One of the best, if not the best CPD was provided by Amjad at Parklands Primary this very year 2022. His knowledge, his enthusiasm, his care and his presentation simply wowed the staff and empowered them. Delivered with wit and humour, sensitive issues are covered with high impact. The staff in the afternoon was bespoke and not relevant for all, so they were told that they could do something different in their rooms if they so choose. They ALL came back. Simply sensational and highly recommended!

As a new school about to open up in Bangkok, Thailand and with a new team about to arrive, new to the country. We wanted our Induction Weeks to go beyond the ordinary; we wanted the time to matter but also to be engaging and useful. We were going to need a great deal of planning time and a number of sessions to confirm procedures and of course prepare the new building. But we also wanted to build our team and most of all we wanted them to be inspired and excited by their new jobs, in a new country and of course in our brand new school. So we looked beyond ourselves and for something a bit different, we had several ideas but when a former Head Teacher friend and colleague suggested Amjad- @astsupportaali, we really felt we had found what we were looking for. Amjad was quick to take on the challenge of travelling half way around the world and before we knew it he was here. He was generous with his time prior to arriving and personalised the CPD package to our exact specifications.

To be honest there were those who could not understand why we had decided to use ‘valuable’ time on this kind of CPD when we were not sure we would be ready for our new pupils. However, it soon became evident that no one needed to worry. Not only was the day with Amjad useful and informative but it inspired us all, it generated discussion and fired us all up for the beginning of term and the chance to do what we all love to do the most – teach. Amjad, was not only entertaining, but his enthusiasm is infectious, he kept us all on our toes and involved, but it was his generosity with ideas, his willingness to share his own challenges and his own highs and lows that really made his CPD come alive. He had something for everyone and teachers from all the different age groups took away from the day, with several of them calling it, ‘the best CPD I have ever had’ and other members of staff calling it simply, ‘excellent’. Certainly by the end of the day not a single member of staff questioned why we had included Amjad in what was a hectic few weeks. His more focussed workshops with our new leadership teams the following day were super, enabling new teams to gain an understanding of the skills and talents within the group at a stage when they were just getting to know each other and he worked on developing a vision from the outset. All things that our fabulous team were doing but Amjad added an edge to it and gave them a flying start. We asked Amjad to bring a bit of ‘wow’ to our Induction and we got that and more, we hit the ground running, excited to be starting a new term and to be getting back into the classroom.

Amjad facilitated a superb personalised CPD day for all of the staff here at Lealands in October 2018. This was delivered in an exceptional fashion with the right amount of information, in an easy to understand manner and with a great sense of humour! Amjad has a wealth of knowledge and anecdotes which he willingly shares with all participants, thereby making the whole experience fun and enjoyable.

This day long CPD really exceeded my expectations and they were incredibly high to start with given his fantastic reputation. I cannot thank Amjad enough, the ideas that he has given our staff really are low effort and high impact. A win win for any teacher!

The feedback from colleagues following our recent T&L Inset in November 2018, was wholeheartedly unanimous. Colleagues were inspired and entertained by Amjad’s tried and tested yet easily implementable classroom strategies.

Amjad’s well delivered sessions struck a chord with staff looking to update and renew their ideas and resources in the classroom. Amjed selflessly shared numerous tips and ideas, and these practical examples were well received. The signposting of his teacher toolkit www.TryThisTeaching.com was an added bonus.

Staff found that the Faculty driven afternoon session allowed them to consolidate, collaborate and plan for the term ahead and feedback continues to be positive. Staff have been inspired to step out of their comfort zones and try ‘something new’.  I urge any colleagues looking to ‘freshen’ up their approaches to Teaching and Learning to start following Amjad on Twitter and speak to him about facilitating a session. His energy and dynamism are infectious. To quote one colleague-‘Best Inset in years!’.

Amjad came to the Oporto British School at the end of August 2019. We arranged an additional CPD day to ensure we could receive training from Amjad. The CPD session delivered was absolutely fantastic! The day was well-structured, engaging, fun and full of excellent ideas. We have already started to implement some of them (i.e. use of THUD, use of recall checks, etc.) across all Key Stages and we are very keen to continue to try more.

Amjad showed us all his passion and commitment about teaching and, towards the end of the day, everyone who attended the training felt positive and highly inspired to try his ideas and to implement some changes.

