Skills Development

Recruitment and retention of the right early years staff has become even more challenging in recent years. We know that the right staff make all the difference to the quality of our practice and supports the best outcomes for every child. This workshop explores the challenges establishing and leading a high performing team and explores ways to support and value our staff to make the strongest and most effective teams.

Language : English

Topic : Early Years

Mike will be exploring the management of concerns about adults in schools and the challenges that senior leaders face with these issues. Developing an open and transparent culture around the reporting of staff concerns is a critical aspect of good safeguarding practice, but how do school leaders ensure that everyone in the organisation is fully engaged? Mike will consider lessons learned from previous cases and draw out key themes while considering best practice on this challenging topic. He will discuss the importance of values-based leadership and the critical role that senior leaders have in setting the right culture so that everyone in the organisation feels confident in raising concerns about colleagues and self-referrals. Developing an approach that encourages reporting of unprofessional and inappropriate behaviour by colleagues could not only help to identify potential grooming behaviour but act as a deterrent to any potential perpetrators inside the organisation.

Language : English

Topic : Learning Environment

Everyone learns in their own way — but we do share a few patterns in common. We all learn more effectively when we practice, and even more so when we get specific feedback, With practice sets, educators can easily transform their own teaching content into interactive assignments and use the autograding tool to cut down on manual grading time. Practice sets also help teachers figure out which concepts need more instruction time and who could use extra support, giving them quick performance insights to shape future lesson plans.

Language : English

Topic : Digital / eLearning

This session is aimed at teachers and school leaders who are thinking about taking on a more senior leadership role now or in the future.

Based on Dr Helen Wright’s experience over several years with LSC Education as a recruiter of school leaders in the UAE and globally, the session will explore:

·                      why it is so important to find the right leadership role;

·                      how to find the right role; and

·                      how applicants for leadership roles can position themselves effectively for a successful application.

Language : English

Topic : Leadership and Management

Game-based learning and story-telling are increasingly being used in the classroom to motivate students and develop compelling and exciting learning scenarios. Based on the latest research in Neuroscience we now know that these activities are tapping directly into the mind’s primary mechanisms for creating knowledge and memory. At the same time games and stories have an important social role to play in enhancing human interaction both inside the classroom and in the wider community. This presentation will link the main characteristics of successful games and individual and group storytelling techniques with the functions of the learning mind. It  will also provide practical suggestions for using different types of games and storytelling in the classroom.

Language : English

Topic : Digital / eLearning

This training is designed to improve systems of teacher supervision, evaluation and conferencing; provide recommendations to help schools ensure effective, fair, and meaningful teacher evaluations that improve their capacity to enhance the learning of the students they serve; and to aid principals in administering effective evaluations that serve as a tool for teacher growth and development.

Language : English

Topic : Leadership and Management

Sharing the early stages of doctoral research into equitable assessment,. This session will provide participants with an insight into recent research in equitable assessment practices along with an opportunity to reflect on their own assessment practice or school assessment policy.

Language : English

Topic : Leadership and Management

A mix of the foundations of Level 1 & Level 2 training courses. Some of the learning outcomes participants will engage in:

• Increase understanding and awareness of behaviour as communication and develop a framework to better respond to reduce risk

• Understand the drivers and motivations displayed by individuals who are distressed and may become aggressive and disruptive

• Execute simple and safe positive handling techniques including personal safety, appropriate for a low/medium risk environment (If required by your setting). Our techniques are situated within a respectful, supportive approach to behavior support strategies which maintains positive relationships.

 • Utilise a toolkit of holistic strategies on de-escalation and crisis intervention, both verbal and non-verbal for supporting with disruptive and distressed behaviors.

Language : English

Topic : Learning Environment

You won’t believe what YOU can do! Ever wondered how robots operate, or if you could program your own robot? In this fun & exciting hands-on session, 9 humanoid robots & laptops will be part of the portable robotics lab setup where participants will then learn to program their own Humanoid EZ-Robot to; wave, talk, respond to their voice, & even recognize them and greet them by name. You do not need to know to code, or understand digital language or robotics to program your own robot. Our software is so user-friendly that anybody with little to no knowledge of the above can partake in this workshop. We will be sharing some of the strategies that we use to engage 90% of middle school students & up to 45% of high school students. After delivering these workshops numerous times internationally, literally 100% of participants shared that they would recommend it to their friends & colleagues. We’ll regularly receive comments like, “Best Professional Development day ever!”

Language : English

Topic : VR / AI / Robotics

Safeguarding of children at school and online, Anti-Bullying

Language : English

Topic : Learning Environment

Jonathan Bhowmick, founder of Action Mats Ltd, is the host of a session looking at the importance of physical activity and exercise in children, with a particular emphasis on early years and primary ages. The link to wellbeing and learning will be explored as well as the development of resilience, trust, teamwork and collaboration that are engendered through PE.

Amongst other things, Covid and the associated privations, has meant increased inactivity levels and increased social isolation, particularly in children, which harms mental health, and which can have long-lasting detrimental effects. The presentation will look at strategies to develop teamwork and social (soft) skills through physical activity based games and challenges.

The session will be an interactive one in which members of the audience will be asked to join in and get moving in order to put themselves in the place of the children and join in the activities. It will be a unique workshop for GESS that sees the audience members getting active and having some fun.

Language : English

Topic : Motivation / Coaching