Testimonials

Luke – Primary School Deputy Head. “I have had several coaching sessions with Josie during this academic year and it has been a fulfilling and beneficial experience that has sharpened my thinking and encouraged me to dig deep in order to navigate the early stages of my career as a senior leader in a small primary school. The sessions were personalised to my own needs with excellent follow-up tasks which ensured that I constantly stayed focused on my goals for the future. Josie has a wealth of experience and an excellent understanding of the education system. I have taken lots from our sessions which I use in my day-to-day practice and would certainly recommend Josie as a Coach”.

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John Adams – award-winning blogger of Dadbloguk. “I was taught by Josie when I returned to college as a mature student. She was always both supportive and challenging in helping me improve my grades and really nurtured my fledgling writing and journalism skills. At the end of the course I immediately got a job in the industry and I’m certain Josie’s support really helped me to achieve this”.

John’s blog is available here.

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Justine Nolan-Scarfe – Head of Department, Barnsley College. “When I took a masterclass on Ethical Leadership with Josie I knew it would be good having worked with her in the past – but I have to say it totally surpassed my expectations!!! It was delivered in such an insightful and engaging way, and Josie’s enthusiasm for the subject matter was infectious. I loved it and have been inspired to do further reading. Thanks Josie, it was a fabulous session.”

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Ella Wragg – Educational Consultant, Dance & Performing Arts Teacher.I was lucky enough to have worked as a teacher under Josie’s leadership for two years, and in that time, I saw her successfully juggle her multi-faceted role. Her ability to do this, and to manage the projects that extended beyond it, were critical to the department’s growth. Most importantly for me, her support as a boss was second-to-none. She kept her staff team informed and ensured her door was always open to us. She was a fantastic mentor and her next mentee will be very lucky to work with her!

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Raychel McGuin – Polychrometrist and Business Owner – Being: in full colour. “I recently attended an online session with Josie about the power of being an ethical boss. The event was perfectly timed with 2020 being a year when people scrutinised leaders and analysed how behaviours impact on struggling staff who need extra support for their survival.

“Josie’s session made us think about great managers we have had and encouraged us to look inward to ask how we lead ourselves and others. Her delivery style was clear, concise, and really showed the benefits of being a compassionate leader by discussing examples of how failing to do this can impact greatly on staff morale.

There were opportunities for breakout sessions and group discussions, which was a real bonus. I really do think that everyone at every level, in every sector could benefit from this training. The workplace would be a much healthier place for it!”

Raychel’s website is available here.

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Annette Ainsworth Brooke, Director, The Meditation Centre, Dent. “I thoroughly enjoyed Josie’s recent masterclass on Ethical Leadership. The session was insightful and interesting – gently flowing through theory, personal experience and practical exercises. Josie’s style of delivery is warm and open, her “light touch” presentation coming from her years of experience as a lecturer and a truly ethical leader in college and union management. I can highly recommend her training to anyone who aspires to a better world and wants to gift themselves a chance to reflect on their own leadership style.” 

The Meditation Centre’s website is available here.

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Laura Scott FCII, Compliance and Operations Manager for a national insurance broker. “I’ve known Josie socially for a number of years but recently attended her online workshop on Ethical Leadership which brought a fresh perspective to the subject which I found useful. The structure of the workshop was handled well remotely and provided some practical, proportional advice which can be implemented by the management team regardless of the industry. Josie’s great communication skills are enhanced by her ability to listen to the attendees of her workshops and her style is warm and inclusive. The section within the workshop reflecting on the reasoning behind a person’s behaviour promoted a new way of thinking for me personally. I’d recommend Josie and JAW Communication to anyone wishing to engage in meaningful, practical training for their business.”

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Steve Cooper, National Official (Leadership), National Education Union. “Great presentation of ethical leadership in this time of crisis on your recent webinar and although directly connected to the Covid19 situation, it was applicable to any leadership scenario.

Image Credit – John Hain, Pixabay

“I personally loved your tree analogy of leadership structures within organisations. It completely makes sense and is so easy to visualise which is important for aspiring leaders and useful for more established senior leaders to remember the basics.

“Your presentation put the learner at ease, no stuffiness or over-complexity, which allows the message of ethical leadership to be understood and related to personally. So vital for changing mindsets”.

National Education Union Leadership section information is available here.

Webinar link is available here.

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Steve Turnbull, Manager, Cardabelle Holidays (former lecturer in Media & Journalism/Education). Josie was my manager for several years and is the kind of person you turn to when you want a professional job doing. She combines a strategic vision that’s broad enough to see the bigger picture, with a sharp focus on the core message, and highly competent organisational skills. A genuine ‘people person’ she always puts the needs of colleagues at the heart of her approach and gets the best out of them with her down-to-earth and good-humoured personality. Her communication skills – developed from her experience in journalism and teaching – are strong and her clear feedback helped me enormously, both with my course leadership and my professional development. She has always been driven by the desire to improve education for all, bolstered by an unshakeable belief in the power of collaboration. Creating and running arts-based charity “EnRich” has also given her another opportunity to put her altruistic ideas into practice. Approaching her for advice on my green holiday business recently I was entirely confident that she would be able to help in my area too, and I’m delighted to say I was right!”

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Mark Wright, former Director of Association of Managers in Education, ATL: “It was a pleasure to work with Josie. Her leadership is strongly values driven and exercised in a warm and inclusive way. She is not afraid to take tough decisions and put her head above the parapet when this is needed to secure the most beneficial outcomes for the organisation, and more importantly, for the learners. The education sector needs more leaders like Josie”.

(Mark is now responsible for leading, developing and managing the  programmes in leadership and governance offered by the Education & Training Foundation.)

