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Adept Education Associates



About Adept Education Associates

2008-2023 - 14 years of successful professional support for schools


Adept Education Associates was the trading name of John Viner, education consultant.  John officially ceased trading in August 2023. However, he is available to offer advice and now frequently works in a voluntary capacity.


John began his career teaching English, History and RE in a large secondary school. However, he always felt he was better suited to primary teaching and transferred to the primary sector as a class teacher in a Canterbury CE Primary school where he was in charge of PE and Games. From there he moved to a large CE Junior school in Faversham as a department head, responsible for science. His first headship was of a tiny village school, nestling high in the North Downs, to the south of Faversham. It was a real 'Miss Read' existence and John lived with his family in the school house. During his time there the roll doubled (to 33!!) and the school won a curriculum innovation award for its work in rural science. Three years later he took on the headship of a four-class CE Junior school, occupying the top two floors of a Victorian 'three-decker' school, which had a separate infant school (and the junior's swimming pool!) on the ground floor. Located in a socially deprived area of Rochester, the school had a significant proportion of pupils with English as an additional language and a variety of faiths

After four years John took on the headship of a 3FE CE Junior School in Rainham, Kent (soon to become part of the Borough of Medway). During his years here, the school gained in popularity and increased to 4FE. It later became a Training School, the lead school in a cross-phase 4-18 training partnership that would now be called a SCITT. Having a reliable senior team, John was asked to take on the temporary headship of a community primary school in the north of the borough in order to provide strategic leadership during a time of crisis and to prepare the school for its next Ofsted inspection. After his return to Rainham he applied for, and was appointed to the headship of a large, 3FE primary school in Thanet. This school, located in an area of extreme social deprivation and high Eastern European inward migration, was in Special Measures and John was privileged to work with an excellent team to lead it through two successful Ofsted inspections.


Adept Education was formed in 2008, when John decided that 28 years of headship was enough. He had inspected for Ofsted since 1997 and the very first Framework and was also a tutor for eQualitas teacher training services so there was initially a body of work to expand on. In addition, Optimus-education invited him to write a book on faith schools  'Leading a Faith School' (Optimus 2009).  Since then he has published works on self-evaluation, lesson planning, SMSC and the national curriculum. He was also a contributing writer for several education journals. He inspected Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) for over 20 years and 120 inspections. he is sometimes asked for his view as an experienced Ofsted inspector (70 inspections secondary, primary and special with 20 EYFS inspections.  He is Chair of Governors of a local primary school and member of a special school Trust.


Networking with colleagues, similarly engaged in independent work, led to the formation of Adept Education Associates, a loose-federation of self-employed consultants. While John worked as a sole-trader, networking means that he can usually locate a colleague able to help, if he cannot.



2024 onwards John now offers advice in


  • Dyslexia Support
  • Autism awareness and support
  • Letter writing for parents
  • Helping parents prepare for meetings
  • All aspects of Religious Education, including bespoke training.
  • Supporting parents in school applications
  • All aspects of governance


With his wife, John also runs the Penenden Heath School Uniform Bank and can advise on uniform rules, regulations and how to talk top schools which over-demand on uniform, against DfE guidance.


Qualifications:

John holds the following qualifications:

  • Master of Arts in Educational Management (MA(Ed))

    Canterbury Christ Church University 2000

     

    Diploma in (Public Sector) Management Studies (DMS)

    CNAA Accredited, Mid Kent College 1992

     

    Associate of the College of Preceptors (ACP)

    College of Preceptors 1980

     

    Academic Diploma in Education History (Dip Ed)

    University of London via Christ Church College 1979

     

    Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM)

    Royal Academy of Music via Canterbury College 1976

     

    Certificate in Education (Cert Ed)

    University of London via Christ Church College 1973

     

    Postgraduate level certificate in Emotional Literacy

    School of Emotional Literacy 2009

     

    Certificate in E-Learning and Digital Cultures

    Coursera 2013

     

    TQUK Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Autism

    Funding partner: Burton and South Derbyshire College 2023

Your balance of direct, explicit feedback, delivered with empathy and understanding is pure gold in terms of professional development.


Academy principal

You are the best CPD that money can buy!


Federation executive principal

HMI loved your review of our governing body.


Primary headteacher

NOTE - we are unrelated to Adept Recruitment which is a teaching supply  agency.

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