Lead Primary Consultant

James has held four primary headships over his career, taking two schools out of special measures. He became an accredited school inspector in 1996 when working as a senior adviser in a large local authority. He was recruited to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate in 2004 as HMI where he led inspections and survey work across all phases as well as leading inspections of initial teacher education in universities and colleges. He inspected Service Children’s Education (SCE) abroad and led HMI training in early years, assessment, SEN and curriculum. He was then appointed as assistant director to a large local authority where he was director of education services.

James continues to work as a school inspector as well as a consultant to a number of academy trusts including the Catholic Diocese of Hallam.

He conducts safeguarding reviews in primary and secondary schools and early years settings. He is also an Education Adviser for the DfE. James has been a Senior Consultant with B11 Education for 8 years

Core delivery areas

North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Northern Lincolnshire

Key services

• School improvement partner
• Pre and post inspection support
• Training for inspection
• Training for safeguarding
• Training in deep dive methodology
• ITT reviews
• Whole school reviews
• Departmental reviews
• Safeguarding reviews
• Governor training
• Pupil mentoring training

Areas of expertise

• Headteacher mentoring
• Headteacher performance review
• Developing bespoke curriculum
• Developing senior/middle/subject leaders
• Early Years
• Reading in Early years, Key stage 1 and 2
• Writing Early years, primary and secondary
• English secondary
• History Primary and secondary

Feedback

We really appreciate the way you work with us as a Trust team and even look forward to reviews because we learn so much from your wisdom. Jayne Clarke, FCCT Primary Director, Castleford Multi-Academy Trust

We have used Jamie Kilner and have always found the sessions challenging but developmental. We feel that our school has improved at a faster rate due to the work we have carried out with Jamie.

The training course was excellent. I felt enthused at the end and eager to return to work and implement some of the things discussed during the day.

Detailed and in-depth discussion about the deep dive process which built my confidence