On 31st October, over 900 teachers and senior leaders from 14 Meridian Trust schools gathered for subject-specific collaborative professional learning sessions hosted at 6 of our secondary schools.
The training day brought colleagues from across the Trust together with a range of experienced and engaging speakers and many took to Twitter to celebrate their learnings and share their excitement.
Shehlha Zafir, Director of English for Meridian Trust, said: “What a wonderful day yesterday with 140+ English teachers from Meridian Trust. We worked on academic writing led by Ben Morris and started the exciting journey towards an inclusive English Curriculum across the trust. The positive response was awesome.”
Dave Bausor, Lead Practitioner and Trust Curriculum Lead for Technology, said: “Great day with all the Meridian Trust Design & Technology teachers. Meeting in specialist subject strands to discuss curriculum, resources and utilising the wealth of expertise across the trust. Thank you to Ryan Ball for the keynote speech too.”
Ross Perkins, Subject Leader for History at Ely College, said: Great way to start the new half-term with a Meridian Trust History Training Day and a focus on the importance of stories. Thanks to Emily Oakes for organising and to Dr Christina Faraday and Katie Hall for their workshops. Nice to catch up with lots of terrific colleagues too!”
Becky Jones, MFL Teacher at Swavesey Village College, said: “Buzzing from our Trust’s MFL CPD session on Practice to Fluency by the oh so engaging and inspiring Esmeralda Salgado. Thank you for being our guiding star!”
James Brown, Director of Science for Meridian Trust, said: “It has been a delight to bring together all of the Science teachers across Meridian Trust. We have had a fantastic day, sharing best practice in Science teaching and discussing how we can make practical science more purposeful and effective. Our Curriculum Leaders also met to discuss an exciting project bringing together the best of everyone and designing a trust-wide curriculum.”
Sam Farmer, Principal of Stratton Upper School, said: “Meridian Trust’s inter-trust training day was amazing. All departments together across our schools and all Senior Leaders together – feeling really enlightened!”
Audrey Caldwell, Director of Performing Arts for Meridian Trust, said: “A good way to start the new half term – a training day with Meridian Trust Performing Arts team, sharing ideas, collaborating and being inspired to think creatively by John Finney. All steam ahead!”
Senior Leaders from across the Trust’s academies also came together to look at a variety of areas of school improvement, specifically rooted in the Trust’s values. This included sessions on whole-school strategies for PLEDGES, effective development and line management of emerging and established Middle Leaders, whole-school approaches to High-Quality Learning Environments and much more.