Has anyone on here been to Alpe d'Huez at Easter before?

What's the snow like in the main village? Is it reliable?

Cheers!

Incredible snowfall in Val d'Isere.

Cheers Sam. Was superb. So much to reflect on again. Third time I've seen the presentation and learn more from it each time.

That's the old paint colours. The tiles are painted in Hardwick White, although we never have the under cupboard lights on usually.

We're painting the cabinets in shaded white, with drop cloth going on the walls and skimming stone on the tiles. Bit of a change.

All aboard the F&B paint train!

@jopayne.bsky.social

12 hours of sanding, cleaning up and priming the kitchen cabinets for a re-dec and sorting out some water damage.

Fantastic last day!

Merry Christmas to all.

You scrub up well mate. Have a blast!

Go big or go home was my thought!

Very impressive and thorough videos that put the subject front and centre. Superb explanations.

I use high quality videos (Time for Geography) and intersperse the videos with questions on MWBs to check for attention and understanding. Often take notes on key bits and go back to video etc. Rarely if ever just watch a video clip now.

Great discussion. Looking forward to the guest insights and scenario 3 in due course.

You could crack on, but any change won't be well received by all quarters and therefore any implementation is likely to be wide of the mark in certain classrooms and require further intervention. Best to stop, reflect and potentially go back to the drawing board. Perhaps carry out a pre-mortem.

I'd look to involve staff in the process directly moving forward.

Clearly, to get where she now is, Liz has rushed the change management process and hasn't fully communicated the rationale and evidence or sought opinions of all stakeholders. Without this, there's no point in pressing on.

I think so. I also think it comes down to having a strong leadership culture of challenging the evidence behind suggested changes/priorities that come forward.

One person walking down a corridor and feeling a bit claustrophobic shouldn't mean that a one-way system is automatically introduced.

For me it comes back to the evidence of the need to change. Until there is a really clear understanding of the 'why', staff are unlikely to be positive and reflective about the chance to change and this could undermine future change in other areas too.

Could be seen as 'this is what I want'......

There is going to be tension between those that have spent a lot of time planning the previous curriculum and haven't been communicated on the rationale for a change moving forward. Simply putting forward a few different curriculum models for the subject isn't likely to win minds and build buy-in.

At the primary phase it would be that quite often when history and geography are jointly planned, it is often the history content that dominates and geography often gets very limited time/depth.

I'd suggest looking at the Ofsted geography subject review documentation which is very detailed. Then look at conducting a joint audit with staff on what they do versus best/most effective practice seen elsewhere through that document. Might be a starting point to ascertain priorities.

In my opinion there is a danger of subjective bias creeping in, in that this seems a single viewpoint. What evidence does Liz have that the geography curriculum needs reviewing?

Is this the greatest priority with regards to curriculum development? How does she know? I'd start there.

Absolutely. It would be very wrong of us to narrow the curriculum, reduce the curriculum offer and take away triple science given our context.

However, that doesn't show when you're looking at county wide 'performance tables'. So I can see why some decide to go down that route sadly.

I'm glad you've mentioned that Caroline.

Ours do 11 GCSEs including RE, a language and either Geog/Hist or both.

Almost 40% of the cohort do triple science. Could improve P8 by making a few changes without doing anything to the quality of teaching.

Easily forgotten with just looking at data.

Had the first of 20 Headteacher insight chats this week.

I'm asking the same 8 questions and collating responses to support my knowledge and insight into the role and all it encompasses.

If they all live up to the first one, then it could be the best leadership CPD I could think of.

Scenario 1 was really interesting and led to some fantastic conversation and ideas. Looking forward to digging into scenario 2!

It is a long way away from instructional coaching which I was used to, but it can certainly have a place.

Great to see teachers having to silently reflect on WBs and then share and feedback. High participation. Deep thinking.

The two combined are certainly improving the knowledge that teachers have on what students do and don't know and what they can and can't do.

I'd have been dead against whole-school CPD, but it can work, if it's really well thought through and all staff have to reflect and participate.

Alongside this, we have lesson drop-ins that are solely focused around our four pedagogical pillars, allowing us to focus on getting really effective at getting students to participate as often as possible and think hard as regularly as possible, all whilst consistently checking for understanding.

Having now been at a school that does whole-school CPD in the Hall every two weeks, I can say with reasonable confidence, that it is starting to have a large impact in classrooms a year on.

Why?

Every session we watch a lesson & unpick it. How could it be even more effective. Why? Very powerful.

I have just kept it up. Normally I give up after a month or so, but tried to do it more sustainably, rather than going full tilt for a month and being annoyed I couldn't see instant responses!

Without your workout chat a year or so ago I wouldn't have committed to making it a priority.

Thank you Sir!

Massive thanks to @samcrome.bsky.social for giving me a kick up the backside through talking about the importance of exercise and mental/physical health.