit Academy training room)
Cost: € 350,- per person (by 8 participants)
Trainer: British language training centre

Would you like to develop and refine your English-speaking skills? Then this course could be for you. It aims to improve your spoken English for more accurate and fluent communication in advanced contexts.

The course content:
- Developing native-like speaking skills
- Discussing literary texts for homework
- Completing vocabulary and idiom-building exercises
- Reviewing and practicing language functions to establish an appropriate tone
- Developing cohesion and coherence in speaking
- Role-playing and discussion activities
- Developing a range of functional expressions for more variety in speech
- Improving pronunciation on both word and sentence level- practicing individual sounds, word stress, sentence stress,
  connected speech, intonation, tone

Prior to the course, all participants will complete an intake test to determine their current level of English. Due to current circumstances, the training may be conducted online. In that case, the courses will be conducted via Zoom. During the intake process it is possible to practice with Zoom.

The course consists of 10 lessons of 2 hours. Your school will cover the costs of this course, so make sure you have discussed your participation with your immediate supervisor prior to attending.

The training has already started
Time 16:00 - 18:00
Location: Marcanti College (Esprit Academy Training Room)
Cost: € 500,- per person (by a group of 8 employees)
Trainer: British language training centre

Do you want to teach in a coaching way? Do you like to reflect on what is going well and do you want to motivate your students?
Do you want to know how to be able to motivate a student on an intrinsic level? And how you can involve them into your lessons? This training 'Coaching and Motivating Students' gives you practical tools you can implement immediately.

This training is meant for teachers who would like to coach in a solution-oriented way and who want to teach motivated students. During this training you will share your best practices and gain practical skills. You will learn how to bring out the best in your students. You also gain knowledge about the psychology of motivation. You'll have the newest relevant insights in developing your lessons and learn techniques you can apply directly. The outcomes? Better student results, more fun at work and a motivational learning environment.

What this training brings you:
- Applicable coaching styles and techniques
- Active students and greater motivation
- Better results
- More fun at work
- Familiarization with the psychology of motivation
- Newest relevant insights to develop your lessons

Day 1: Conditions to motivate, self-determination theory, growth mindset, compliments, concrete tools like SMART-goals and schale-coaching
Day 2: Motivating and activating lessons, levels of input, concrete tools like circle technique and WhyWhatHow
Day 3: Compliments, situational guiding and concrete tools like exceptional questioning, pedagogical tact
Day 4: Returning day for safeguarding of knowledge: applying challenging cases


Dates: 8-3-2023, 12-4-2023 and 10-5-2023
Time: 14:00 - 17:00
Cost: € 530,- per person (by a group of 10 employees)
Trainer: Maarten van Zwetselaar, September Onderwijs
Location: AICS, Centre of Expertise

Do you want to improve your communication toward the students and their parents? Do you want to strengthen contact with the parents and keep it pleasant? If so, this training is something for you!
Every teacher might have experienced at some point a challenging conversation with a student, parent or colleague. It is important that you are clear about the content, that you set boundaries and strive to find common ground withyour conversation partners.  The development of conflict skills and de-escalating conversation techniques, will contribute to your professional and personal development. This training helps you to become more aware, relaxed and effective in your communication.

During this training, you will gain experience in the basics of the theory. You will practise different types of skills and you will experience the effects of those skills. Subjects which will be addressed are:

1- Conflict escalation (Friederich Glasl); identify conflicts, the dynamics of a conflict (escalation and de-escalation)
2- Communicating in a problem-solving way; from standpoints to interests (layers of questions) and dealing with emotions (recognizing/acknowledging emotions and applying interventions)
3- Personal conflict management style (Thomas Kilmann); own qualities and own pitfalls. Mediation and mediation skills; types of interventions and types of questions
4- Conflict prevention; expectation management and respectfully setting boundaries

Dates: 1/11 and 6/12 (in English)

