Monday 4th November 2024

I was up extremely early this morning - and I often am most mornings - as I tend to go to bed extremely early out here - a complete reversal of how I am at home - or even in Croatia. I used the time this morning to catch up on a few things including more preparation for the Maths Staff Training later on today, which is going to be quite a big thing - not least because there will be a large number of teachers in that meeting, and, being such a perfectionist, I want it to be good.

The Maths Staff Training dominated our day today, right from the start, as we were called downstairs to get the room sorted. We were in a large conference room, which was a great space for the meeting, as we needed to have the teachers sat in rows facing a white board for the first part of the training session, then working in their groups at tables for the remaining part of the session, where they would be able to apply their learning to their lesson planning.

The key focus of the training was to think about differentiation in Maths, with the ultimate goal being the setting of pupils across each Grade, in order to make it easier for teachers to teach the students according to their ability. However, that is a huge step forward here, so the next best thing is to focus on teaching the students in ability groups within the class. We also had some resources to give out today to support the teachers through the Grades from Grade 1 to Grade 6.

I don't think I could have been any better prepared for this Maths Staff Training session, but I still felt a bit nervous going into it. However, I think it went very well, and I certainly got a lot of positive feedback from the teachers, as I had tried to make it very practical for them, helped particularly by Valerie's input, as she had sorted out the resources side of this, and she went round the groups demonstrating how the teachers could use those resources.

Today's photos are all Valerie's as she took lots at the training session, and I couldn't take any, as I was delivering it! They are a lovely record of what turned out to be a well-received event.











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