Diary of a Lead Teacher: what we do when workshops go quiet!

Author: Martin Sexton, Lead Teacher

Since my last entry, workshops have gone a little bit quiet. This has been down to local guidance of only allowing essential visitors on school grounds. Running workshops virtually has been an option but this is generally not preferred and schools booked in for workshops have instead preferred to wait until either they can visit us or we can visit them.  

So, what do you do when you can’t run workshops? 

Firstly, there is the excellent CPD run by Digital Schoolhouse. Not only have we been given the inside scoop on some of the latest developments to be coming out, but we have also been shown about some of the workshops and how they can be delivered, research going into diversity and inclusion and how we can help, the jobs and their requirements which can be passed on to students and so much more. Being able to catch up with other lead teachers (albeit virtually still) is also a great way to get reassurance and new ideas.  

We have also been running our internal esports competition. We have teams battling it out to become school champions at Super Smash Bros. who will then be up against teams from other schools in the region during February half term. The enthusiasm for this tournament has been great with most of the teams coming to watch the others even when not down to play.  

Lastly, we have been busy planning and getting in touch with schools to organise workshops when we are able to get them up and running again. From revisiting planned workshops and improving them to just getting interest so that these can be booked in the not too distant future. Hopefully by my next entry a few more workshops will have been delivered.  

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