Orientation on Leadership is a program focused on employees who would like to orientate on school leadership.
During this program you will gain insight in motives and ambitions regarding leadership. You will get insight in your own qualities, you will learn what a leadership job at school means and you will develop a leadership perspective. The program consists of a mix of theoretical and practical in-depth trainings of all sorts of aspects of leadership, including the following:

1- Kick-off meeting; Understanding your qualities and pitfalls; you will also gain insight into your communication style (during daily work, but also in stressful circumstances or during resistance). What is your influence on others and when are you effective, result-oriented, engaged and when not? You will work during this route on an improvement process and a renewal process (which you have discussed with your supervisor).

2- Leading others; During this module you will further develop your own vision on leadership, based on theory and and by sharing experiences with others; how will I lead my employees and let them perform their best in a constructive, daring, safe and stimulating climate?

3- Research skills; You will learn the basis of practical qualitative and quantitative research. You will learn different techniques to sort out information and to prioritize, analyze and draw conclusions and to determine the follow-up actions based on your research.

4- Educational leadership; Leadership is mainly leading education and learning. You will work on your own vision on teaching and educating based on theories and literature; how will I lead the education in my school and how will I create a culture where teachers can create their own contemporary, innovative and high quality lessons?

5- Having duo-conversations with a trainer; There will be a coaching conversation with the trainer. During this conversation you will talk about the balancing the development and decide which goals are yet to reach.

6- Lead teams; The supervisor is, next to daily and substantive leadership, also responsible for the development of the team. Next to the daily practice, the supervisor also has an eye for the procedures of the team, the interaction processes and the present emotions and feelings. During this meeting, you will learn how to cooperate and communicate effectively as well as the guidance of possible conflicts and the learning of and with each other.

7- HRM + following a coaching conversation with the trainer; During this module you will receive insight in the basic of HRM-themes: a contemporary personnel policy, challenging and motivating employees, professionalization policy and assertively handling colleagues who are not functioning well. This module will be completed by a coaching conversation in with you discuss a case study, brought in by yourself.

8- Change management and completion of the course with a certificate; You will be learning a theoretical basis about change within a school; how do you tackle a change process, what will be your role, what will be your superisor's role, what will be your employees' role? How is ownership being created, will people get space and responsibilities as well as clear lines and goals? During this last meeting, you will present the practical assignment within the group.

9- Completion; You will have an wrap up conversation with your superisor about your development, learning outcomes and ambitions.

This program is a short version of an education project and derived from a complete management course from NSO-CNA.

Please note: This course is given in Dutch. If your Dutch is good enough, you can sign up. If you do not speak Dutch well enough but you are still interested, please let us know and we will look into the viability of organising an English-language version of the course.

The Dutch version is planned on  10/10, 11/10, 11/11, 24/11, 13/12,  24/1, 9/2, 20/2, 16/3, 28/3, 17/4, May (completion)
Time: 9:00 - 17:00
Cost: € 1938,- per person
Trainer: NSO-CNA

During this training, you will become familiar with guiding and coaching interns who are becoming teachers. Completing this course is mandatory for teacher-trainee mentors.

During this training you will gain understanding of the requirements which the interns have to fulfill, you will learn coaching techniques and gain insight on feedback strategies. Themes which will be discussed:

- Exploration of your own coaching skills and practising coaching conversations
- Learning to observe versus interpret
- Conversation techniques and promoting reflection to the students (Korthagen model)
- Understanding and learning about teachers in training
- Giving and receiving feedback

The certificate you will receive after fullfilling the requirements successfully has got the quality mark of 'Register Leraar'.

The training has already started
Date: 14th September, 28th September, 5th October (in English)
Time: 13.30 - 17.00
Trainer: Veronica Kleipool
Location: AICS Centre of Expertise
Cost: paid for by the Esprit Education School

*Condition for this course is the coaching of a student

During this training, you will become familiar with guiding and coaching interns who are becoming teachers. Completing this course is mandatory for teacher-trainee mentors.