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Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary, National Education Union: “You have been an outstanding AMiE President, Josie. Many thanks for all that you have done for leadership and for post-16 education”.

@MaryBoustedNEU

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James Bingham, Course Leader (Creative and Digital) Stockton Riverside College: “I had the privilege of working with Josie when she took over as Interim Head of Department for Creative and Digital Industries at Stockton. I found her to be highly professional and a driven leader as well as an excellent manager. In the short time that Josie worked with our team, she made significant improvements to the department and our curriculum area, which in turn provided us with a clear focus and direction going forward. I would highly recommend her.”

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Prof E. J. Power, Associate Dean – Students, School of Business, Leadership and Economics, Staffordshire University: “I used JAWCommunication for assistance with some proofreading and can offer Josie only the highest praise. Her eagle eye spotted every error no matter how minor and I was amazed with the level of detail. Josie understood my requirements and was sensitive to the tone of the document. All communication was excellent and the service was very efficient and friendly. Josie turned the document round in next to no time and she will definitely be my first port of call for any future documents. I’m very happy to recommend Josie’s work to anyone, she is quite simply brilliant!”

Web: Staffordshire University

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Jessica Lee-Henderson, Learner Support & Development Manager, Barnsley College: “Josie was my line manager for five years whilst I worked at Barnsley College but more importantly she was my mentor. She was a fantastic role model offering a personalised approach and she helped to stretch and challenge me in my role. Josie was incredibly supportive with areas where I needed to develop and she was always sensitive and approachable. She encouraged me to move into management and to further develop my career. Her in-depth knowledge, commitment to my development and ability to inspire me, will remain with me throughout my career. I feel incredibly privileged to have worked with her”. 

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Fiona Young, Project Officer, University of Hull: “I worked with Josie for just one term, but it doesn’t take long to realise someone is an excellent manager. She is that rare thing, a strong manager who is tough when needed but who never stops being kind, thoughtful, reasonable and eminently fair. Her knowledge of arts and media education is vast, as is her awareness of management styles and leadership. She is hard-working, exceptionally supportive to her staff and approachable yet is also pragmatic and gets the job done. She also manages to do all of this without losing sight of who and what is important. As a former journalist myself, I can also attest that Josie’s writing and editing abilities are absolutely first class”.

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Wendy Ewart, Education Professional: “Josie proofread the first assignment for my post graduate certificate in SENCO. The turnaround was extremely fast and it was promptly returned with spellings, grammar and suggested changes to sentence structure. She also gave me support with how to set out my bibliography. A great service by a very professional and friendly person – thanks Josie – the next assignment is on its way!!! I would highly recommend your service to anyone needing help with the written word”.

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Linda Etheridge, Education Professional: “I want to say thank you to Josie for proofreading my doctoral case studies. JAW Communication provided an excellent and friendly service, checking spelling, grammar and sentence rephrasing to a high standard. Josie cares about the detail and provides a fast and prompt turn round. I can highly recommend this service and I hope to be using this company again very soon”.

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Angela Pearson, Programme Leader (Performing Arts – Acting) at Grimsby Institute of FE & HE and Director of Community Art Works Ltd:  “I only worked with Josie for a term but in that time I found her to be a very supportive manager who anticipated the individual needs of both staff and students. She also understood the curriculum in great detail and shared her expertise with me as I was new to teaching. I learned a lot from her and hope I will be fortunate to work with her again in the future”. 

Web: Community Art Works Limited – CAWL.

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Helen Ball, Chief Executive at Barnsley Civic Enterprise Trust Ltd: “Josie is an excellent leader and motivator. Her passion for the arts and her passion for young people having the best opportunities in education possible shone through during all the time I worked with her. She is a good communicator and an extremely knowledgeable, capable and dedicated person. I would recommend her for any FE or HE leadership role and also as a Creative Education specialist”.

Web: The Civic, Barnsley. 

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College Manager Anjali Wierny, Curriculum Leader (FE Media): “Thanks for the good job you’ve done in our department. It has been clear from the start that you were willing to put in the hard work required to keep the department on track whilst simultaneously supporting staff. Working with you has also taught me a lot about management – you have a great balance between being approachable yet assertive and positive yet realistic. My only complaint is that you were only here for a few months as an interim manager – we would love to have you here on a permanent contract”.

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Cartwright Accountants: “Josie Whiteley of JAWCommunication has only been known to us for a short period of time but during this time she has created a fantastic impression and has really made us look at our marketing in a more professional and pro-active way. Josie comes across as highly knowledgeable, professional, friendly and is an absolute pleasure to converse with in both a business and personal manner.  At the moment, Josie is helping with our marketing and written communications which in just a short space of time is a huge improvement. She has provided us with expert advice and ideas in the areas of social media and writing/editing press releases and we are confident that with her help, our business will continue to grow. We would have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending her services although we would have issues in doing so to rival businesses!!”

Web: Cartwright & Co Ltd.

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Artist Josephine Crompton:  Josie Crompton JAWCommunication helped me out when I was preparing for an Art Exhibition. I had written a professional profile but was not happy with the wording so I asked for help and was extremely happy with the finished product”.

Facebook: Josephine Crompton

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College Manager James Arthur Wilson: “I have worked with Josie for a number of years and relied on her expert eye in proof-reading. She can also produce high-quality copy quickly and accurately and she is 100% reliable. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending JAWCommunication if you need help with anything involving the written word. She is a dab hand with Social Media too.”

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EnRich Charity: Enrich_Red_Blue#5“JAWCommunication was responsible for initial press releases when the Charity was launched and now creates all content on the Charity’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. The Trustees are extremely pleased with the impact this has had on raising the profile.”

Web: EnRich

Facebook: EnRich Charity

Twitter: @EnRich_Charity

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