It goes without saying that schools are all about student learning, but I thought it might be interesting this week to focus on the staff learning that has been taking place recently.

Last week, Mr Shadgett organised a visit from Dr Mark Dowley from The Crowther Institute at Brighton Grammar School. Dr Dowley spent time with Heads of Learning Area on Thursday afternoon, followed by spending Friday morning with High School teachers and an afternoon in the Primary School, continuing our work on the development of an instructional playbook for classroom practice at Carmel School. As a vital part of the team of educators at Carmel, our Educational Assistants enjoyed a full day’s professional learning with two AISWA staff members, who were impressed with their enthusiasm and dedication.

At 7.00am on Monday morning, Ms Birch and I attended an AISWA professional learning workshop on the topic of Consent and Respectful Relationships Education. This is an issue that is at the forefront of education at the moment; you may have seen recent government information about the need to discuss consent in various contexts and we were interested to learn more about effective ways of teaching students about the associated issues.

Monday afternoon saw a group of Carmel leaders attend the annual AISWA conference to network with colleagues from other schools and hear some impressive motivational speakers. We listened to some scary facts about cybersecurity, followed by the fantastic background story of Simon Griffiths, the social activist who donates 50% of profits from his sustainable toilet paper company (‘Who Gives a Crap’) to improve sanitation in developing countries. My personal favourite speaker was Gill Hicks, who almost died and did lose both legs in the 2005 London underground bombing. The story of how she has rebuilt her life and what she has achieved in that time was quite inspirational.

It is always great to see Carmel School investing in its valued staff, ensuring that our practices are up to date and devoting the time necessary to advancing the most important role of a school – to teach.

Shabbat shalom.

Dr Julie Harris

Principal