Professional Learning
Professional Learning at Island School 2010-11
Overview of Island School Based Professional Learning 2010-11 - here
Programme of professional learning workshops Wednesday 26th January 2011 - here
Programme of professional learning workshops Wednesday 9th March 2011 - here
Professional Learning at Island School 2009-10
In February the whole school spent a day reflecting on its approaches to assessment, revisiting its core values in relation to formative assessment and developing practice at subject team level.
On Wednesday 10th March we had an afternoon of workshops run by our own teachers, members of the ESF education team and teachers from other schools. These worked shops spanned topics as wide as “Using Google apps in the classroom”, “Concept led curriculum planning”, “Planning Units of Enquiry in the PYP” and “Creativity”. This model is a firm favourite at Island School and we will have developed it further for the afternoon sessions this year. It gives a chance for all teachers to choose their own workshops according to their needs and wants.
During the year some of our staff took time to visit partner primary schools to further explore the primary years programme. We sat in on planning meetings, observed teaching and learning and met with Year 5 and 6 students.
In the summer term and after examination classes had left for study leave, subject teams were supported to take up to three days professional development and planning time. One day was intended to support the development of the use of ISLE (Island School Learning Environment), the recently implemented moodle learning platform. Another day was given over to uploading assessment criteria to the new Gateway ARR module and reflecting on the changing in approaches to assessment that this new tool might leverage. Whilst this time was completely necessary, there is a need to re-evaluate our approach and lessen the impact that this model of support had on teaching and learning.
The new team of TRL1 Curriculum Leaders spent several half day sessions off site exploring the implications for the new leadership structure in the school and developing the school’s strategic plan.
In the summer term we were fortunate to be able to work with Paula Lepore-Burrough (who is now working as part of our permanent teaching staff). Paula was able to support many of our staff as we further develop our approaches to the use of learning technologies in our teaching.
Beyond Island School
Again our staff were well represented on the “Leading Upstream” course and one VP was involved as a sponsor. Four members of Island School's senior team lead workshops at the Senior Leadership Conference in January. These focussed on themes as diverse as "Future Visioning: The World in 2025", "Creativity in the teaching of Maths and Science", "Design Thinking and leadership" and " Can we teach creativity or can it only be nurtured?". Six of IS staff also presented at the 21st Century Learning Conference hosting at HKIS in September.
This year three Maths teachers became accredited International Baccalaureate Organisation Workshop Leaders. Two for Maths and one for Theory of Knowledge. Two of our teachers were invited to attend grade award meetings at the IBO HQ in Cardiff.
Six members of our staff presented workshops and chaired discussions at the 21st Century Learning conference at HKIS in September 2009 and members of the IS senior team helped organise and led the CEM Using Data conference which was offered across the foundation.
We have been a staunch supporter of the Moodle 100 and 101 courses and sent over thirty staff to attend one or a combination of these courses.
We continue to commit hugely to IB training to ensure that our staff are best qulified and experienced to teach courses on the diploma courses.