Staff development day
370 staff share practice and teaching techniques at the Trust’s third and largest ever development day.
More than 370 staff from across The Potteries Educational Trust came together to share best practice and varied teaching techniques at our largest ever development day.
Staff from The City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College, Biddulph High School, Werrington Primary School and Moorside High School, as well as Trustees of the Potteries Educational Trust attended a full day of activities on the eve of October half term.
Hosted between Staffordshire University’s LRV and the City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College, the day started with a motivational talk from award-winning guest speaker and author Isabella Wallace. An expert in education training, she inspired staff with practical techniques to maintain the fun, excitement, motivation and progress of learners across the key stages.
With over 50 carefully selected workshops available to choose from, ranging from classroom based theories to wellbeing and mindfulness, there was an abundance of choice for everyone.
Mark Kent, Chief Executive Officer of the Potteries Educational Trust said:
This is the largest training day we have held with staff to date, and I am thrilled by its success. To be able to bring together all members to one venue, sharing techniques, ideas and best practices, truly encompasses what the Potteries Educational Trust was set up to achieve.
As a Trust our students are at the heart of everything we do, and it is our responsibility as members to ensure that each student gets the best education that is available to them.
This education can only be achieved by sharing ideas, coming together to develop new techniques and to learn from each others successes across the Trust.
To help embed the Trust’s ethos of creating a learning community between its members, colleagues from across all member schools took the opportunity to deliver some of the workshops throughout the day, helping to share best practice and providing new ideas to try in the classroom. This provided a great insight into different techniques and methods that worked well in each school.
Simon Ascroft, Headteacher of Biddulph High School commented,
Developing our staff is integral to our core values. Being part of the Potteries Educational Trust provides additional opportunities for continuous development and maintaining the highest standard of teaching for our learners.
Subsequently, as the Trust continues to grow, these valuable training events can only go from strength to strength.
Simon Clarke, Headteacher of Moorside High School added,
The development day has been a huge success, offering the opportunity to not only develop our own staff and take home some new techniques but also the freedom to pass on some of our own wisdom to others.
We all share the same goal, to develop teaching methods and provide the most fulfilling education to every learner within our schools.
Phil McLauchlan, Headteacher of Werrington Primary School said,
Taking part in a joint development day has been very beneficial to our staff members, with such a large variety of workshops to choose from, it really showed the level of commitment the Trust places on professional development.
The combination of workshops available really helped to bring a holistic feel to the event. We have a responsibility to provide the best education and enrichment across all age ranges, from primary education all the way through to University. Being a part of the Potteries Educational Trust provides its members with opportunities to develop techniques and broaden our skills to enable us to deliver the most effective and worthwhile education.
The development day was brought to a close with an opportunity for staff members to regroup within their departments and reflect on the workshops they attended, sharing within their teams what worked well and how they plan to implement some of the new techniques and methods into their teaching and service delivery.
