Quality British Education in Saudi Arabia
Continuing Professional Development at DBGS in Term 2, 2010
This term has seen professional development taking place both in and out of the Kingdom.
It began with three members of the early years’ staff attending curriculum updates in Dubai.
January also saw a general meeting of the local group, Teachers of Young Children (TOYC). Twelve of our staff are members.
February was a busy month. Two staff members went to Kuwait to attend a course to train teachers to run the Young People’s Award, previously known as the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Two others went to Dubai for a course entitled Inspiration and Aspiration. We look forward to feedback from these sessions next term.
Work on the next stage of our CIS accreditation phase began. When schools receive CIS accreditation they become part of a ten year cycle. We have a year in which to put into place a school development plan. The committees are being asked to prioritise and produce an action plan specifying one, two and three year goals. Reviewing our findings is very rewarding as so much has been achieved already.
On March 11th, DBGS hosted a joint TOYC/TARA (The Arabian Reading Association) conference. It was a very busy day with teachers from over fifty schools attending workshops that ranged from classroom management topics to drama and music. The keynote speaker was Dr Steven Layne who is an American educator and author. We also had an author from Bahrain and a Saudi inventor who gave presentations in Arabic. More than five hundred and thirty lunches were served that day. Our DBGS staff were as supportive as ever and presented ten workshops in all. The interest was so great that we had between forty and fifty delegates squashed into the presentations.
Also in March was an in-house session entitled From Risk to Resilience which was very well attended. This was a feedback presentation from a previously attended conference.
We are now looking forward to further staff development in the new term.
Rosalind Power
Staff Development Coordinator
March 2010
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