Tim Handley
Education Consultant & Author
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Tim is an experienced primary teacher, leader and consultant who offers a range of reasonably priced services to schools to help them to raise standards and drive forward improvements across the primary age range; alongside general leadership support. Tim’s work focuses on effective assessment and using assessment information alongside other information and data to it’s best effect. Tim works across all subjects, and is also a respected author, writing a range of best selling title, focusing on maths and assessment.
Tim is a Maths Specialist Teacher (MaST) and NCETM Accredited Professional Development Lead and sits on a range of advisory panels
As well as his work across the curriculum, including in KS1 and KS2 English, he also has experience in making rapid improvements to maths provision in a number of different contexts, and has been praised by OfSTED.
Tim is also the lead organiser for TEDxNorwichED – a popular series of education focused TEDx talks and he has worked with a wide range of organisations.
Scroll down this page to find out more about Tim and how he can support you and your school or organisation.
Proven Results
Tim has a strong record of proven results across the curriculum. Below are just a few of the headlines from Tim’s work across different schools in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 academic year…
- A 40% increase in children achieving expected standard in maths at KS2, leading to the school being above floor for the first time in 4 years.
- An increase in progress at KS2 of +5 in maths, +4.1 in reading and +3.2 in writing from just 8 weeks intensive leadership support- leading to the school no longer being a ‘coasting’ school.
- An increase in attainment at the combined expected standard at KS2 of 45% in just one year.
- The percentage of children meeting the expected standard in KS1 Writing increasing by 35%.
- A substantial in children meeting the expected standard at KS1 in all subjects.
- Schools achieving the expected standard across reading, writing and maths for the first time in their recent history.
- An clear and measurable increase in children’s attainment and progress as measured by standardised maths tests across the curriculum.
“The support Tim was able to provide was invaluable in helping to shape our improvement plan across the school. His breadth and depth of knowledge and willingness to work closely with the school led to a bespoke solution that was right for our pupils“
Deputy Headteacher- Moorlands Primary Academy
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Tim offers a completely bespoke advisory and consultancy service for schools, clusters and academy trusts.
Often getting an experienced, external ‘eye’ into your school is what is needed to speedily make sustainable improvement that can make a real difference to the pupils and staff within your school.
Whatever your need, Tim can help. He has particular experience in helping schools improve standards across all subjects at KS1 and KS2, and in supporting schools create bespoke curriculums, improving progress in writing, creating calculation polices and strategies to embed problem solving and reasoning in your school.
He will often suggest starting with a supportive audit– where he works with senior and middle leaders to take in-depth look at all elements of your focus subjects, or assessment in your schooll. Working together with the school he will then form a clear and prioritised action plan. Often all schools need is the maths audit, but Tim is also on hand to offer additional support, advice and CPD if needed.
Tim is based in Norfolk, but travels across the UK and internationally. Having worked in Senior Leadership positions, Tim is aware of the budget pressures in schools, and is committed to ensuring that all schools can access the support and help they need to make sustainable improvements. Therefore Tim keeps his rates as low as possible- in fact you can engage Tim for a full day for far less then the cost of 2 days supply. This means the help, support and advice you need is substantially cheaper than you may think- and normally cheaper than most other consultants and local authority services.
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“The advice and support Tim was able to give our school is greatly valued, and he quickly worked with us to create a clear action plan and way forward, which he is now supporting us in implementing.”
Headteacher
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Authorship and Advice
Tim is an experienced and respected author and advisor, writing for a wide range of publishers and clients. He is best known for his Problem Solving and Reasoning series, which he wrote for Rising Stars. This resources aims to support teachers in embedding problem solving and reasoning into daily teaching, and is now used in thousands of schools and is one of Rising Stars best selling resources. In total, Tim has worked on over 42 different published projects.
Tim primarily writes around assessment (in Reading, Writing and Maths) and maths teaching, but has produced resources across the primary age range.
He has also written on other projects for Rising Stars, including Mastering Maths and he is the lead consultant for Problem Solving and Reasoning Vol . In addition Tim has acted as a maths consultant for a range of clients- including software and app developers and TV production companies.
