7 training topics for the new academic year
With the beginning of the new school year there are new topics that staff need training on – from making sure everyone is compliant with the latest update to Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE), to the education staff wellbeing charter and the government's renewed focus on behaviour.
Here we look at the top training priorities for the new academic year and the courses on our online training platform, Develop, that are helping schools to provide their staff with the knowledge and confidence they need.
With Develop, it’s quick and easy to provide all your staff with access to expert-written, personalised online training – and give them the flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere.
Organising staff training really could be this simple for your school too! Find out how easy it is to be set up on Develop in time for teacher training days:
Training recommendations 2021-22
1. Behaviour
With planned updates to government guidance on enforcing good behaviour in schools, the focus on behaviour is expected to grow next year.
Courses we offer:
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Behaviour Management: Behaviour Basics
This course provides teachers with some key classroom strategies to manage behaviour.
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Behaviour Management: Classroom Problems
This course helps teachers to understand and learn how to manage the most common classroom problems, including lateness, low level misbehaviour and confrontation.
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Positive Behaviour Management
This course helps teachers to establish a well-ordered classroom by considering how rules regulate behaviour and allow everyone to co-exist peacefully and successfully.
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Reinforcing Boundaries
In this course, teachers learn how consequences, sanctions and rewards work in conjunction with each other.
2. Child Protection
Many teacher training days at the start of a new academic year focus on safeguarding. In England, this is to align with the latest update to the Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) statutory guidance, and we know that many international schools also refer to KCSIE for good practice.
Courses we offer:
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Child Protection in Education (updated to meet the latest KCSIE guidance)*
This course covers the fundamentals of safeguarding and protection for anyone who comes into contact with children, young people and their parents in an education setting.
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Child Protection in International Schools
Written in partnership with COBIS, and also available in Mandarin, Arabic and Spanish, this course provides international educational settings with a thorough insight into child protection.
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Child Protection Refresher 2021 (updated to meet the latest KCSIE guidance)*
This course refreshes staff knowledge on child protection, keeps staff up-to-date with recent changes in legislation and guidance, and provides key learning points from recent serious case reviews.
*UK courses refer to specific safeguarding requirements in each nation.
3. Metacognition
Metacognition – also known as thinking about thinking – is an increasingly popular and hugely important area of pedagogy. Ofsted cite both cognitive development and metacognition as important factors in teaching pedagogies. We’re expecting to see a training focus on this in the new academic year.
Courses we offer:
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Growth Mindsets
This course helps teachers to understand what is meant by growth mindsets, the benefits, and how to teach growth mindsets to enable students to be resilient and determined.
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Metacognition
This course helps teachers to define metacognition, discover its transformative power and gain strategies for modelling metacognition for all ages, stages and abilities.
4. Reflective practice
One of the changes schools are making in light of the Everyone's Invited movement is a more supervisory process for safeguarding cases. There’s also an increased focus on encouraging staff to recognise and reflect on experiences in order to learn from them and improve the way they work.
Courses we offer:
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Reflective Safeguarding Practice for Schools
This course includes five safeguarding/child protection scenarios for staff to reflect on, thinking about actions that fit your school's policies.
5. Sexual harassment
There are growing concerns about sexual violence and harassment between children and young people. In a recent article written for Tes News, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Geoff Barton, says that “sexual harassment is a feature of every school and every college”.
We’re getting more enquiring about our courses that can help educate and inform staff and drive out systemic abuse.
Courses we offer:
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Raising Awareness of Peer-on-Peer Abuse
This course helps staff to understand what peer-on-peer abuse is, the different types of peer-on-peer abuse, who it may affect and what external influences there are.
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Sexual Violence and Harassment between Children and Young People
This courses helps staff to understand what sexual violence and harassment are, the relevant law and statutory guidance, what action to take, how to support children involved and how to implement preventative strategies.
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Harmful Sexual Behaviours
Written in partnership with Brook, this course increases staff confidence in distinguishing between healthy and harmful sexual behaviour, exploring how to respond to harmful sexual behaviour and how to encourage healthy relationships.
6. Staff wellbeing
The impact of the pandemic on staff wellbeing has been widely reported with half of teachers suffering at least one symptom of work-related burnout since the beginning of this school year, research by YouGov shows – and just under a third suffering from a lack of energy or exhaustion "all the time".
With schools in England being encouraged to sign up to the new wellbeing charter we think there will a renewed focus on looking after yourself before you begin to look after others.
Courses we offer:
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Supporting Staff Wellbeing in Schools
This course considers the meaning of wellbeing, its impact on individuals and the workplace, common mental health issues and work-related stress, and explores what positive staff wellbeing means in practice.
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Staff Wellbeing for International Schools
Covering many of the same issues as Supporting Staff Wellbeing in Schools, this course has been tailored specifically to support staff wellbeing in an international school context.
7. Student wellbeing
Pupil mental health continues to be a priority both in statutory guidance and as schools support children affected by the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns. In 2020, over 120,000 learners completed our Mental Wellbeing in Children and Young People course and we’re expecting this to be the most popular training topic for inset days in the new academic year.
Courses we offer:
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Mental Wellbeing in Children and Young People
Written in partnership with YoungMinds, this course helps staff to understand what mental health is, identify some common issues, signs, symptoms and risk factors, and learn how they can support their students' mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Get unlimited access to all our courses for one annual price
Your school can get unlimited whole-school access to all these courses, and over 100 more, through Develop. Request a demo today to see the courses and discover how you can quickly assign mandatory or recommended training to individuals or groups, monitor learning and evidence training to inspectors – all in one place.