Whole School Training - Feedback

Most of the training I provide is in the form of a whole school INSET for a day. This involves all the teachers and TAs having hands on practical training using technology to raise standards across the curriculum. The difference with whole school INSET and a conference is that you get a complete spread of confidence levels in teachers towards using technology. With my conferences usually attendees are ICT co-ordinators or teachers already confident in using technology. Sometimes with whole school INSET days some teachers do not believe technology can transform and improve learning beforehand so it is interesting to hear their evaluation after the training day. 

I am often asked whether TAs should take part in the training and the answer is always YES! They are incredibly important in the support of children's learning and building their confidence is just as important as the teacher.

Last Friday, I ran a whole school training day at Sandford Hill School in Stoke. The assistant head explained that they have a whole range of teachers at differing levels of confidence using technology in the classroom. The day went brilliantly well and I was fortunate enough to be included in the lovely Christmas dinner they had at lunch!

I received some lovely feedback from all the staff, which was fantastic and greatly appreciated. It was brilliant to see how teachers with different confidence levels all got a lot from the training -

"A very inspiring day! Not only for ideas to use in the classroom using the iPads but also for motivating reluctant writers. I really enjoyed the training day and will be planning to use many of the apps shared. My favourites were Slow Writing, Socrative and Explain Everything! I plan to use the dual maths app as a fun mental maths activity during registration." 
"One of the best INSET training days I've attended! Really good to hear such an inspirational teacher. I really liked his ideas to motivate children to write... The use of the emoji characters 👍 to help tell a story, slow write and the use of blogs to give writing a purpose and an audience. Just planning a maths lesson for next week using fruit ninja to generate some data!" 
"Although we all attended the training thinking about the use iPads in the classroom ultimately the training reaffirmed the importance of quality first teaching. Lee delivers purposeful, engaging lessons that impact positively on outcomes for pupils - especially in writing. All children deserve inspirational teachers like Lee.
I have a REAL LOVE for how he links his teaching to the interests of the children. No wonder his pupils get so WRAPPED UP in their learning. I guess some staff might worry that Lee's approach to teaching might be a little DANGEROUS as the children take part in lots of speaking and listening / drama activities that involve THINKING OUT LOUD. However he demonstrated, throughout the day, that it is a risk worth taking as children are able to write more than 6 WORDS and don't end up with a BLANK SPACE in their English book!" 
"Really enjoyed today it was lovely listening to someone with so much passion about what they do. So thanks for some great ideas. 😀" 
"A brilliant training day. It was lovely to listen to someone talking so passionately about what they do. Thanks for some fantastic new ideas to use in the classroom. It just confirmed that learning can be Fun!" 
"A fantastic training day. Lee was inspirational!! It was great to have ideas that are proven to work in the classroom. I feel fired up and confident about using the iPads to develop the children's learning. I'll certainly be looking at using the slow writing app to develop writing as well as the explain Everything app." 
"What an excellent training session. Firstly a big thank you to yourself for arranging for Lee to come into school, to share his fantastic ideas. It was an extremely useful and engaging session and I benefited hugely from it. I'm inspired thank you very much." 
"An amazing training day that kept me engaged throughout! Lots of interesting and fresh ideas to use. I have so many ideas I just don't know which one to begin with. Huge thanks." 
"A motivational speaker who has given lots of food for thought. Busy incorporating ideas into planning for next week!" 
"A fantastic day which left me with so many ideas to inspire and improve chn's writing alongside numerous excellent apps to enhance my teaching using I-pads! I shall be using Epic Citadel with slow writing; maths duel for warm-ups or sodas; Daydream X will be a super tool for correcting chn as they work through maths questions; Key plan - the chn will love and the virtual zoo could be used as a fun project. I think it just reminds us of the importance of making learning relevant to the chn. Lee was inspiring and he did a super job showing just what can be achieved if you're prepared to try something new or a little bit different!" 
"What a truly inspirational day! It is not often I say that about a training day. The information Lee gave us was fantastic and I will say it again, truly inspiring. I will definitely use Explain Everything and Virtual Zoo and the Maths Apps." 
"Don't you just ❤️it when 👤 with such 😍 makes you stop and 💭, making you ask ❓of yourself and how you do things. Now in order to 🚙 through new ⚠️, we might have to ✈️ by the seat of our 👖, give it ⏰, share the 🍉🍇🍒🍋🍊🍏🍎 of our labour and hopefully ⌚️ 📊 rise. Big 👍and 👏to IW 👦 for arranging it." 
"What a fab training day! It was great to listen to such an inspirational speaker. Lee Parkinson definitely put across what a powerful learning tool an ipad can be, with someone brilliant ideas for the classroom. I really enjoyed it." 
"A great INSET full of practical ideas and activities which will give using the iPads real purpose. Using things that the children are interested in eg: computer games, animals etc, are the key, something I want to exploit more! Thanks for the training" 
"What a fantastic meeting. Full of fresh ideas and delivered with such passion. Wish he worked here. I would like to use it in the classroom with the children I work with but I would need more training.I particularly liked the Slow Writing and Word Cloud. The thing I liked the most was the fact that he demonstrated how it can be applied curriculum. " 
"Thank you for an inspirational and enjoyable day. I came away with lots of ideas and resources that could be incorporated into my teaching and enrich the early years curriculum even further! 😄"


Thanks again to Sanford Hill for inviting me to lead training, the children are luck to have such a brilliant, enthusiastic staff!







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