Professional learning & school development
Foster Concepts works alongside international primary schools to connect school documents and expectations with everyday classroom practice through curriculum review, collaborative professional learning and family engagement.
Led by Anne Osborne, international educator and facilitator.
For international primary schools
Inquiry & transdisciplinary learning
Multilingual learning communities
ExploreFind your starting point
Review your school’s documentation, work with staff on classroom practice, or build understanding with families.
01 / Review & refine
Review and refine your curriculum, supporting documents and learning pathways to create clearer direction across the school.
Clear findings and agreed priorities, with revised documents where needed.
Explore a curriculum review02 / Work with staff
Work alongside staff to strengthen planning, teaching and assessment, connecting school expectations with everyday classroom practice.
Practical approaches and shared expectations to take into planning and teaching.
Explore professional learning03 / Include the community
Help families understand your school’s approach to learning and assessment, and create opportunities for shared dialogue.
Shared understanding of learning and a clearer basis for school–home dialogue.
Explore community engagementHow we work together
Explore how a review, a learning session or a longer partnership could develop. Reflection helps shape what happens next.
Illustrative example
A school wants to understand how well its curriculum supports inquiry, transdisciplinary learning and multilingual learners. Together, we examine its documents and classroom examples, recognise strengths and agree where refinement would be useful. The work can lead to clearer progressions, revised guidance and shared approaches to assessing knowledge, understanding and skills.
01 / Understand
Examine curriculum documents, assessment guidance, learning progressions, units and classroom examples. Recognise strengths and explore how the curriculum supports inquiry, transdisciplinary learning and multilingual learners.
What this can lead to: A shared picture of what is working, where questions remain and what warrants a closer look.
02 / Agree
Discuss findings with leaders and staff. Decide what to preserve, what to strengthen and which work is achievable with the time and capacity available.
What this can lead to: Agreed priorities, intended outputs and ways for the school team to review proposals.
03 / Develop
Undertake detailed cross-referencing, analysis, mapping and writing. Proposals can be developed between meetings, then discussed and refined with the school team.
Compare the school’s curriculum with relevant frameworks, standards and local requirements agreed with the school. Consider the school’s aims, learners and language context.
Map how knowledge, understanding and skills develop across year levels. Identify gaps, unnecessary repetition or overload, and develop clearer learning pathways.
Examine how units and learning pathways enable inquiry and meaningful connections while retaining important disciplinary knowledge and skills.
Consider additional language learning, learners’ wider linguistic resources and the language demands within curriculum and assessment.
Draft or revise curriculum frameworks, units, progressions and planning or assessment guidance. Bring proposals back for the school’s feedback and decisions.
What this can lead to: Possible outputs include curriculum maps, revised progressions, refined units or practical planning and assessment guidance.
04 / Apply
Staff try the agreed guidance in planning and teaching. Assessment helps them notice how learners participate and demonstrate knowledge, understanding and skills, and decide useful next steps.
What this can lead to: Classroom examples and evidence that help the team judge how the changes work in practice.
05 / Reflect
Consider learning evidence and staff experience together. Recognise improvements, examine remaining difficulties and adjust documentation or approaches where useful.
What this can lead to: Further refinements and a clear basis for the next review.
A focused review can cover part of this cycle. Implementation support and further review depend on the agreed scope.
Discuss curriculum reviewIllustrative example
A school has curriculum and assessment guidance in place, but staff want to explore how to use it in planning and teaching. A learning session can bring the documents and classroom examples together, helping staff develop shared understanding and approaches they can try.
01 / Understand
Begin with conversations with the people involved in and affected by the work, including teachers and other members of the school community. Their perspectives, alongside relevant curriculum, policies and classroom examples, help shape the focus of professional learning.
What this can lead to: A clear picture of the school’s context, existing strengths and staff learning needs.
02 / Agree
Choose a manageable focus and intended learning outcomes. Agree who will take part, the session format and any preparation or follow-up.
What this can lead to: A professional learning plan shaped around the school’s priorities and staff capacity.
03 / Develop
Prepare and lead a session using the school’s documents and relevant classroom examples. Staff explore ideas together, examine practice and develop approaches they can try.
