James Dand helps education professionals strengthen their mindset and boost wellbeing - and equips them with practical strategies to raise the aspirations, self-belief, and resilience of their students.
Do these sound familiar?
Staff are:
❎ Balancing heavy workloads while trying to make a real impact
❎ Unsure how to best support students struggling with motivation and confidence
❎ Lacking confidence when stepping into management or leadership roles
❎ Finding it hard to stay resilient and protect wellbeing under daily pressure
Students have:
❎ Low aspirations and limited drive to progress or achieve
❎ Poor resilience when facing setbacks, criticism, or exams
❎ Low self-esteem, confidence, and belief in what’s possible
❎ Anxiety about exams and uncertainty about future choices
But it doesn’t have to stay this way. When your staff shift how they see themselves, their role, and their students, challenges are turned into opportunities for growth.
Using the Inner Anthem Framework, James will help you build confident staff, resilient teams, and a culture where staff and students thrive together.
When your staff strengthen their mindset and learn practical strategies, the impact is felt across the whole learning community.
Staff will:
✅ Feel more confident, motivated, and resilient in their roles
✅ Better support students who struggle with motivation and self-belief
✅ Step into leadership or new responsibilities with greater self-belief
✅ Better manage stress, change, and daily challenges
Students will:
✅ Feel more motivated and engaged with their learning
✅ Grow self-esteem and belief in what’s possible
✅ Build resilience to handle setbacks, criticism, and exam pressure
✅ Develop clearer aspirations and greater career confidence
Together, these changes lead to happier staff, stronger student outcomes, and a learning community where everyone can thrive.
%20(1).png)
Ways We Can Work Together:
Education Keynotes:
Inspiring talks for conferences, universities, colleges, and secondary schools that spark mindset shifts and empower staff and leaders to build confidence, resilience, and lasting impact.
Staff Development Workshops:
Engaging, practical sessions designed to equip your team with actionable strategies to boost wellbeing, student engagement, and positive culture.
Mentoring & Consultancy:
Personalised support that develops educators, leaders, and teams through mindset growth and strategic tools - helping you embed lasting change and achieve your goals.
How It Works: Elevate Confidence and Capability in 3 Simple Steps:
Choose Your Format:
Whether it’s an inspiring keynote for a conference, a practical staff development workshop, or tailored mentoring and consultancy, James will align everything to your unique goals and challenges.
Engage Your Staff:
James delivers personalised sessions that help your staff boost resilience, leadership, and wellbeing - while gaining practical strategies to better support the mindset and confidence of your students.
See Lasting Change:
Watch staff confidence, motivation, and leadership grow - while students develop stronger self-belief, resilience, and aspirations, creating a culture where everyone can thrive.
What Education Staff Say:
"We got much more than I was anticipating. It was incredibly powerful, and resonated with those within the group. The content of the sessions and the expertise that James possesses will make a positive difference to the individual, groups or wider organisations."
James Butterfill (Assistant Principal, North Kent College)
"From first contact, James was extremely easy to work with. The group loved him. His talk was entertaining, and his humour and connection with the attendees was remarkable. We would recommend James to anyone.”
Carly Pinnick (People Officer, Learning & Development, MidKent College)
"His ability to connect with participants, spark meaningful interaction, and maintain a strong focus throughout made the session both motivating and highly relevant. James is a confident and thoughtful speaker who brings energy and clarity to his message."
Dr. Mehwish Mufti (Lecturer Business & Management Bournemouth University)
Keynotes & Workshops:
All talks and workshops are fully customised to your organisation, audience, and objectives.
Sessions can be delivered in-person or online, and are designed to inspire reflection, build practical skills, and create lasting impact across teams, leaders, and support staff.
Switch. Balance. Apply – Turning Pressure into Progress in Education (Keynote)
In today’s fast-paced education environment, pressure affects everyone, from teaching and pastoral teams to administration and support staff.
This keynote introduces the simple, memorable framework of Switch, Balance, Apply, helping staff move from stress and overwhelm to clarity, confidence, and purposeful action. Drawing on real examples from education, James Dand explores how unhelpful thinking can be shifted, perspective regained in challenging moments, and small, consistent actions applied to create meaningful progress.
Delegates leave inspired, equipped with practical insight, and ready to manage pressure, build resilience, and foster positive outcomes across their entire organisation.
