Community of Learners

This week our teachers and teaching assistants became the learners in two important professional development opportunities. The first was in school when we invited Kathy Short, Professor in the Department of Language, Reading and Culture at the University of Arizona, to spend the day with us. Kathy has worked extensively with teachers to develop curricula that actively involve students as readers and inquirers. Her research has focused around dialogue and inquiry, particularly as connected to curricular frameworks, and includes studies on the role of the teacher in discussion, responses to literature across sign systems, intertextuality, inquiry-based curricula, teacher study groups, and teachers' curricular thinking about reading instruction. She works with many IB schools around the world and we were delighted to welcome her to Southbank Hampstead.

During the day she worked with teams developing the Programme of Inquiry and in a twilight faculty meeting after school looked at the role of literature supporting inquiry. It was a great opportunity to have someone with such knowledge and expertise come and share in our learning at Southbank.

The second learning opportunity for our staff was last Friday at the London International Schools Association Conference, this year hosted by ACS international School, Cobham. This event happens every two years and is an opportunity for all of the international schools in London to share in providing a learning day for all faculty across a range of subjects. This year there were sessions on:
• The Project Approach to Learning
• Assessing Student Work in Reading and Writing
• Problem Posing and Problem Solving Across the Curriculum
• Brief Therapy - Solutions for Teachers
• Classroom Strategies for Children with Sensory Integration Issues
• Developing Thinking Skills in the Classroom
• Teacher to Teacher (UK): Kagan Cooperative Strategies
• School Physical Education; A Child Centred Approach
• Tate Britain Workshop
• Introduction to Pod Casting Workshop

These professional development opportunities enhance our faculty and are opportunities for us to reflect on our practise and how we can enhance and improve children's learning. It is also a great opportunity to dialogue with our colleagues. We have planning, team and faculty meetings scheduled each week, but these days offer an additional chance to learn more with experts in their field.

Our professional learning afternoons at Hampstead, held once a month on a Thursday, give our teachers a chance to lead a specialist learning session. We have already had sessions on Information Technology, the IB Learner Profile, Smart board Training, Inquiry in Maths, EYFS and Literacy. This term we will be focusing on Music, EAL/Mother Tongue and the Library.

As a community of learners it is an important strength of Southbank that all teachers recognise themselves as learners and models in the belief in lifelong learning.