Reviewed by The Polesworth School Richard Price

As a teacher, your voice is your most valuable tool, so it is important to look after it. The colder months bring on those annual bugs that affect our voices, so Polesworth School Lead Practitioner Sharon Leftwich-Lloyd has given some top tips below sourced from a Speech Therapist. As ever if problems persist, seek medical advice. Do you have any tips you could add to this list? How do you cope with losing your voice in the classroom?

Not a discussion per se, but an aide memoire. Now that GGP is being embedded across our trust, we all should have a shared understanding that coaching can be hugely successful in developing motivation, reflection, learning and most importantly, professional growth. Below is a summary of the GROW model for Growing Great People

Interesting article appeared in Schools Week (Edition 258 - 10 September 2021). It looks at how coaching is receiving a renewed interest from schools, particularly with the launch of the Early Career Framework (ECF), and how coaching is being adopted as a model for mentoring. But does coaching really lead to school improvement - an interesting discussion point? What do you think?

The Lead Practitioner Team from Polesworth pose the question below about classroom displays - what are your thoughts?

John White, Lead Prac Maths, at Polesworth, wants to come over as "warm strict", what's your method? What do you recommend, what works for you, what doesn't work. Lessons learned?

How do you teach your students to plan extended writing assignments? Do you use PEE (point - evidence - explain) or something else? Nikki Wileman, Lead Prac (English) at The Polesworth School scaffolds with WHW....

What are your top tips for bridging those knowledge gaps? What's worked? What hasn't worked? Are there any resources you've found useful?

Is there a difference? Which works best for you? What do we mean by coaching and mentoring? They have so many similarities that you could easily be forgiven for getting the two confused... They both: require, and draw upon, the helper’s experience involve giving advice in some form coaching and mentoring are based on goals set by, or for, the learner methods deal with significant transitions the learner wishes to make deal with personal growth ambitions. What are your thoughts?