Professional Learning at Cheltenham Secondary College

Monday 23rd May was a Professional Learning Day for Cheltenham Secondary College and whilst there was not a program run for students, all of our staff were onsite for the day and involved in Professional Learning from 8:30am until 3:30pm.

Education Support staff spent the day updating their First Aid qualifications and as a result of this program and a program that was held with teaching staff at the end of 2021, we now have a substantial number of staff who are qualified to provide First Aid when the need arises, which we hope is not often.

Vic Zbar, an Educational Consultant who first began working with the college in 2018, facilitated a ‘Generating Improved Learning in Your School – Making it Happen’ workshop with our teaching staff. Vic framed this session around our Instructional Model and spent time reinforcing with staff how well the Cheltenham model is supported by educational theory and research. In particular, he focussed on the Activate and Review sections of our model because as he stated...“If you can get the start and ending of each lesson right then the middle is more likely to be effective”.  This affirmed our own focus for Monday Afternoon meetings which had been on Activate in Term 1 and has progressed to Review in Term 2. 

Part of the workshop involved staff looking at and refining the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria they have been using in their classes. Over the course of this year, we have been working collegiately with Cheltenham East Primary School (CEPS) on Project 22 which has a Mathematics Focus, so we invited some of their staff to also attend the training day. It was very pleasing to have CEPS staff visit for part of the day and be involved in our discussions. 

Vic will return for a follow-up session working with staff later in the year to explore the Focus and Guide section of our Instructional Model.

To support students in their return to school most of our Professional Learning for Semester One has been back-ended to the end of Term Two to ensure a smooth return to school was achieved. We have two further days coming up in the calendar:

1. Friday 10th June is an Assessment Day where teachers will be finalising their reports in readiness for their publication on Monday 20th June. 
2. Monday 20th June is also our scheduled ‘Professional Practice Day’ and staff will be using this day to work in teams to review their Semester One courses and also to prepare for and update Semester Two courses.

There will be no educational program for students on either of these days.