I wanted to share with colleagues some of the feedback I have received regarding the INSET day last Friday. It has been so lovely to recieve such positive and constructive feedback and I believe that there is a template for future training inherent within the structure of Friday's INSET. A balance between structured CPD, a Voluntary Wellbeing offer and Free-time with a sprinkling of social time! Here is a flavour of feedback received so far:
" I felt a huge satisfaction seeing all staff enjoy time together during lunch. I think this is something that needs to be held onto as there was a real sense of fun and community. It was also very refreshing being able to choose your own INSET. I think people probably got a lot more out of it than if forced. I honestly cannot say an even better if..."
"This term I have been thinking: why should I be held responsible for attendance? And now I realise why. If children are not in school then what could be happening to them? Emma made me realise that if we can read the signs of child abuse then we can do something to stop it from happening. It should be teachers monitoring this, not social workers. We see these children every day."
"Although I didn't get to do any of the afternoon activities I'd like to say that I thought the options available were very appealing and it was nice to have something fun on the menu after the Christmas lunch. I'd also like to say the new breakfast menu on CPD days is BRILLIANT - it makes me look forward to coming to school; it's the little things that make a big difference."
"I thought this inset day was really interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd half. The only thing which I was not 100% happy with is the Child Protection bit. I did feel (personally) that it was unnecessary to go into so much detail and at length with the cases mentioned. I’m fully aware of the horrific things done to children, but I really don’t want them itemised during a basic training session. I felt this was probably something which could be expanded on for the next step up on training. Just a minor comment as I really did think this training was essential and Emma had an excellent delivery. As for the afternoon – well it was probably the best afternoon ever for me! It was great to socialise with colleagues who I see very briefly during the year and the carol singing was the best team building and bonding session you could wish for. Everyone came away relaxed, smiling and having had a good laugh together. I was singing away for the rest of the day!"
"The session with Emma went really well; although for existing staff it was slightly repetitive, everyone realises the importance of keeping up to speed with the sensitive issue of CP. Emma's delivery was engaging too. The problem came with the rest of the day. We had a huge workload marking 2 exams for every year 11 student. The deadline was brought forward a week and we all had no choice but to stay in our classrooms furiously marking exams. Essentially, it was ironic that the afternoon was devoted to staff wellbeing and yet after a very tough week, Ofsted etc, we had to cancel the sessions we had signed up to in order to meet a very tough deadline. We felt it was a bit unfair. Staff morale was not good!"
"I’m sure I speak for many, many staff members – Friday was excellent. The morning training (on a very serious topic) made interesting by the speaker. She was fantastic. Lunch was great fun, then I went to the carol service (it was never like this when I went to school) and I’m sure Nikki can confirm, it was enjoyed by all."
"A big thank you for Friday. 1 Excellent outside speaker who was interesting and lively - superb. 2 Lunch 3 Free time. To be treated like adults who are able to use the time to do all the things we don't normally get time to. In the past I always do what is expected but have often felt aggreived that others often opt out and there seems to be no comeback. I had a lovely afternoon with Luke and three Teaching Assistants working on display. How lovely to have the time to do something properly. Much appreciated."
" I really enjoyed the training day, I defintitley think the theme of child protection is very important, especially at Welling. In order to improve - more information on how we can protect ourselves as staff would have been good."
"It has been the best day ever today – culminating in a fantastic carol singalong which everyone’s saying was the perfect way to get together. I think we’ve got the starting of the staff choir without a doubt."
"I found the Child Protection Training to be very useful. I have done CP training a few times before in previous roles but I found Emma to be an excellent facilitator. She delivered the training in an informative and interesting way. The cluster groups and question and answer sessions were relaxed and non intimidating. The handout of the slides will provide a useful resource to look back on in future.
Our lunch was excellent - the table settings, crackers, wine and Santa and his elves made for a really enjoyable meal. What I thought was good also was that some staff moved out of their faculty areas and sat with other departments - we had a maths teacher and a drama teacher with SEN which was a great way to improve links and friendship between faculties. We ended up inviting the drama teacher to our Christmas meal that evening and she thoroughly enjoyed it and we enjoyed her company!!
For the afternoon session I had plumped for carols followed by free time. I didn't get to the the free time slot!! Morag had arranged a variety of traditional carols as well as some more modern numbers on karaoke interspersed with mince pies and mulled wine. It was fantastic to sit as a group and sing - there was such a mixture of departments represented from art to maths, DT to SEN - we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and to me it really did herald the start of Christmas!! A few of us stayed for the second session it was so good. Well done Morag and Alan!"
