Spring conference held by Ascend Learning Trust to aid teacher development

Ascend Learning Trust (ALT) recently hosted a Spring Conference for a teacher's development day at Royal Wootton Bassett Academy.

The Trust's mission is to enhance the chances of young people through Excellence in Education.

The Spring Conference provided an opportunity for the Trust to allow all schools the chance to collaborate and ensure training is consistent throughout. 

It was said to also give the schools the opportunity to access training from other schools or outside providers that may not be open to them.

One of the session at Royal Wootton Bassett was on English as an additional language, (EAL). The Trust says its schools do take pupils that speak different languages and it is seen as important that staff are able to help them adapt.

In this session the Trust's staff learnt culturally responsive teaching and how to reduce cross-cultural miscommunication, common misconceptions about language, and how to facilitate language acquisition.

The day also included sessions on pupils with special and additional educational needs and how to best to support them in the classroom through personalisation.

Headteachers at the Wellington Primary Academies, Sarah Johnson-Motyl and Jake Bailey held sessions on Developing Curious Minds. This is something that both the Trust's primaries have moulded into their curriculum, promoting an active mind rather than passive.

Staff say it works to make their minds observant of new ideas and opens up new worlds and possibilities. Using props that were generously donated to their curious display, they asked staff to use their curiosity as to what the items could be.

Additionally, the day held a wide variety of sessions from Excel support to Rosenshine’s Principles, delivered by all Trust staff from all of the schools. The staff were said to have all had a mass selection of sessions that they could choose from throughout the day - picking a topic that best suited their role or interests.

A spokesperson from the Trust said: “It was really nice to see all of the trust staff circulating and sharing their previous session notes with one another. We hope to make the event recurring as the day went so well.”