Are you a Midlands practitioner keen to inquire into your maths/English practice with a community of peers? Join us

The team at touchconsulting Ltd would love to work with you as part of the Education and Training Foundation’s fully subsidised round 2 Practice Development Groups (PDG) programme.

What are PDGs?

PDGs sit firmly within practitioner-led enquiry, and are driven by participants who work collaboratively to undertake a maths/English inquiry related to their practice. Teachers plan, do and review; regrouping and discussing what worked (and didn’t) with their PDG peers, and then go again. Each PDG will be run by an experienced facilitator.

PDG facilitators

PDGs are run by an amazing team of 16 facilitators – all practicing teachers. They have already flexed their muscles running PDGs during round 1. We’ve had some brilliant feedback from participants and astute reflections from our facilitators. But don’t take our word for it!

I’ve learnt more from our session (PDG) than any other ESOL forum I’ve been to.

Was great to meet other practitioners and to be able to share ideas and experiences.

I will certainly be trying out some of the ideas around online quizzes to encourage engagement.

Best CPD I’ve had for online learning.

ESOL Practice Development Group run by Isla Flood & Katie Sharpe. November 2020.

Reflections

Sarbjit Borrill, our ACL East Midlands facilitator, reflected on how group members really appreciated placing a magnifying glass on their practice and discussing the micro-tweaks they could make. This focus on the granular is so important. I remember planning a session on sub-questions with my colleague – Annmarie Higgins – for the CfEM action research CPD. It was face-to-face! We spent ages getting the detail right. I was bothered the example we were using would get in the way of the key point we were trying to make. Yes, planning time feels like a luxury but it it so important to thrash out these details for our learners –  be it for face-to-face or/and online spaces. And if you can plan, discuss and debate with a colleague – that’s the icing on the cake! Join us for exactly this kind of set-up in 2021.

Curious?

Each facilitator will run a Practice Development Group in round 2 within their organisation or across the Midlands. We’ve already kicked off with our 27 Jan 2021 launch event but don’t worry if you missed this as we have a web-page with the content so you can catch up asynchronously. We know how crazy it is right now juggling lock-down, caring responsibilities, motivation and the day job! Each PDG will have a common focus and the three-five members (+ facilitator) will meet approx. 3 times from Feb – April 2021 as well as participate in an April celebration event. Meetings will last approx. 1.5 hours and take place fully online, face-to-face or a combination of the two!

If you want to join a Practice Development Group we can do some ‘matching-up’ depending upon your area of interest. PDGs will be focussing on a range of inquiries including:

Let us know here and we’ll make the introductions to the group.