Happy New Year

Hello all,
Hope you are all well and have enjoyed the holibobs.
After our sessions at Hoults Yard and Northern Stage, I arranged a coaching session with my Headteacher that linked to my Leadership Pathways course that I'm doing. We chatted about how I can encorporate the ideas and enquiry based questions from both Leadership Pathways and the Creative Leadership Programme. It was a good session and I felt that the Head took on board my ideas that would enable myself and the staff as school to really move things forward.
I've decided to focus on developing Change Teams within school that will enable successful peer mentoring, observation and support to engage staff and provide quality CPD within the school's limited budget. I have decided to pilot this method with an initial 'Starter' Change Team. It consists of myself [Senior Management team and leader of Creativity and Innovation /Y5 teacher], Our SENCO [Y3 teacher], A new teacher in Y2, and a really dynamic [but lacking in confidence] teacher in Y1. So the team consists of four of us that really represent a good spread in year groups and experiences. I've approached to team and they are all on board. We will be meeting next week to discuss ideas of how to move forward.
Kate x

Creative Leadership Programme

Creative Leadership Programme

Hello everyone, I hope that you have had a relaxing break and all the chocolate you can eat, I certainly have! I have been responding to posts on the blog and it is great to see so many of you posting your enquiry ideas, they are really interesting and I am certain the children and staff will benefit greatly from this project. Keep posting, and feel free to comment on the postings others have made. See you on Tuesday/Thursday. Sarah

educated off site

Hi all, you'd think I'd have better things to do over the christmas break, but at our last session one of the participants referred to a schooling system in the outback in Australia that has been very successful. Any additional details/info appreciated.

E-learning and Web 2.0 Tools

Another very interesting and thought provoking session at Northern Stage! Thanks!

Some Web 2.0 tools worth sharing include:
Etherpad: can be used for real time collaboration on creative writing
Google Doc's: can be used for student voice, creating online resources such as presentations and tests.
Wallwisher: a place to post online sticky notes! I use it for A4L.
Prezi: online presentation which offers a fantastic alternative to a linear slideshow.
Ted: keynote speeches from national and international conferences- fantastic ideas and concepts covering a range of subject areas.

I have many other tools to share! If you are interested just email me or you can check out some on my blog.

Group 2 - Session 2 - small group discussions

Liz asked the group to work in 3's or 4's to share your experiences of how you feel things are going with your project, at this present moment in time.

Group 2 - session 2 - evaluation of progress so far

Evaluation questionnaires handed out by Liz Harker.

At the end of the course they’ll be asked to fill one out to see what differs in your experience.

Group 2 - Session 2 - feedback self negotiated project - so far

Group session to discuss 'self negotiated' projects so far for individuals and are they achievable?

How to balance the project, with current activities in the school, can become a challenge.

Discussion on how to take the projects forward, how to use the blog and opportunity to ask questions.

Group 2 - session 2 - discussion with Susan

Group 2 - session 2 - Susan Mulholland introduces participation at the theatre

Group 2 - Session 2 - group discussion with Erica

Question from Erica - Would the answers that you got, help to change the way you work in the future?

At Northern Stage, they try to diversify skill sets by allowing every team member to bring something fresh to the table by having full team meetings. They mix things up by allowing team members, who would very rarely work together, to team up in an activity.

Northern Stage believes that is imperative in the workplace to have a structure of leadership quality and opportunity for staff members to take roles of responsibility.

Erica has a strong ethos that the more you listen to your staff, and each other, the more likely that the entire workforce will be open to trying new things, as well as feeling comfortable enough to approach senior management, and suggesting ideas.

Erica also believes that there is a responsibility to ensure that there is constant change within a company, in order to stay fresh and inspiring. Any standing still on a companies progression, will eventually lead to being stuck behind the changing economy, leading to the eventual decay of the business. This can sometimes lead to resistance, but if you allow that team member to go at their own pace, it will allow for scope to change.

Encouragement first and foremost is the key to effective communication, which then leads to being able to approach the things, which may not necessarily be so good.