Phew! The middle section of this term has been a whirlwind of meetings, development sessions, conferences and research visits. A special favourite (apart from a very peaceful picnic in the middle of a 10.5KM paddle/walk to and from this tarn) was spending a day with 170 PGCE students in Belfast – we were really struck by the depth in which the Big Picture of the National Curriculum adopted by QCDA from the NI original is embedded in ITE. (Click here to view my other recent blog posts). Another very positive development is our partnership with the Wroxham Teaching School Alliance. Their creative launch event gave rise to some very powerful thinking about foci and development! Next stop, the Regional R&D conference in London last week – very proud of the Alliance’s connections with research at all levels. Looking forward to our day focussed on mobilising professional learning at every level to create effective and efficient staff learning environments that work for pupils too - in January. Hot off the press are the three reports of our large scale evaluation of CPD provision for TDA. Not sure they quite count as high points in the sense that they flag up things to be concerned about as well as strengths in the system. See below for more details. I am hoping that the new OfSTED framework with the increased clarity about leadership and in particular the way leaders align CPD and the improvement of teaching and learning will help us all address some of these challenges. You’ll get a sense of some of the other highlights of CUREE work in the November e-news but I can’t resist finishing off by flagging up a more unusual learning journey I have been making. Click here to find out about a very inspiring, sobering and moving learning environment I encountered via a film and an hour long phone call with a prisoner in Angola jail (average sentence 90 years and no parole) who has completed two degrees and who volunteers as a carer in the prison Hospice. It poses some very interesting questions about learning.
Philippa Cordingley |
The Evidence People