Want to deepen challenge but unsure how?

This course gives you easy-to-follow practical ideas to develop a relish challenge in your classroom. Each step builds incrementally; as you add and adapt each idea you will gradually and purposefully build a hunger for challenge in your students from the inside out. By the end of the course, you will know how to align your mindset and adapt your language, lessons and classroom environment to stretch your students’ capability to persevere and seek out challenging learning.

Have an over-flowing ideas bank!

This course is packed full of ideas to make well-being tangible, practical and accessible for children. Each idea is simple, impactful and tried-and-tested so we know they work. Through having the opportunity to interact with Becky Carlzon and other course members, you can ask questions and troubleshoot as you go.

Tried and tested ideas that have an impact

The ideas and techniques shared in this course have been tried with schools and practitioners across the globe. These schools have challenge at the heart of their learning. Students in these contexts make more progress, are able to articulate their learning and are more resilient to challenges. We want this for your students too.

Easy-to-follow content

Each unit introduces a new idea to reflect on and build challenging learning in your classroom. Short video provocations from James, Becky and other lead thinkers give clear explanations of these ideas. You can return to these videos as many times as you need to consolidate these ideas and practises.

Align your ethos for challenge

By looking at all angles of how to develop challenge, you will align your ethos and values. This will result in a clear, aligned message that your classroom is a place of challenging learning. By implementing ideas in this course, everything in your practice will reflect that.

Real-time interaction

Each course has a comments section where you can share your progress, ask questions and read other members’ progress. Becky Carlzon will always be on hand to give feedback, offer suggestions and connect you with other members. You will never feel alone, members are generous and always ready to support you on your journey.

James Nottingham

"This challenge course is all about finding ways to encourage children to be more willing to step out of their comfort zone. We know that's where learning happens - when we're trying things we don't know how to do - when we are learning something that isn't familiar to us.
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There's quite a lot of research that shows that children are often less willing than we'd hope them to be in stepping out our their comfort zone. Meta-analysis shows that when we give students choice they learn a lot less than when we show them what to do. Why is this happening? Choice is typically a "good" thing because students have a sense of ownership. But, when we give them a choice, research shows, they will often choose the easier option.

The challenge course is about exploring why this is happening and exploring how we can make challenge more attractive, more interesting, more alluring."

James is a teacher, leader, and consultant; creator of the Learning Pit; author of 11 books for teachers, leaders, and parents; founder of educational companies in seven countries; and co-founder of P4C.com.
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Becky Carlzon

“From early on in my teaching career, I began to recognise what made an impact on the progress and engagement of my learners and what did not. When I taught my own classes and created opportunities for open-ended learning which was clear, well-scaffolded and challenging, I noticed that students were hungry-to-learn, got deeper into their learning and were excited to come to school. In many classrooms where I have had the honour of joining in with learning, I have seen this time and time again. On the flip side, when I have covered classes or observed teaching where students lack a vocabulary for challenge and reflecting on learning, where challenge isn’t explicit in the ethos and opportunities for grapple are limited, students are less engaged, there are more classroom disruptions and students appear to be “running through the motions” rather than engaging in learning that will be of value to them now and in the future.

This course encourages conscious competence in how we are developing challenge as mindful practitioners and invites you on a journey to purposefully develop a challenge-led classroom. It’s the course I wish I could have shared with colleagues to walk a journey of challenge with them.”