At Shiplake College, we are committed to fostering a culture of continuous improvement and excellence, not only for our students but also for our dedicated staff. Throughout 2024, our team has embraced a wide range of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities across key areas, including academic teaching, sport and co-curricular, and pastoral care.
From attending subject-specific training courses and exploring innovative teaching strategies to enhancing coaching techniques and deepening expertise in student wellbeing, our staff have demonstrated remarkable dedication to their professional growth. These CPD activities ensure that Shiplake College remains at the cutting edge of education, offering exceptional academic outcomes, outstanding sporting and co-curricular opportunities, and holistic pastoral support for all students.
For all joining members of staff, there are CPD opportunities throughout the year on iSAMS and registration, SEND at Shiplake, performance management, teachers’ role in marketing, and progress reviews.
From January to June 2024, eight sessions were run for our Aspiring Middle Leaders course. Mrs Lane, Ms Magee, Mr Heaney, Mrs Bayley, Mr Davis, Miss James, Mr Pettifer, Mr Burrows, Mrs Wood, Miss Griffiths, Mr Elliott, Miss Platt, and Miss Russell were the teachers who completed the sessions which explored areas such as predictive data, coaching conversations, time management, and running meetings.
As part of his induction as a Governor/Trustee at Mary Hare School, Deputy Head (Academic) Mr Jones undertook several professional development courses including health, fire, and safety courses, a course on equality and diversity, and a World Rugby course in assistant refereeing which helped with running the line for the Davies Shield match.
In our Learning Development Department, Director Mrs Coulehan has earned a full Designated Safeguarding Lead qualification. She undertook this lengthy process (three self-paced online learning modules and four interactive live webinars) to meet the training requirements as part of her role as the Governor responsible for safeguarding at Shiplake Primary School though it also benefits her role here at the College, as safeguarding and SEN often go hand in hand.
Burr House Pastoral Leader Mrs Thomas recently completed a Safeguarding Level 2 course that Oxfordshire Council provide and will begin the Level 3 course this month (January 2025).
Mr Shaw, our Assistant Head (Learning and Enrichment), has been setting an example as well having recently completed his master's degree at the University of Oxford with Shiplake College CPD support. The most significant outcome of his studies and his dissertation was the implementation of the Shiplake College Learning Research Group (LRG) which aimed, and successfully engaged teachers in research, by having them conduct and report on in-class investigations. These articles have led directly to the development of applied pupil voice, improved staff appraisals, a culture of reflective peer observation, and most significantly the transition to Shiplake becoming a 'Thinking School'.
And to continue to provide an excellent CCF and Outdoor Education provision, Ms Davies and Mr A Jones completed a number of courses. For Ms Davies, this included passing a Level 2 qualification in bushcraft where she had to make a pot holder, light a fire and use it safely to boil water, help skin a deer and fillet a fish, have basic foraging skills , natural navigation, build a tarp shelter, learn about water collection, snares and traps, chop wood, be able to sharpen knives and axes, and create cord from plant fibres.
For Mr Jones, his CPD focussed on CCF where he completed his Basic Training Course. The course is designed to give a taste of military life and the cadet experience and covered values and standards of the Army, the Cadet Leadership Code, the role and responsibilities of a CCF Instructor, how to conduct a command task, duty of care, using a weapon system, individual fire and manoeuvre, fieldcraft, short range shooting and night noise and observation demonstration. Having completed the course, Mr Jones is now a Sergeant Instructor for the CCF and can deliver high quality lessons to our students ensuring that they get the best possible experience from our CCF programme.