The general comment amongst those who attended the training was “it was one of the best CPD sessions I have ever attended…”

I cannot recommend Amjad highly enough for staff CPD. We have already booked Amjad in again from 2020!

Thank you very much this inspiring CPD session, Amjad!

Staff under the umbrella of The Attic PRU in Suffolk enjoyed a day of CPD with Amjad in January 2019, leaving them enthused and inspired. With minimal effort, but high impact strategies and resources, the training was delivered with humour and more importantly from someone who walks the walk every day.

One month after the training we held a follow up session to discuss the impact that the CPD had on our teaching and learning. Staff were clear that Amjad had an overwhelming impact on the whole staff professional development and their commitment to delivering quality lessons with quality resources. Staff said “best training I have had so far” and “such practical ideas that are easy to incorporate into any lesson” “loved it, cannot wait to start using what I have learnt”. Staff also shared that they were using the incredible teaching and learning toolkit on Amjad’s website ‘Try this teaching’ and fed back to each other about implementing the strategies.Overall this training was outstanding! Thank you from everyone at the Attic PRU.

I cannot say thank you enough – I know from my site alone how much the training has had a impact on us and it is seen everyday in our teaching and learning, but more importantly in our core values. Massive smiles from us at Attic@Dragonfly and the whole Attic team.

We knew of Amjad via his brilliant resources on the website which numerous staff have referred to in our weekly teaching and learning CPD sessions. Meeting him in person, however, was just fantastic. He came along to do two professional workshops in September 2018 to get our whole pedagogical programme off to the best possible start.

His ideas were as good as we’d hoped and his warmth of personality meant that every single member of staff was engaged in the session and open to trying out the ideas. Everything was based on current research but interpreted by Amjad into practical ideas in the classroom which was just what we wanted. It was great to see these ideas translated into great classroom teaching just a couple of weeks later when we had our inspection.

Amjad managed to capture an audience of both primary and secondary staff and teaching and support staff.  We all left the room buzzing!  I cannot recommend him highly enough for staff CPD.

Amjad Ali’s expertise and knowledge on how to drive attainment for pupil premium children in our school was just what we needed. He was able to objectively look at our current documentation and strategies and help us to ask the right questions about what we wanted to achieve and how to put that into action. Amjad was able to both show how good use of pupil premium money impacted on the attainment and progress of pupil premium children through clear, simple strategies and action plans that focussed primarily on teaching and learning and whole school accountability. We came away with some great recommendations that have already begun to impact on our evaluation of this year’s PP strategy plan and ideas for how we can use our PP spend far more effectively and report impact to our stakeholders.

I highly recommend Amjad to any school that could do with having an external expert support them in reviewing their Pupil Premium strategies and spend. We can’t thank him enough.

It was an excellent decision to book Amjad Ali to deliver a CPD session on ‘Effective Teaching’ in May 2019. The presentation was well-paced, interactive and incredibly well received by staff.  If you are looking to enhance pedagogy in your school, I thoroughly recommend you book Amjad Ali, who made a morning’s CPD a positive, rewarding and valuable experience.

After attending one of Amjad’s workshops at ASCL’s Annual Conference in 2019, I was keen to ask him to deliver CPD to the rest of  staff at Stratford Primary School.

It is rare for me to be sat on the edge of my seat at workshops but Amjad was engaging, inspirational and full of enthusiasm for teaching. I wanted my staff to feel the same so I invited him to deliver training at our next staff training day. I also invited two other primary schools from our trust.

It was truly a well-planned day full of excellent ideas that people could try. The biggest thing was that there is no pressure to implement the ideas. Amjad is a confident, humorous presenter with a wealth of experience in teaching and his passion for teaching children so that they too feel no pressure is catching. Every person who attended were full of positivity after the day and have been inspired to want to change. One teacher said ‘You were absolutely right about him! Excellent PD from a great speaker. So many interesting ideas and good to be challenged and asked to reconsider or reflect on things it is easy to take for granted.’

In school we have already implemented some ideas and seen impact in the school and are keen to try more. The training has certainly made us look at things differently and we can’t wait to see our more long term ideas put into practice.

