The beginning of the year is exciting.

Teaching is one of those rare professions where you get a clean slate every year. You absolutely build on what has gone before, but you eagerly anticipate what the new year will bring. The buzz that fills many auditoriums, gyms or theatre’s as staff return for their first official day back on the job is palpable. Sometimes that buzz is short-lived however as the energy and enthusiasm is wiped out as teachers have to sit through a “professional learning” day filled with compliance matters, policy and administration that really has very little to do with teaching and learning – teachers in effect get “PD’d” up to their eyeballs.

It doesn’t take too much to organize a true professional learning day and many schools do it really well.  See the program we put together below for our first staff day of 2016. I think it is a program that would rival many conferences. We organized two external speakers (which is more cost effective then having individual staff attend conferences) and then utilized the varied expertise we have on staff to put together a diverse and engaging program for the day. Workshops were grouped under the seven Dimensions of our Vision for Learning and catered for Early Learning staff through to VCE. Days like this complement our Learning Projects nicely.

A great start to the year that has a focus on what matters – teaching and learning.