Tim has written various resources for Scholastic alongside other publishers, including for an international audience. In addition, Tim has written articles on education, leadership and assessment for a wide range of publications.
Tim is experienced in helping take a project from a simple idea right the way to publication and has a range of other experienced authors on hand to help with your project if time pressures mean this is needed. Tim is also able to support new companies to the maths publishing ‘arena’ and help them develop a range of resources which add value to their product and help to attract and retain customers.
Tim enjoys writing and consulting as it is a way that he can support schools up and down the country and he is always looking for new projects to get involved in.
Tim is an experienced provider of CPD- to leaders, teachers and teaching assistants. He can cover practically any topic or subject and always ensures his CPD sessions are practical, fun and engaging. Tim provides a combination of immediate ‘take aways’ and ideas to develop and reflect upon. Recent ‘popular’ areas for CPD include How to create reasoning mathematicians, How to get children problem solving without even realising it, Teaching the tricky area of… (Fractions, proportionality, algebra, division) and How to support all learners in succeeding in maths.
Tim is also experienced in guiding groups of staff and other stakeholders in creating policies, maths ‘morals’ and curriculums that are bespoke to your school and have a high level of ‘buy in’ from stakeholders. He also has experience of delivering CPD sessions to an international school audience.
IN addition, Tim has worked with a number of schools to create their own internal standardisation documents for Reading, Writing and Maths, and to deliver training and standardisation sessions, ensuring that your school accurately assesses across the primary age range.
Sessions will always be designed with the needs of your school in mind. CPD sessions can be delivered by themselves, or as part of a wider package of advice and support.
Depending on the topic, size of group and location, Tim can deliver CPD as whole day, half day and twilight sessions for individual schools, clusters and academy trusts. Tim can also arrange for favourable rates with an amazing venue in Norwich. If you want to get a group of teachers away from school for a day, this can often work out cheaper than sending staff on larger, more commercial courses, especially if you work within your cluster or trust.
Tim in action in Ghana.
“The materials were easy to follow and the questions were excellent. They challenged both staff and children to think carefully and explore different options.”
Teacher- St Barnabas Primary School
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Many schools across the country were shocked by their SATs results- both at KS1 and KS2, with many finding attainment in maths reduced the all important combined score at KS2. Many schools and children found it a challenge to reach the higher standard of understanding demanded, and struggled with the far greater problem solving and reasoning element to the assessments.
Tim is currently working with a number of schools to help put in place a rapid program of sustainable development to ensure that 2019 SATs results show significant improvement- this is not a ‘wallpaper over the gaps’ exercise! .
Tim is using his skills as an Accredited PD lead, author and Maths Specialist Teacher combined with his in-depth knowledge of the statutory assessment framework. This means he is able put in place a bespoke and measurable plan for each school- without breaking the bank.
Problem Solving and Reasoning
Below are just some of the areas in which Tim can help your setting.
- Maths audits and reviews– helping you to create an action plan to take maths in your setting to the next level.
- Help and guidance to ensure children develop a true mastery of maths.
- Help in reaching the increased demands of the maths curriculum and with teaching the tricky areas- such as proportionality and algebra.
- Support in creating individualised interventions for your school.
- Guidance in creating a bespoke assessment system for your school that helps to pinpoint misconceptions.
- Guidance and support to ensure maths in your setting is OfSTED ready.
- Guidance and development of a bespoke maths curriculum for your setting.
- Coaching and mentoring of maths leaders, teachers and teaching assistants.
- Work with groups of children, including demonstration lessons and problem solving workshops.
- Bespoke CPD on a wide range of areas- click here for more information.
- Support and guidance in creating a calculation policy which maintains conceptual understanding whilst meeting the demands of the maths curriculum.
Below are just some of the articles that Tim has written over the past few years.
Girls and Maths– Academy Magazine (Issue 4.2)
Fear Not- Creative Maths Teaching (not available on-line)- Creative Teaching and Learning Journal
How will the new curriculum impact maths teachers? – Innovate my school.
Undertaking the new maths curriculum– SMT Magazine.
Plus many more!