Edtech providers Computeam are inviting teachers to their free-to-attend annual conference taking place on Tuesday 7th February at Chill Factore, Trafford, Greater Manchester. This year’s theme is ‘achieving deeper learning outcomes using technology’, with discussions on how teachers can harness the wow-factor that technology offers to benefit classroom learning.

Do you feel powerful?

Because the modern, effective school middle leader is powerful, an incredibly powerful member of the school community. Not powerful like Darth Vader is powerful. I’m not suggesting you wave your hand to magically make minions do your evil bidding. I’m talking about being the powerful agent for change that the role of middle leader has become. In your hands, you have the power to design a creative, rich curriculum; the power to motivate and inspire a team of teachers and support staff; the power to drive advances in pedagogy; the power to make decisions that will change children’s lives.

In an effort to celebrate what’s great about teaching, we’re teaming up with BESA to throw ‘Reasons To Be Cheerful About Education’, a panel and networking event to be held at Chester Racecourse on 9th February. The event will be free-of-charge for teachers to attend.

Manchester’s Russell Scott Primary School will be holding a free-of-charge Speed Learning Apple RTC event on Thursday 1st December. Running from 4:30pm to 6pm, the event will begin with a keynote from the renowned deputy head and ‘ideas factory’ Julian Wood, and will feature 10 top table hosts who will share how they use Apple tech across the Primary curriculum. These sessions will repeat every ten minutes in the style of speed-dating. What’s more, edtech experts JTRS Training will be supplying festive snacks to be served throughout.

On Friday 9th December, Dudley’s Village Hotel Club will play host to one day event devised to help teachers hone their edtech knowledge and skills. The EdTech Impact Conference is being held by ‘household’ education names Mark Anderson, Nina Jackson and Lee Parkinson, and will run from 8:30am to 3:30pm, offering teachers (EYFS to Further Education) a whole school day’s worth of insight. Ticket prices range from £106.69 to £169.99.

This December, teachers and school leaders from across the UK will head to Oxford’s Cheney School for #TMOxford. Taking place on Thursday 15th December and organised by assistant head Amjad Ali, this annual, nationally-trending Christmas TeachMeet is returning for the fourth time, and once again attendees will be treated to a wealth of top-shelf speakers. Innovate My School are proud to be one of the sponsors for this event with a small selection of prizes, and each delegate will receive a copy of the newly-released IMS Guide 2016/17.

The main priority of a school is to ensure that pupils are given the best possible chance of achieving their potential, both academically and personally. In the ever-changing world of education, it is imperative that teachers and other staff are as up-to-date as they can possibly be in their subject knowledge, teaching practices, and assessment requirements. It also important not to forget the professional development needs of the wider school community, including your governors.

Learning is learning.
And good instructional design is key.
What’s good for students is good for teachers.
We are all learners.

During the past 20 years, I have been privileged to participate in some great professional development programmes. And some, not so great. I have led professional development where the teachers responded really positively and we saw direct impact on student learning. And some, not so much.

It’s been a busy year for UK schools, with new edtech, academisation and changes to the exams system on teachers’ minds. As a result, we’ve been working with more educators than ever before. The 2015/16 year saw 621 articles published and 62 speed dating events run, with three major Twitter projects and a new website on top. Here are some highlights from the past 11 months:

As professionals within the educational sector we all strive to improve our game. It is not uncommon to find our teaching staff, as well as administrative and support staff, venturing into roles within pastoral care. They may take up these incredibly important roles alongside their primary role in a climate where pastoral support has become an ever-increasing growth area. In my youth, this role would have been tackled by the school nurse, but now many schools have full-time teams managing the demands of modern day schooling.