I left the training feeling so inspired and motivated, came in to school today on a Monday, after half term, feeling excited to try out some of the new ideas instead of the usual “back to work” feeling. Caroline Ashley – Lead Teacher for Drama

The idea to ask Amjad to lead our training day actually came from our HeadTeacher, and was, at first, really just a throw away comment – ‘You should get this amazing guy I follow on Twitter – I’ve followed him for years.’ I decided to strike whilst the iron was hot, it being June 2017 and our training day was October 2017, but after braving Twitter for the first time in order to contact him, Amjad’s response was swiftly a ‘Yes’, and our planning began. We were launching a newly branded approach to Teaching and Learning and as our communications increased, I realised with excitement that Amjad’s message would deliver us a timely reminder of the need to include dynamic and varied teaching methods into our everyday practice. On the morning of our training day, Amjad arrived, greeting all our staff personally, and proceeded to launch into the funniest, most engaging and inspiring training day I have ever been part of (I began my teaching career in 1989, so that’s a lot of training days!). I personally wrote 3 A3 pages of notes, and as I looked around I could see my colleagues also scribbling away furiously and talking excitedly within their teams. As they went away to plan the next 5 weeks, there was a palpable feeling of energy and a feeling of ‘Ah, this is why we do this every day!’ The ensuing TeachMeet that Amjad organised, where departments presented their ideas back to the rest of the staff, was representative not of the usual last day of a long half term, but rather colleagues eager to share their plans and genuinely looking forward to implementing them. I cannot praise Amjad and his wonderful collection of ideas enough. His website has free access to all of them, along with examples from numerous other teachers explaining how they have been put into practice. If Teaching and Learning is at the top of your agenda (and let’s be frank, if it isn’t, why not?), this man is worth every penny!

Amjad presented at our annual Teachers’ Conference this week at Bournemouth Football Club. (September 2022) and the buzz he created was exceptional. His knowledge and presentation skills hooked staff in within the first 30 seconds. Staff said his sessions were humorous, inspiring and engaging and contained quality input that made them really think about how they could check understanding of students, why they should do this, the importance of the language they use and they took away direct techniques they can use in lessons to improve teaching, learning and assessment. Most importantly staff left his sessions energised and with the motivation to go into lessons and make sure our students have the best opportunities to learn.

Amjad spoke at our annual summer conference in 2024 and was so good that we had to invite him back in 2025, and this time we gave all our delegates of copy of his book too!  His audience is always immediately hooked through his combination of humour and direct, intelligent, common sense.  His sessions are brisk and compelling, but they always leave you with something to reflect on.  Not only that, but he gives you practical, realistic strategies that you can use in the classroom the next day. And by the way, I haven’t laughed as hard at work, for a very long time.  Amjad is a great communicator and always easy to deal with.  I wish we could hear him every year.

Amjad delivered 2 fantastic CPD sessions for us here at Miltoncross in December 2018. The first sessions was aimed at all of our Teaching Assistants across our Trust. This covered a variety of strategies tailored towards improving the working practices of the TAs, from expectations of SEN students to language awareness.  Delivered with humour and insightful comments, our TAs really appreciated Amjad’s advice. Our SEND manager said “We all found the session invaluable and the TAs are looking forward to putting into practice what they learned yesterday”. Amjad is very clearly passionate about the students being able to learn to the best of their ability and this shone through in his delivery.

After this, Amjad continued to deliver high level T&L strategies but this time to the whole teaching staff. Staff were thoroughly engaged in the session. Entertaining and insightful, Amjad posed carefully crafted questions to get staff to think and reflect on their own practices, offering lots of ideas and suggestions for how to stretch and challenge our students. After the end of the session, teachers were really enthusiastic after the end of the session, and the feedback received from staff was fantastic: “He was amazing, loads of ideas that are realistic to use”. What is better, is that staff were already trying out ideas he had given the very next day – a clear testament to how inspiring the sessions were.

Amjad has worked with us at CoPA for the last 3 years. Over that time, we have been on a school improvement journey and Amjad’s work and support have been a big part of that journey. Amjad takes the time to get to you and your schools’ context, which is key to his bespoke and engaging professional development. Amjad has delivered whole school training on INSET Days, worked with Middle & Senior Leaders and supported our developing teachers. Amjad communicates throughout, ensuring that you have a package that works for you, which was hugely beneficial for us and our situation. I cannot recommend Amjad highly enough if you want someone to support your professional development.