Select examples, questions and activities that connect with the agreed focus and what staff already know and do.
Facilitate dialogue, collaborative analysis, modelling or practical activities. Make room for different perspectives and questions.
Help staff connect their learning with a planning, teaching or assessment decision they can take into practice.
What this can lead to: Shared understanding, practical approaches and agreed next steps for staff.
04 / Apply
Staff apply selected approaches in planning, teaching or assessment. Where follow-up is agreed, this can include collaborative planning, discussion of examples or support with emerging questions.
What this can lead to: Practical experience of applying the learning in the school’s own context.
05 / Reflect
Use staff feedback to review the session. Where classroom follow-up is part of the engagement, examine what staff tried, the evidence of learning and what needs adjusting.
What this can lead to: A clearer view of what was useful and what further support, if any, would help.
A focused workshop may cover preparation, the session and immediate reflection. Classroom follow-up or an ongoing learning partnership is agreed separately.
Discuss professional learningIllustrative example
Families want to understand the school’s approach to learning, progress and assessment. A shared learning opportunity can make those connections clearer and create space for questions, perspectives and constructive school–home dialogue.
01 / Understand
Explore what families want to understand about curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment, alongside the school’s communication aims and community context.
What this can lead to: A clear focus grounded in families’ questions and the school’s approach.
02 / Agree
Choose the questions to address, who to involve and a format that supports participation and dialogue. Consider language needs and how families can contribute.
What this can lead to: An agreed purpose and an accessible plan for the learning opportunity.
03 / Develop
Prepare and facilitate a learning opportunity using clear explanations and examples from the school’s approach. Invite families’ questions and perspectives.
Use examples to explain how curriculum, inquiry, teaching and assessment connect in the school.
Invite questions about progress, feedback and school expectations, and make room for families’ perspectives.
Explore constructive ways families and the school can communicate about learning and the learner’s experience.
What this can lead to: Shared understanding and clearer opportunities for school–home dialogue.
04 / Apply
Families and the school draw on the discussion in conversations about learning, progress and feedback. Agreed communication changes can be introduced where useful.
What this can lead to: Practical opportunities to use the shared understanding beyond the session.
05 / Reflect
Gather feedback, notice which questions remain and agree whether communication, future sessions or supporting information need refining.
What this can lead to: A basis for further dialogue shaped around the community’s experience.
The school can begin with one family learning opportunity. Further dialogue and follow-up are shaped around its community and agreed scope.
Discuss community engagementDetailed analysis, drafting and refinement can take place between meetings. Your school retains ownership and decision-making throughout.
The person behind Foster Concepts
I’m Anne Osborne, an international educator and facilitator.
My experiences in teaching and leadership have made me passionate about bridging what school documents say and what happens in the classroom.
I founded Foster Concepts to work alongside schools in strengthening that connection. I value thoughtful dialogue, careful review and practical guidance, building on the strengths already within a school.
My role as a mother and my work in pastoral care within boarding-school communities have shaped my understanding of the whole child: their learning, wellbeing, relationships and sense of belonging. This perspective informs my work with schools and families, recognising that children’s development connects life in the classroom, at home and in the wider community.
My experience includes teaching and leadership in schools offering the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP), and workshop facilitation through the IB Educator Network.
Work across day and boarding schools, from early years through secondary education, brings a broad view of learners’ development and the realities of school life.
Working in South Africa, Scotland, Switzerland, the UAE, Germany and Italy has shaped an approach attentive to language, culture, family and the whole learner, with particular focus on the formative primary years.
Start with a free conversation
Tell me a little about your school, what you would like to strengthen or explore, and any relevant timing.
We’ll begin with a free introductory conversation to understand your context, identify where my support could be most useful and explore whether we would work well together.
Following that conversation, I’ll send tailored proposals outlining possible ways forward, the scope of the work and the fees. Your school can review the options, discuss any adjustments and decide how it would like to proceed.
Arrange an introductory conversation anne@fosterconcepts.comRead how your enquiry is handled in our privacy notice.