Train the Trainers in North Wales – May 2022 – What A Fabulous Week!

Big thank you, ‘diolch’, to the amazing Christ The Word Catholic School / Ysgol Gatholig Crist y Gair  – one of the very few ‘all through’ schools from nursery to secondary.

There was a wonderful ‘pulling together’ of enthusiastic professionals who are in professional roles where they are able to support other staff. Good behaviour support teams, people from pupil referral units and class teachers, nursery teachers and a lovely range of people happier now and more confident to work on the social, emotional, behavioural and wellbeing systems with their own groups and then courageously take it all out to others.

We know from the past that a Train The Trainers course can have a real impact (See previous blog about the Enfield TTT HERE and HERE).  And the timing seems very ripe to look carefully at children’s speaking, listening skills and all social interactions because in January 2022 it was reported that pupils in both primary and secondary schools had seen their literacy skills worsen due to lockdowns and closures. This has impacted their speaking skills. Looking at the issues further, nearly all primary schools in the Vale of Glamorgan reported that pupils’ confidence had been impacted for talking with others, and their oral fluency and social skills had regressed.

Cath Billington-Richards, from the CSC, said: “Pupils’ confidence in talking with each other has very much been impacted. It’s the turn-taking, the tolerance, being able to read non-verbal cues, these parts of communication that we’re seeing come to the fore due to school closures.”

We know that Circle Time and its associated activities are incredibly relevant for children right now. Also that many teachers have lost the skills of circle time – for younger teachers it is no longer part of their training and many more experienced teachers have little time to support younger teachers. So they would have little time to go in and support them.

So, we would like to take our hats off to Denbighshire for pulling together five Local Authorities. It is also exciting that some of the Local Authorities will be sharing best practice, going forwards, by creating a sharing network. They aim to meet up to share lesson plans so there is every chance of their systems and practices really moving forward.

Here are some of the wonderful comments from the Train the Trainers 2022 delegates – many thanks to you if you sent a review in – we are sorry that we couldn’t include them all here:

1. “Absolutely fantastic course. Jenny is very passionate and shared her great depth of knowledge to inspire us to continue her work” – Sion Jones.
2. “Within our PRU we can definitely improve our circle time sessions and I am now more confident and knowledgeable in delivering training in a Primary school” – Gabby Curley.
3. “The course has helped me to really to be positive about valuing the wonderful qualities of our challenging, amazing children offer us” – Elly Keyes.
4. “I have personally benefitted enormously. I feel confident that I can take many of the ideas back to school. I want to bring our behaviour policy together under Jenny’s model of the Golden Rules and the Five Skills. Eventually I would love us to embrace weekly Circle Time and Golden Time as a whole school” – Louise Bourne.
5. “I feel I have gained so much knowledge and now have the confidence to develop it – I will carry the torch” – Craig Taylor.
6. “I will start by introducing key elements to my year 3 class with a vision of pushing it through the whole key stage. The week has been very informative and I felt more confident and relaxed as it went on” – Rhys Roberts-Morris.

We look forward to updating you on this fabulous work – thank you to everyone who has made it possible. What a fabulous group!