My name is James Kerfoot. I’ve been a Headteacher for nearly 10 years and I’ve long been interested in coaching, ever since I began to coach in a sporting context many years ago. I felt I knew a lot about coaching having read a lot, and taken part in some one day executive coaching courses. I became interested in the ILM L7 course and began to research providers. I happened upon the inspired2learn website by accident and it met some criteria I had eg costs were reasonable and it offered tutor support. It also had a number to call and I spoke to Clare and instantly knew this was the right provider. From the start Clare was knowledgeable and clear and also humorous throughout!
At any point in the course when I lost my way, Clare was on hand to set me back on track with some helpful advice and also some modelled questions! The resource section on the website is full of great reading materials and there is so much to help you plan your assignments. Clare also provides some great assessment for learning templates for those assignments and these were invaluable. All this and modelled supervision sessions demonstrating what outstanding coaching looks like.
During the course of the L7 I began to recognise that most of what I thought I understood as coaching was in fact not helpful and I had to reinvent my learning and I was supported to do this every step of the way. When I needed peer interaction then Clare was able to link me with others on the course who were at the same level. The help always felt like it was completely bespoke and was offered as much or as little as required.
I successfully completed the course and the assignments and the stress levels of doing this whilst operating a full time job running a school in a pandemic were minimal due to Clare’s expert tuition. I coached 3 other leaders during the course and have begun to coach another executive leader since. At this point I haven’t undertaken coaching professionally and with pay but I am rather using it to change the way I lead and to support other leaders. I’m confident that as and when I decide to move forwards with coaching the learning I got from the course will hold.
I was lucky to find inspired2learn but sometimes you just find yourself in the right place, I would really recommend you contact Clare if you are thinking of completing this qualification.” August 2022