Firstly a huge thank you to Dr Rob Bown and Amjad Ali for organizing last night's teachmeet at Cheney School. It was fantastic and provided a real lift before the end of term. I think every one that attended left with a spring in their step.
Amjad's really useful learning toolkit - which is listed on the useful links - will have details of the presentations, so I won't go into detail here listing the huge range of speakers.
More I wanted to consider the significance of last night. Firstly as I have already mentioned it was good for the soul. I was genuinely uplifting to share our assembly hall with a range of professionals from the hugely experienced Tim Brighouse to the most recently qualified NQTs. It was also important because we were joined by Ian Menter and Ann Childs from Oxford University's Education Deanery and Dave Aldridge from Oxford Brookes. I think we are at an important point if we are able to build on the relationships being made with the Universities to develop a working model for evidence informed practice - exciting times. There were also genuinely useful plugs from some entrepreneurs developing useful teaching and learning tools that I think will have a positive impact in the classroom. Finally we were sent on our way by Vic Goddard, the Headteacher of Passmores Academy in Harlow and also of Educating Essex fame. Vic brought us all back to earth by reminding us what it is all about. The students - every student. He spoke from the heart and if anyone wasn't aware that we do one of the most important jobs in the world - well the will have done by the time they left.
So what was the significance? Well I think we are at an exciting point in education - the consultation on a Royal College and the move towards evidence informed practice could mark a point where the professionalism of teachers becomes increasing recognized and respected by the public; and last night I think we lived the spirit of this by sharing best practice and learning together.
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