During this training you will gain understanding of the requirements which the interns have to fulfill, you will learn coaching techniques and gain insight on feedback strategies. Themes which will be discussed:

- Exploration of your own coaching skills and practising coaching conversations
- Learning to observe versus interpret
- Conversation techniques and promoting reflection to the students (Korthagen model)
- Understanding and learning about teachers in training
- Giving and receiving feedback

The certificate you will receive after fullfilling the requirements successfully has got the quality mark of 'Register Leraar'.

The training has already started  

Are you a teacher-supervisor, manager, coordinator, or career advisor? If so, perhaps this course is for you! The coaching orientation course is suitable for anyone who has, or aspires to, a coaching role. In this course, you’ll learn the basic techniques of coaching, and learn how to deal with a coaching process from intake to conclusion. Central theme of the course is getting to know yourself as a coach: what are your qualities, limitations and challenges, andhow would you describe your personal coaching style? During the sessions, practical skills training is supported by current theoretical insights. You learn how to improve the qualities, limitations, challenges and self-solving abilities of those being coached.

Programme
- Practise an intake interview that involves attention to connect process, content and psychological level. Who are you as a coach now, and what are your learning objectives?
- Practise coaching techniques and reflection on yourself as a coach. We practise pure listening (becoming aware of your own triggers in the conversation), and we will use various questioning techniques to learn how to tune in to the thoughts, feelings, wishes and actions of the person being coached.
- Practise various models and theories in order to experience interventions you can do during coaching conversations. The focus is on working with core quadrants, Leary’s Rose and transference-countertransference.
- Practise various models and theories to experience what type of interventions you can use during coaching conversations. A central theme is using the basic principles of Transactional Analysis.
- Attention to ‘letting go’ at the process, content and psychological level.
- Participants learn from and with each other by reflecting on their development as coaches.


Dates: The date for the English version will be planned when we have enough registration. 

The basic course for school educators  (Schoolopleiders VO) is intended to help school educators to excellerate in their profession. The course is aimed for  school educators who would like to improve their skills in their role as coordinators and promoters of education in school. These are school educators who don’t just want to organise and hold meetings, but who wish to be involved in making a substantive contribution to the education of trainee teachers by coaching and training workplace supervisors, helping to shape policy, working on and refining a culture of goal-oriented consultation and teamwork, and building up support, professional development, and high quality assurance.

The programme:
- The professional conversation: VELON brief survey for school educators, Coaching skills: the M-factor, The 6 phases of the coaching interview
- Positioning: Peer review rules and techniques, Leadership and dealing with resistance, Conversation skills: an eye for perspectives
- Leading a team: Observation - theory and practice, Orientation to workplace supervisor programme, Supervising and assessing: the dual role
- A theoretical framework: Orientation to theory from the educational institutes, Building blocks of my training school, Working on support
- Presentations: presentation of one elaborated building block. What is an educational school: debate training

The training has already started

Would you like to experience more satisfaction concerning the things that are important to you? Less stress and less feeling overworked? Whatever you need: better sleep, less stress, a broader perspective, a healthier life or more time for yourself. We often know that we want things to change, but our good intentions are often overshadowed by the issues of the day. During the Work Life Balance course, you will focus on what’s important to you.

Research has shown that change is not so much a matter of wanting it, but mainly a matter of doing it. The biggest obstacle is our natural resistance to change. Even when people want something very badly, there are unconscious processes going on in the brain that try to keep things as they are. This course, also called Lab of Life Training, was developed by scientists at Radboud University in order to to break through this resistance and to move from wanting to doing in a short period of time. This course uses scientifically proven psychological techniques and mechanisms to bring about lasting behavioural change.


