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Primary Science Leadership Webinar Series

Enhance your leadership skills and elevate science education in your school

Join our webinar series

This series equips science leaders with key knowledge to enhance their leadership skills. With six webinars covering essential topics, this series is an invaluable resource for the academic year.

The first four webinars have now taken place. You can watch our first webinar for free from our events page. Recordings of Webinars 2 – 4 are available for purchase. Our final webinars are still open for registration.

Register here to secure your place.

14 May 2025, 16:00-16:45

Different approaches to moderation in primary science

In this webinar, we will consider how effective moderation can help science leaders identify strengths and areas for improvement in their subject. Regional Mentor, Kate Redhead, will explore how moderation can ensure accuracy and consistency in science, as well as considering the options available for making best use of this tool. Join us to learn more on:

How moderation can have impact for science leaders.
What the options are.
Where to start.

Presenting this webinar is Kate Redhead, PSTT’s Regional Mentor.

Book now for Different approaches to moderation in primary science.

4 June 2025, 16:00-16:45

Reviewing impact on science teaching and learning – reflection and next steps

In this webinar, we will consider how to gauge impact over the past academic year in your setting by asking:

What impact has there been on science teaching and learning?
What are the appropriate next steps to improving the teaching and learning of science?
How can we raise the profile of science?

Through asking these questions, we will create manageable, achievable goals for the next academic year.

Presenting this webinar is Kulvinder Johal, PSTT’s Priority Areas Mentor and Regional Mentor.

Book now for Reviewing impact on science teaching and learning – reflection and next steps.

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Overview of Previous Webinars

Here, you’ll find information on the first four webinars, which are available for purchase below, allowing you to benefit from the full Leadership Webinar Series at your own pace.

Science leaders – learn how to find out what is happening in science at your school. By the end of this session you will:

Be aware of what should be audited in primary science.
Learn why we should be auditing.
Know, in practical terms, what auditing looks like.

We consider how auditing feeds into your action plan and School Improvement Plan.

Presenting this webinar was Kulvinder Johal, PSTT’s Priority Areas Mentor and Regional Mentor.

You’re able to watch the recording for FREE here.

This webinar, led by Regional Mentor Kate Redhead, explores the elements of a successful primary science curriculum and gives delegates the opportunity to reflect on the strengths and areas for improvement in their subject. Aimed at new and existing science leaders, this session will explore a breadth of approaches to this area, including:

Efficient methods for ensuring curriculum coverage.
Strategies for linking within science and across the wider curriculum.

In this webinar, we talk about using assessment to inform responsive teaching and support learning. We reflect on what we ask children to record for assessment purposes. We showcase a range of freely available resources and explain how you can use these for elicitation of children’s prior knowledge to support your planning, and for assessment of children’s subject knowledge and enquiry skills. We consider how all these strategies can be brought together for summative reporting and the challenges that teachers face in balancing the manageability of assessment processes with validity and reliability.

When you finish this session, you will:

Have a range of Assessment for Learning strategies to try in your classroom.
Have an awareness of how PLAN resources and TAPS focused assessment plans can support your planning, assessment and moderation.
Be aware of how you could use the TAPS pyramid to evaluate and develop your school’s assessment processes.

Presenters for this webinar were Kulvinder Johal, PSTT’s Priority Areas Mentor and Regional Mentor, and Alison Trew, PSTT’s Regional Mentor and Project Manager.

In this webinar, we begin by establishing a rationale for why we monitor in primary science and how this gives science leaders the evidence needed to develop their subject across the school. We reflect on a range of different approaches to monitoring and how these can be used effectively to enhance primary science teaching and learning. Aimed at new and existing science leaders, this session explores:

Different monitoring strategies and their uses
How to ensure monitoring has impact on practice

This webinar was presented by Kathryn Horan, PSTT’s Regional Mentor.

Meet our Leadership Webinar Presenters

We’re excited to showcase speakers leading our Primary Science Leadership Webinar Series. Each expert brings invaluable experience in science education, leadership, and curriculum development. The Primary Science Leadership Webinar Series will provide you with the tools and strategies to enhance your leadership in primary science. Here we introduce each presenter, offering a glimpse into their expertise and the practical insights they’ll share.

