Bulletin #6 | October 8th, 2019

I am often asked what happens on Professional Development Days, when students are given the day off.
These days are, in fact, an incredible opportunity for us all and we do take them seriously. Our school has a Professional Development Plan, which is updated each year to include our major focus for teacher learning. On PD days we are lucky because not only are teachers free to study but so are all other employees, and so we have a wonderful opportunity to work on building our skills.

Each PD Day is divided into blocks of 1 hour. We begin with a reunion as an entire school team and we share some important messages and celebrate the ‘employee of the month’, selected from our Maintenance and Services Team. After this we break and work on a selection of learning opportunities. All teachers have a variety of workshops to attend, all of which are offered by other staff-experts. This provides an opportunity for all teachers to get to know others from other sections and share teaching experiences. Another part of the day is for all staff from each section to join with the principals to work on challenges in their own areas, and finally there is a time for staff to work on improvement projects of their own creation with colleagues.

Last Friday, our PD included a total of 20 different sessions, as well as training on various school-wide projects including Positive Discipline, Anti-Bully training and Healthy Boundaries for all staff at all levels.

These once a month PD days offer a chance for students and families to have a long weekend, and also offer all of us the chance to keep on improving this incredible school!