Posted on: January 16th 2015
The start of term Inset days presented a great opportunity for joint training amongst our staff from both the nursery and the main school. Whilst the children were in full learning mode, prepping for their Senior School examinations (which they’ve been doing diligently over the past two weeks and are now preparing for interviews and the long wait before they have any news about their success), the staff were finding out the science behind neural pathways and how malleable our brain is in developing our learning!
I think Form 6 are testament to this in how we can develop a true growth mindset - being responsive to feedback and continually striving for improvement; the slog of the revision and the techniques that they have undertaken for the last term unreservedly throwing themselves into it, whether they have been sitting external exams are not. The prep and technique and developing the ‘learning attitude’ to be so independently successful is something they will take forward as a life skill.
I know I talk about it a lot, but I like the fact that we create a learning community in our school - that it is not just our pupils but our staff that are life-long learners and, despite them thinking before the start of the first inset day back ‘oh, I’ve got so much to do and need to get into my classroom’, you can tell by their enthusiasm, participation and suggestions, how engrossed they get in their learning!
As well as Mrs Holt’s fantastic session on Growth Mindset, staff also took part in training on the new Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (Lisa Isbell and Gemma Rajiah), How to support children with English as an Additional Language and recognise and value our different cultures and heritages (Lisa Isbell), Investigative Science (Jaye Cannon), the value of child observation (Elizabeth Burke), Epi Pen and Safeguarding Refresher training (Elizabeth Burke and Deborah Gormley) and a fantastic overview of the main elements of the Montessori Curriculum, delivered by the staff at MH.
It was a really valuable two days, very well spent and we’re already planning our next lot of training for Easter!
