PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY
On our Professional Development (PD) Day, teachers and teaching assistants from Preschool embarked on a 20-hour learning workshop on Jolly Phonics. This was a great way for Preschool teachers to update themselves on the application of phonics in language learning. The team found new ways to infuse excitement and strategies into making the learning of A,B,Cs extend beyond letter recognition and blending of sounds. The use of Jolly Phonics is student-centred and the multi-sensory method will certainly benefit our students as the entire Preschool puts this into practice.
In Primary, teachers came together to discuss strategies in making the classroom a conducive learning environment for all. Discussions include best practices found in top schools globally, and using the experience of our teachers and their varied backgrounds in creating effective learning environments. This was followed by a workshop conducted by Jemma Education, who have partnered with SIS-PIK in our PEAK English Programme. Teachers learnt how to use multimedia tools to create poster presentations to showcase their work and research in the classroom. You can see the fruits of their work during Education Day on March 2nd!
Our PD day was also an opportunity for teachers in High School to embed what they have learnt from our evidence-informed training into their planning for the year ahead. One main focus was on exploring the principles of ‘Interleaving Curriculum’. The concept behind this is to ensure that the order in which we teach students topics guarantees they are regularly revisiting things that they have learnt previously, but at a deeper and more challenging level. This provides greater depth of understanding and supports students retrieving, and not forgetting, their learning over time. To achieve this we have to prepare subject curricula which are more adept and creative than most topic-bound, chapter-focused textbooks would allow.
Another session with our High School teachers explored how ‘Dual Coding’ – the use of spatial, visual and auditory information sharing – can make explanations by teachers more accessible to all students. We are looking forward to collaborating with other teachers from other schools when we revisit these sessions once again at our Education Day.