The Self-Perception Switch – Helping Students Believe in Themselves and Achieve More
(Workshop)
This staff development CPD session explores how student self-perception influences confidence, motivation and achievement in everyday education settings. Many learners are capable of success but are held back by self-doubt, negative labels and limiting beliefs.
The Self-Perception Switch introduces a simple, practical approach that helps educators recognise how these beliefs are formed and how they can be positively influenced through daily interactions. Using real examples from classrooms and pastoral contexts, the session addresses common challenges such as low confidence, fear of failure, disengagement and avoidance behaviours.
Delegates reflect on how language, feedback and expectations shape student belief, leaving with clear, immediately usable strategies to support confidence, engagement and progress in lessons, tutorials and behaviour conversations.
Respond, Don’t React – Seeing Clearly and Navigating Challenges in Education (Workshop)
This staff development CPD session supports educators to respond more calmly and effectively to challenging situations in education.
Respond, Don’t React focuses on how perspective, assumptions and expectations shape behaviour, communication and outcomes long before difficult moments arise. Using real examples from education settings, the session introduces practical tools that help staff step back, balance perspective and think more clearly under pressure.
Delegates explore common challenges such as emotionally charged conversations, behaviour incidents and professional judgement calls. Short reflective moments help attendees apply the ideas to their own role, leaving with practical strategies to reduce emotional reactivity, improve communication and handle pressure in ways that protect relationships and support positive outcomes.
From Intention to Action – Turning Student Goals into Results (Workshop)
This staff development CPD session helps educators support students to turn good intentions into consistent action and measurable progress.
From Intention to Action focuses on why motivation alone is often not enough, and how effective habits drive follow-through, consistency and achievement in education settings. Using real examples from classrooms and pastoral contexts, the session explores common challenges such as inconsistent effort, missed deadlines, poor routines and difficulty sustaining focus.
Delegates are introduced to a simple, practical approach to habit-building that emphasises small, realistic actions. Short reflective moments help attendees connect the ideas to their own practice, leaving with clear strategies they can use immediately to support student ownership, consistency and long-term progress.
The Leadership Mindset: Switch, Balance, Apply to Elevate Your Influence (Keynote or
Workshop)
The success of any education organisation relies on strong leadership at every level, from senior management to classroom and support staff.
This session explores how leaders can develop the mindset, perspective, and practical habits needed to create lasting positive impact. Using Inner Anthem’s three Core Elements, delegates will explore how the Self-Perception Switch builds confidence, clarity, and resilience; how the Perspective Balancer helps navigate challenges, manage team dynamics, and reduce stress; and how the Application Advantage translates good intentions into consistent, meaningful action that improves staff engagement, wellbeing, and student outcomes.
Through real-world examples and practical strategies, leaders leave inspired with tools they can immediately apply to elevate their influence and shape a positive organisational culture.
The Inclusive Mindset: Shifting Staff Mindsets to Strengthen Student Inclusion (Workshop)
This staff development session explores how educators’ mindsets directly shape student behaviour, engagement, relationships, and achievement.
Drawing on practical, real-world examples from education settings, delegates will learn to recognise the impact of their own thinking and self-perceptions on student experiences. The session introduces strategies to reframe mind-talk, challenge limiting beliefs, and adopt growth-focused approaches that strengthen student belonging and inclusion. Attendees will also explore simple, actionable tools that can be applied immediately to create a more supportive, engaging, and enjoyable learning environment.
Suitable for teaching, pastoral, and support staff, this session equips staff with practical ways to foster inclusion, build confidence, and enhance positive outcomes for all
students.
Why Choose James Dand:
Experience That Counts
With over two decades delivering college and university programmes - plus experience as a higher education manager - James deeply understands the pressures, culture, and everyday realities education staff face.
Built on the Inner Anthem Framework
Every keynote, workshop, and coaching session is underpinned by James’s unique Inner Anthem Framework - a practical framework of three Core Elements that help staff strengthen mindset, boost resilience, and confidently support students’ growth.
More Than Motivation
James goes beyond inspiring words. Sessions combine energising delivery with proven mindset strategies and actionable tools staff can use straight away - both for their own wellbeing and to better guide and motivate students.
Added Value for Your Organisation
To maximise impact and engagement, sessions can also include: needs surveys, promotional materials, practical content resources like PDFs and workbooks, evaluation feedback, follow‑up learning materials, and answers to staff questions after the event.