Kulvinder Johal was awarded a Primary Science Teaching Award in 2012, endorsed by the Royal Society of Biology. She had been leading science at a large, multicultural, inner London school for several years. She had led a range of year groups across the primary range until taking over the role of assistant headteacher. She has worked on several whole school developments, like PSQM, the Space Education Quality Mark- Gold standard, RHS level 5 award, and the Healthy school programme. Her last big piece of work before taking up her full-time role at the PSTT was to rewrite the curriculum at her school.

As a PSTT fellow, she was involved in the ‘Growing Music’ project, supported by Carole Sampey and participated in the early TAPS work. Kulvinder has run a PSTT Barking Cluster, as well as supporting grant and cluster proposals as part of the central PSTT team.

In a wider role, Kulvinder is a Regional Champion for the Great Science Share and has been running events in her area for several years now. She has been a member of the ASE Primary Science Committee and is part of the Science on Stage steering committee. Kulvinder is currently a part of the Royal Society Partnership Grant committee and also the Royal Society Public Engagement Committee. She has written for the TES, Primary Science magazine and also helps judge the Teach Primary resource awards. Kulvinder has gained her SLE qualification and is Chartered Science Teacher (CSciTeach). She is also a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and a Fellow of the RSA.

In 2019 Kulvinder took on the role of Regional Mentor for London and the Southeast. This role allows her to work collaboratively with teachers to promote and inspire them to deliver practical primary science, monitoring, planning, assessment, particularly linking science to cross-curricular topics and active learning outdoors.
When not working for PSTT she enjoys going to the theatre, watching sports and travelling.

Kate Redhead has been a fellow of the Primary Science Teaching Trust since 2012. Her award was endorsed by the Wellcome Trust and she also received the CRPT Pearson Award for evidence-informed teaching.

Before joining PSTT, Kate worked in a large primary school in Birmingham; first as Science Subject Leader and later as an Assistant Head. During her time as a teacher, Kate gained her Masters in Education, focussing her dissertation on the design and implementation of Science schemes of work, and also completed her NPQH qualification. Kate introduced a Science Lab in her school and led a Research Learning Community of local science leaders in exploring the impact of dialogue on the teaching and learning of science.

Kate has written for teacher journals, is a member of the West Midlands ASE committee and is also an Ambassador for Children’s University. She is a Regional Champion for the Great Science Share, running events in the West Midlands and has written several PSTT resources to support teachers in school. Committed to lifelong learning, Kate is currently studying part time towards a Doctorate in Education at Birmingham University.

Kate is passionate about supporting and developing science leaders, empowering them to take ownership and build a love of the subject within their schools.

Alison Trew has been a Fellow of the of the Primary Science Teacher College since 2014. Her award was endorsed by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2020.

Before joining PSTT , Alison was a postdoctoral research biochemist before retraining as a primary teacher; she taught in several primary schools in Devon.

Alison has written for science and teacher journals and is co-author of PSTT’s Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. She has written several of PSTT’s online resources: Floorbooks, Enquiry Skills, Enquiry Approaches, Did you know? resources, Play Observe and Ask, and A Scientist Just Like Me . Alison has also worked with the Teaching Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) team developing focused assessment tasks, is an accredited trained for the Primary Science Capital Teaching Approach and PSTT’s Project Lead for Thinking Doing Talking Science courses.

Kathryn Horan has been a PSTT Fellow since 2016 when she was honoured with a PSTT Science Teacher Award. She has taught in primary schools for over a decade, working with children across all Key Stages and leading science for most of her time as a teacher. In 2020, she was awarded the Charter Mark for Science Teaching (CSciTeach) in recognition of her ongoing commitment to her own professional development and its impact on others.

In addition to her work as a Regional and Area Mentor for the PSTT, Kathryn is also a PSQM Hub Leader, a Lead Facilitator for STEM Learning, and chair of the ASE Yorkshire Regional Committee. In her role as an independent consultant and author, she has worked with a wide range of organisations, including the Royal Society, Cambridge International, the Royal Society of Chemistry and Oak National Academy. She has also authored a book, ‘Wow! But Why?’ which aims to help primary teachers deliver ‘wow moments’ in science that lead to real, meaningful learning.