Issue Number 23 | March 2024
Staff Professional Enquiries
Professional enquiry encourages teachers to reflect on their teaching methods , classroom interactions , and student outcomes . By examining their practices critically , educators can identify areas for improvement and refine their approaches . It encourages them to seek out new research , attend workshops , and collaborate with colleagues . This ongoing learning ensures that educators stay upto-date with best practices and adapt to changing educational contexts . This year Mr Ward rolled out the Professional Enquiries programme , encouraging staff to research and investigate personal areas of interest e . g . 21st Century Skills , Cognitive Load , Retrieval Practice etc .
Staff received CPD from an Education Psychologist about the process of carrying out a professional enquiry and worked throughout the year to carry out and evidence their own research . Staff presented their final Professional Enquiries at a showcase event in May .
!
Written by Dr MacKenzie
S3 History – 1920s !
S3 History pupils have been immersing themselves in the events that dominated the lives of people who lived in Weimar Germany in the early 1920s . Pupils were set the challenge of working in groups to create a family scrapbook or mood board about life in Germany at that time . If designing a scrapbook , the group had to decide on a family name for their group . Topics covered included : the Spartacist Uprising ; the Treaty of Versailles ; the new Weimar Constitution ; and the chaos of hyperinflation . The scrapbooks contained ‘ official ’ sources as well as more personal touches like family photographs . The mood boards also contained a mixture of primary and secondary sources , alongside creative adaptions such as comic strips . All the groups worked very well together and used the information from scrapbooks and mood boards to create detailed notes in their jotters and answer a ‘ Describe ’ question
11
– a key skill in History . Excellent work S3 History !