Tutors Details

Our CPD providers are individuals or organisations that have the knowledge and the ability to provide CPD training to educators.

Moira Thomson

Moira is an experienced teacher who managed a Support for Learning and Special Needs team in a large Edinburgh secondary school for many years.

In her capacity as an education authority Development Officer she contributed to policy frameworks and wrote guidance for colleagues on Dyslexia, Gifted & Talented Education, Standardised Assessment and Alternative Examination Arrangements. She was part of a small group that piloted the SQA’s Digital Examination papers.

  She is also a popular provider of Continuing Professional Development – and has delivered a wide range of high quality courses to colleagues in Edinburgh and further afield. She has presented papers at the last three BDA and recent Dyslexia Scotland international conferences.  

She is the author of several works on Dyslexia and Gifted & Talented education, including the Dyslexia Scotland publication Supporting Dyslexic Pupils in the Secondary Curriculum, which was issued free to all Scottish secondary schools in 2007. Dr Lindsay Peer wrote:
This is a wonderful project which will hopefully raise the awareness of teachers and encourage them to develop their knowledge, skills and strategies in the area of dyslexia.

Her book, Supporting Students with Dyslexia at Secondary School, was published by Routledge in September 2008.
Moira is currently a freelance educational consultant, a Learning & Teaching Scotland registered CPD provider and an independent adjudicator for Additional Support Needs dispute resolution in Scotland.
She also finds time to be the secretary of the Cross Party Group on Dyslexia in the Scottish Parliament and to work with Dyslexia Scotland South East to support parents and dyslexic young people.

The CPD Bytes online course Hidden Dyslexia is based on her recent, highly acclaimed one-day course for Dyslexia Scotland.

Maggie MacLardie

Maggie is the principal teacher of a Support for Learning department in a Scottish Secondary School. She has been involved in the field of special needs for 20 years. Her teaching background includes Modern Languages and English as a Foreign Language, both of which equip her to be sensitive to difficulties experienced in the acquisition of language.

She has delivered CPD to Scottish teachers (both Primary and Secondary) for over 10 years. This has mainly been in the form of local authority twilight courses aimed at teachers interested in the area of special needs. She has also provided regular in-service staff training in her own school, focusing on dyslexia, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and alternative assessment arrangements. Her presentations have received positive evaluations from both colleagues and course participants.

Maggie was also part of the Working Party which looked at Special Exam Arrangements (2001) and was a panel member on the Dyslexia Scotland Edinburgh forum (2004). More recently she has attended BDA and Mindroom conferences in London and she was a facilitator for “Hidden Dyslexia” in Edinburgh (May 2008).

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