For 30 years, we have helped teachers and school leaders improve the life chances of children, with professional learning that is practical, strategic and focused on impact.
Osiris Educational was formed with a 30 year vision to improve the life chances of children. The first 10 years to establish, the next 10 years to grow and now 10 more years to internationalise and give back.
Back in 1996, just surviving a couple of years seemed hopeful. But with hope came passion, and expertise developed. CPD was only just emerging and was highly variable in quality and impact, so that is where we focused, unrelentingly pushing the boundaries of what could be achieved in a day, in a week, over three months and over three years.
We turned down government contracts because the demands and expectations were not high enough. We revolutionised expectations, with no more ex-headteachers telling you what they did in their context.
We took teachers to the source of the research and back to the practice, working strategically on what would make the most impact in a given context, the fastest and most sustainably.
The field of PSE was in its infancy, and Brenda Hobbins, our Product Director, was at the forefront. We took it from unloved, unmeasured and under-resourced to a shining example of what was possible. Together with Health Education, Citizenship and Emotional Literacy, we wove a strategic approach and worked with half the schools in England.
Teaching came next. The variation within schools was greater than the variation between them, and Ofsted asked for a notion of Outstanding. Together with key colleagues, we defined what Outstanding Teaching should be and designed the training and professional learning programmes that enabled 95% of teachers to significantly improve their day-to-day classroom practice. Twenty years later, teachers still tell us that OTI was the most impactful professional learning they ever received.
It started not from an ideal of what Outstanding Teaching was, or from a set of resources. It started with teachers in their own classrooms, doing what they were doing. We passed no judgement, and shaped the programme around how each of them could become a better version of themselves.
Then came the John Hattie revolution, the “Holy Grail of Education” (TES). The focus moved to learning and its impact, held unrelentingly through the lens of evaluation, across the school or schools and at every level. The results were stunning. As exclusive UK partners for Visible Learning+, it has been one of the most exciting journeys.
After 16 years of working alongside Hattie, our ability to interpret the research base in education, and to use it to improve outcomes, is unrivalled.
Covid gave us a unique opportunity to become the Glastonbury of Education: to bring the world’s biggest names together to debate and analyse the key issues facing teachers and school leaders.
More than 100,000 people attended over four years, and all the material is now available free to every educator on the planet through WES Legacy.
Speakers included John Hattie, Viviane Robinson, Michael Fullan and Dylan Wiliam.
Over 30 years, we have worked with more than 20,000 schools in over 100 countries, providing professional learning to more than half a million teachers and school leaders. It has always been practical, strategic and focused on impact.
2027 sees the launch of three new digital programmes. The hugely successful Enabling Leaders exclusively joins the Osiris fold. This transformational programme works with school leaders to evaluate and enhance their impact across their organisations.
TeacherLand is the first non-linear programme for teacher pedagogical improvement, enabling every teacher to start with their own professional knowledge and confidence, and learn from there.
In 2026, we launched The World Education Show Podcast with Stephen Cox, our CEO, and the legendary John Hattie. It tackles the key education issues of the day and has already featured guests including Sal Khan and Bill Rogers. [Confirm guests and add links]
Supporting the Open School movement, from its birth through to establishment, remains a key goal. Prof Mick Waters and the late Sir Tim Brighouse were key founders.
Thirty years on, the passion burns bright.
Professionalism and professional knowledge have vastly improved. Teachers and school leaders now evaluate their own impact rather than relying on the judgement of inspectors.
But nearly 40% of learners still leave school with too few qualifications and a perception of failure. Worse still, they are ill-equipped for the world of work. We also know from the Jenkins curve that the majority of secondary pupils still find school an uninviting place to be, and that for 50% of lesson time students are bored, which is a negative state for learning.
There remains much to do.