The training of The Lab of Life consists of 5 sessions of 2 hours, which take place every other week. The total time span is about 8 weeks. The programme:
1- Personal analysis: Each participant maps out his or her own energy levels and work-life balance.
2- Working on mental & physical energy: Participants learn to recognize personal signals and resistance to change and learn to put the theory of physical and mental energy into practice.
3- Reflection on qualities, values and long term goals: Participants zoom in on their personal qualities, values and goals.
4- Personal vitality strategy: Participants learn how to break hard-to-change habits and increase their self-efficacy.
5- Evaluation and preservation: Participants analyze what they have achieved, how they can anticipate on pitfalls and with what goals they want to continue.
At the end of the training each participant has a concrete action perspective to maintain a healthy energy balance. To be able to continue using the The Lab of Life method and work on new personal goals, participants get access to their personal online environment.

Dates:  will be plannend
Times: 15:00 - 17:00
Trainer: Maarten van Zon, Ergozit
Location: AICS

Being a teacher in Amsterdam is an interesting, varied job. You face important, complex challenges that require collective, sustainable, and realistic answers. Systematically working together on high-quality education means you take the initiative in educational development and use your expertise and affinity to influence colleagues, school leaders and other actors inside and outside the school. This is also referred to as teacher leadership. Teacher leadership requires schools and school leaders to share leadership and requires teachers to recognise their leadership, translate it into action, and engage others.
The Teacher Leadership course is designed to help you as a teacher to take the initiative in educational development at your school and get your colleagues on board. With this in mind, the course offers you the opportunity to develop leadership skills together with colleagues from other schools in Amsterdam and to gain insights in educational development and change processes. In this way, it is both a personal leadership course and a course designed to facilitate school development.

Design and method:
The proposed programme consists of ten sessions: five monthly plenary sessions of about six hours each, with a tutor and lecturer, and five in unsupervised learning groups between the plenary ones. During the course, participants are given an assignment to work on in their own school and to share their knowledge and insights collectively. The experiences they have at their schools are used as input for the next meeting. Aside from the focus on change management, personal leadership and communication are two other important foundations of this course.

The training has already started
Dates:
Tuesday 20/09/21 Plenary (Centre of Expertise, South Campus)
Wednesday 28/09/21 Unsupervised Learning Group (Room 2.15 South Campus)
Thursday 13/10/21 Plenary (Room 2.15 South Campus)
Tuesday 01/11/21 Unsupervised Learning Group (Centre of Expertise, South Campus)
Wednesday 16/11/21 Plenary (Centre of Expertise, South Campus)
Thursday 24/11/21 Unsupervised Learning Group  (Room 2.15 South Campus)
Tuesday 06/12/21 Plenary (Centre of Expertise, South Campus)
Wednesday 11/01/23 Unsupervised Learning Group (Centre of Expertise, South Campus)
Thursday 19/01/23 Unsupervised Learning Group (Centre of Expertise, South Campus)
Tuesday 21/02/23 Plenary (Centre of Expertise, South Campus)

Is it important to you to develop throughout your working life at your school, and do you take personal responsibility for this? Leraareenkleurrijkberoep.nl has designed a learning package in which coaching, working, learning and development go hand in hand to create a learning culture where coaching becomes second nature (partly thanks to you) and where you create development opportunities with your colleagues.
In stimulating career development, teachers and managers need each other to identify opportunities and embed them in the context of the work environment, in which where formal and informal learning go hand in hand. Individual learning is linked to collective learning and increasingly a vision of career-oriented working and professional development has arisen from within.
This learning package is designed for teachers who are already coaches or who are about to deepen their knowledge in this area in the context of the ideas set out above. These teachers offer coaching support to new and current colleagues in the context of their schools and would like to develop themselves further in this area. Preference is given to pairs registering from the same work context.

