I’m Kirstin,

the founder and Senior Education Consultant of Kirstin Bourne, a bespoke educational consultancy.

Schools, teachers and systems face a range of challenges to engage, inform and improve student outcomes. Going beyond simply improving results in examinations and tests, schools can struggle to find the time to really engage with curriculum and teaching methodology as well as considering how to use data and best practice to address key areas of improvement.

My role is to listen to what organisations want to achieve and then to work with you and your teachers to change and improve how you do what you do.

I bring a wealth of experience across schools and sectors and have supported projects that are as substantial as sector-wide whole-school disciplinary literacy program implementation, to as bespoke as supporting new managers of subject areas to improve the performance of their teams.

My passion for improving how we educate drives what I do and I always welcome conversations about how I can assist you to do that.

Services

For Departments

Teachers are under enormous pressure to deliver results, and face a range of challenges to do that; from under-resourcing, to challenges in student literacy, and a lack of time to work together as teams to create and deliver great curriculum.

Having worked as a Head of English, Director of Curriculum, and as a VCE marker, I understand these challenges all too well, and now work with English Departments to build teacher capacity, effectiveness and resilience, so that English Departments can enjoy teaching their subject again.

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For Schools

I work with schools to help them to improve the way that they work, through delivering whole-day and half-day professional learning sessions that focus on:

  • specific areas of improvement, such as whole-school disciplinary literacy;

  • teaching and learning that comes out of research and best practice; and

  • building a whole-school culture of learning and improvement.

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For Systems

I consult on significant system-wide projects that are explicitly designed to build teacher capacity across secondary schools. I work to identify the key areas of improvement that systems want to target, and then design and deliver projects that will not only support teachers to deliver improved outcomes for their students but also to sustain that improvement through communities of shared practice.

Whole-system projects only work if they are genuinely responsive to the needs and very specific contexts of the schools that they support. My work for systems comes from careful and considered research and conversations, as well as a flexible and responsive approach that adapts to address the needs and demands of the schools being supported.

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 testimonials

  • We have been fortunate enough to have worked with Kirstin on a number of occasions now.

    With a wealth of experience teaching and marking the VCE examination papers, she has provided our students with clear insight into both content knowledge as well as targeted strategies that support their progress towards their final examinations.

    She inspires confidence through her professional manner and clear expertise.

    Similarly, she has helped facilitate workshops with our staff designed to promote consistent feedback processes that enable student growth.

    Her friendly, collaborative and again, professional approach, to this process has been engaging and supportive.

    Chair of English Faculty

  • Kirstin provides exceptional professional development for teachers, particularly text and skills-based learning…. As a person who also possesses strong analytical skills, Kirstin is a very valuable resource in her ability to interpret data meaningfully.

    English Co-ordinator

  • Kirstin facilitated two half day sessions of Professional Learning for our Middle School English teachers.  The sessions were tailored to address specific areas of need including but not limited to using data to inform teaching, study design, assessment and modelling answers. 

    She created and shared bespoke teaching resources that our teachers used with great success in the weeks immediately following the sessions and which we used as exemplars for developing further resources.

    Kirstin is an engaging and generous presenter who inspired us with her expertise and practical, purposeful resources.

    English Learning Leader

RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS

Kirstin produces a range of:

  • VCE English and VCE Literature screencasts and teaching materials to support Units 1 to 4; and

  • Schemes of work for English teachers from 7-10.

These digital resources are designed to be adapted by teachers to deliver high-quality lesson content. We do the research and make the content so that you can focus on your teaching and your students.

In order to keep these resources for teachers only, the resources page is password protected. Please email Kirstin from your school’s email address to get the password.