The training days for next year have been provisionally set for the following dates:
- Monday 03 September (this is the first day after the summer holiday; school would be open to children in Y1 – Y6 from Tuesday)
- Thursday 15 November (this date is fixed; it is to elect police commissioners)
- Monday 25 February (the first day after February half-term holiday)
- Thursday 02 May (polling day is usually the first Thursday in May, so it is likely we will have to close on this day)
- Monday 22 July (this is the last day of the school year – families tell us they would prefer not to attend for just one day in a week; instead of a training day on this date, teachers will stay for three after-school ‘twilights’ during the year, which is as well as the regular weekly professional development meetings held on Mondays)
Last week, teachers spent the training day in school working on our School Development Plan and action plans for 2012-13. Nearly all schools in England should have a School Development (or Improvement) Plan and accompanying action plans. They outline across a period of time how a school can make changes and keep up to date on educational trends.
This year, our teachers have begun to plan using Google Docs rather than Word. This is a step towards greater use of ‘the cloud’ to prepare, save and share / collaborate. Google Docs (and Google Drive) is a move away from saving things on a PC towards sharing things in a more ‘virtual’ way, which allows greater collaboration. The next steps will be for teachers to work in this way for more and more projects, and to get our governors using and sharing as well.
