Wirral Education Centre

The Wirral Education Centre in Bromborough serves to provide a venue for meetings, offering first class conference facilities for schools, departments within the Council and other agencies as well as hosting many courses in relation to Continuing Professional Development for staff.

The Advisory Teacher Service

The Advisory Teacher Service operates from the Centre and is essentially concerned with aiding school improvement and the raising of standards throughout the Primary, Secondary and Special Education sectors of the Education Service. First and foremost, Advisory Teachers offer school based and classroom support whilst also developing new teaching strategies and resources. In addition time is given to working with middle and senior management in devising policy and implementing school development plans. In-service training normally held at the Professional Development Centre is provided for all teachers, including newly qualified teachers. Whole school support is available on training days. By seconding teachers from Wirral schools and colleges to the service for up to two years as Advisory Teachers it is possible to respond to ever-changing local and national priorities. Many advisory teachers from Wirral schools go on to gain promotion within schools, higher education and inspection/advisory services. Others take back to their schools considerable knowledge and expertise. Information on all courses run by advisory teachers and other support staff is published annually in the Wirral's Directory of INSET Opportunities and Management Development Brochure.

Key Skills Centre

With the recent appointment of specialist advisers for literacy, numeracy and Information and Communications Technology the Wirral Education Service is bringing these fully together within its newly created Key Skills Centre which, like the Advisory Teacher Service will be based at the Professional Development Centre. This will allow for close co-ordination and support between Key Skills staff and members of the Advisory Teacher Team resulting in a co-ordinated approach to Government initiatives.

Schools Library Service

Also based at Acre Lane is the Schools Library Service which supports education in Wirral by providing access to a wide range of relevant, up-to-date learning materials and by offering advice and guidance on the organisation of school libraries and their role in supporting the curriculum. Teachers can access non-fiction, poetry, posters, audio cassettes, videos, class reading sets and artifacts.

An integral part of the resources managed by the Schools Library Service staff is the Professional Development Centre Library, which houses an ever increasing range of books, journals and materials. Originally set up to meet the needs of teachers involved in award bearing education management courses, the library now contains reading matter on most curriculum areas and contemporary issues in education.