CUREE’s “Choosing with confidence” workshop series will be hosted at our Coventry offices, 3 minutes from the central train station, or can in some instances be organised at a venue near you. Dates are currently being fixed and so if you are interested in knowing more and being on the potential delegate list please contact serena.dong@curee.co.uk.
May – Designing challenge into your curriculum
Recent surveys of pupils and students in England showed that 24% of them felt under challenged. Many teachers’ were wary of putting too much pressure on learners by making tasks too hard. International evidence shows that teachers need support in creating challenging curriculum experiences. This workshop uses practical tools and resources, coaching and micro enquiries to focus on the three strategies most effective in building challenge into your planning and teaching.
May - Curriculum Design for effective learning experiences – aligning CPD and curriculum development
Whatever your view on subject or thematic approaches to the curriculum - and whatever the results of the review of the curriculum may bring - the international evidence base tells us one thing with great clarity. Carefully structured, subject rich curriculum development depends on effective CPD –and acts as a great springboard for it. Our three year national and international study of what’s involved in creating effective curriculum experiences identifies six key components of effective curriculum experiences and the related key elements of effective whole school curriculum innovation. Join this workshop to plan for how you align professional and curriculum development and prepare a confident way forward capable of underpinning progress whatever curriculum path you choose to take.
June - Evaluating the impact of CPD
The holy grail of CPD provision is delivering sessions that can be proven to have real impact and make a difference to pupil learning. But intuitive judgments about CPD are a poor guide to impact – effective teachers always underestimate what they do and weaker teachers are often unaware of what more they could do to take charge of their own learning. CUREE has been developing a range of learning activities that generate formative and summative evidence for evaluating the impact of CPD. This workshop will explore these tools and models of excellence in CPD to help you build CPD capacity in school and in between school professional learning communities - and to know how well it is working.
June - The Next Generation – mentoring in school-led ITE
The recent white paper emphasised the intended shift in Initial Teacher Training to a greater focus on school based delivery. The evidence shows that a significant differentiator in the success of initial teacher training and induction is the quality of in-school mentoring. This session will explore how you can enhance mentoring provision in your school or cluster to improve the teaching outcomes for the next generation. Uniquely, it offers tools for building new teachers’ skills in being mentored as well as on the skills of mentors in gradually handing over responsibility for learning to new teachers.
July - Designing effective curriculum experiences to improve participation, engagement and wellbeing
Whatever the new national curriculum requires when it reports in 2012 and 2013, we can be sure that improving participation, engagement and wellbeing will remain priorities for schools. Our recently completed three year research project provides evidence from international studies and from in depth research in England about what makes for successful curriculum experiences in these areas for young people. Join us to explore how effective relationship building is designed into the curriculum, how distinctive features of specific curriculum areas can be used to promote student wellbeing and what classroom strategies can improve student engagement and participation. Focussing on opportunities for development in your own school, you will explore a range of tools and resources for identifying and evaluating opportunities for enhancing staff skills and embedding new strategies at scale.
July - E-bacc subjects – how can I build specialist muscles in MFL?
The implementation of the English Baccalaureate caught many schools off guard particularly in the subject area of modern foreign languages. When MFL was made optional post-14, many students (and schools) quickly dropped a subject that was considered too hard to learn, and find effective teachers for. And yet it is possible for schools to rise to the challenge of MFL returning to the centre of the curriculum – research evidence from around the world, English as a Foreign Language practice, and best MFL practice in this country demonstrate that MFL can be taught in ways the engage learners and build serious language skills. This workshop will link these findings with what we know more broadly about effective curriculum design. It will provide the opportunity for MFL subject leaders and teachers to review existing practice, engage critically with evidence-based approaches, and plan for future lessons.
Sept - Maximising the potential of coaching and mentoring
We know from Ofsted’s inspection of CPD (the Logical Chain) that there’s lots of coaching and mentoring going on – and almost as much confusion about what the different models are for and how to do them well and at scale. Join this workshop to crystalise your understanding of what really makes a difference to pupils and explore practical tools that embed and sustain quality in coaching and generate evidence from teacher-pupil exchanges as a driver for learning and evaluating impact.
Sept -Designing challenge into your curriculum
Recent surveys of pupils and students in England showed that 24% of them felt under challenged. Some teachers’ were wary of the impact on learners if they found tasks too hard. International evidence shows that teachers need support in creating challenging curriculum experiences. This workshop will use practical tools and resources, coaching and micro enquiries to focus on the three strategies most effective in building challenge into your planning and teaching.