Dates:  4-11, 2-12, 20-1, 10-2, 17-3, 14-4, 26-5 en 23-6 from 10:00 - 16:00 (in Dutch)
Trainer: University of Amsterdam (UvA)
Location: AICS Centre of Expertise

The guideline ‘Vertrouwenswerk op school: een effectieve probleemaanpak’ (confidential work at school: an effective problem approach) forms the basis for the content of the course. https://www.schoolenveiligheid.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Vertrouwenswerk-op-school-vo-DEF-200521.pdf
The session will include the following topics: Reporting code & duty to report, Secrecy or confidentiality, Division of tasks, Registration, Creating files, Annual report and GDPR

Dates: 14-3 (in DUTCH)
Times: 14:00 – 17:00
Trainer: Frank Bouwer, School and Safety

Do you ever think about your career? Would you like to broaden or deepen yourself within your profession as a teacher? Often, much more is possible than most people realise, with a multitude of career prospects, especially in the metropolitan context of Amsterdam. This career orientation course is aimed at teachers who want to develop themselves and are looking for what will suit them. The objectives of this course are:
- to gain insight into your own competencies, strengths, challenges, ambitions and wishes;
- to gain knowledge of the vision of the teaching profession and the multitude of development opportunities and the career prospects available;
- to develop your own career plan that will guide your development over the next two years.

Design:
You are immersed in a learning process in which working with career questions is alternated with introduction, theory, inspiration and practice related to the teaching profession. The focus is on developing a new perspective on the substance of your role and profession in line with who you are and your ambitions.
The process starts with a brief intake in which mutual expectations are expressed.
During the first meeting (online), the course is explained in more detail and inspiration is offered based on the vision of the profession, career prospects and inspiring insights from practical experts. Various assignments are then offered, which can be worked on after the first and second meeting. You choose the assignments you want to do.  
During the second online meeting, you start working with the development tool CliftonStrengths. You gain insight into your talents at a deeper level and how you can use them to work well and perform effectively. You reflect on your ambitions, potential and challenges based on dynamic, activating exercises, peer-to-peer learning and exchange. With this, you also make a start on your career plan.
The last (physical) meeting focuses on the presentation of career plans with participants and trainers giving feedback on the presentations.

If you don’t speak Dutch but are interested in this course, we can offer you the development tool in combination with a workshop.
During this course, you use the development tool CliftonStrengths. You gain insight into your talents at a deeper level and how you can use them to work well and perform effectively. You reflect on your own ambitions, potential and challenges. Under the guidance of a trainer/coach, you work on your own career plan in a workshop with other participants on the basis of activating exercises.
Duration of the workshop: 5 hours (13:00 to 18:00)


Dates SE (in Dutch): 18/1, 16/2, 20/3  
Dates PE (in Dutch): 28/9, 12/10, 2/11
For more information: Leraar kleurrijk Beroep, https://leraareenkleurrijkberoep.nl/
Location: in Amsterdam

Do you want every student to be heard and receive the right care? In this training you learn to recognize the care-signals and to take preventive action to guide these students in an optimal way. The training is meant for teachers who have students with special needs in their classes and want to learn to give these students the best guidance.

What this training brings you:
- learn how to response to different needs and create and keep a safe learning environment
- practise with dialogue techniques that helps in communicating with special needs students
- gain more insight in students with ADHD/autism/NLD/dyslexia/dyscalculia

Day 1: What is difficult behavior and what effect does it have on the teacher? Different roles of the teacher, theory about boundary crossing behavior: causes and needs, how to act in an escalating situation  
Day 2: The teacher as coach, conflict management, role of the coaching mediator during conflicts among students, dialogue techniques to connect with your students
Day 3: Specifying the dialogue techniques, working with rewarding and positive feedback; best practices, strong qualities and points of improvement
Day 4: Returning day for safeguarding of knowledge: applying challenging cases

Dates:  22-3-2023, 19-4-2023 and 24-5-2023
Time: 14:00-17:00
Location: AICS Centre of Expertise
Cost: € 500,- per person, when  there are 12 participants