Head Teacher & WELL Implementation Teams - 

Please complete all actions in Grant Offer Letter before 31^st October to participate in this element of WELL in 23-24.

Updates This Week!

Sellafield Ltd Laptops

We are pleased to confirm the partnership between Sellafield Ltd and WELL has created an opportunity to offer another round of laptops to schools. We may be offer up to 3 laptops per school to schools that express an interest to utlise this technology to support learning.

The specifications are the same as previous donations (HP 640 G2). Hard drives will be replaced with blank drives before schools receive the laptops.

If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity, please email WELL@cumberland.gov.uk before Friday 13^th October.

Developing Great Teaching with the Great Teaching Toolkit Conference

Friday 13 October 12:30 - 16:00, Whitehaven Golf Club

One of the key ambitions of WELL is to offer you evidence based, highest quality Professional Development.

We are thrilled to have Professor Rob Coe and the senior team from Evidence Based Education coming to West Cumbria to run a bespoke conference afternoon on Friday 13 October. 

This is an opportunity to access high quality training from an internationally recognised facilitator. The conference is strongly recommended for all WELL Schools and colleagues with a responsibility to develop learning and teaching in the school. We encourage you to attend even if your school didn’t to participate in GTT 2022-23.

There will be keynotes on the 'Theory of Change' for Great teacher development and the 'Science of Learning' together with workshops: 'Questioning' and the 'Model for great teaching'.

Please see our Great Teaching Toolkit section for full details of keynotes and workshops contents.

Bookings are available via with the School Development Team.

Evidence Based School Improvement Beyond your WELL Plan Workshop

Thursday 12 October 09:30 - 12:30, Hunday Manor Hotel 

Join us next Thursday for this session hosted by the Education Research Alliance (ERA)'s Sue and Patty, exploring how to understand and apply the evidence-based implementation process to whole school improvement.

We will provide you with knowledge that effective schools use to manage whole school change well and support access to practical resources and tools to use in your school, contributing to your own whole school implementation process.

Book places with the School Development Team now.

Wednesday 13 March 2024         

09:00 - 17:00, Energus 

MADE 24 is available to book with the School Development Team. 

We are pleased to announce the conference will include keynotes from Stephanie Davies and Dave Keeling from Laughology and Professor Rob Coe from Evidence Based Education (EBE). With workshops from Marc Rowlands, Stuart Kime (EBE), Sue Frost and Patty Williams (ERA), Stephanie Davies (Laughology) and Dave Keeling (Laughology) we look forward to a day full of inspiration, expertise and laughter. 

Please note that WELL Schools have booking exclusivity until 1^st November 2023. Get booking!

EEF Partnership

Last week we had very positive conversations from EEF and they are delighted to be a key strategic partner to WELL and ERA going forward:

"We’re delighted to support Cumbria's new Education Research Alliance. It’s great to see a commitment from local partners to support Cumbrian schools to access and use evidence informed approaches to teaching and learning. The Education Research Alliance’s focus on improving outcomes - particularly for disadvantaged pupils - is especially important at this time. They’ll build on the good work of the former Cumbria Research School, based at Ashfield Junior School. We’re looking forward to this next phase in our longstanding relationship with WELL."

Grant Offer Letter 23-24

We look forward to receiving all complete actions for 23-24 grant by 31^st October 2023. Any questions please send these to WELL@cumberland.gov.uk

Supportive Coaching Conversations

If you would find a supportive Coaching Conversation helpful with either Dale, Patty or Sue regarding your Implementation plan - please email WELL@Cumberland.go.uk and we will organise this for you.

Annual Plan 23/24 

Please find the link to our Universal Grant Offer Annual Plan for 23/24 on our website.

This plan is a live link and will be updated throughout the year with all WELL events and how to book each PD programme. 

Grant Offer Letter 23-24

We look forward to receiving all complete actions for 23-24 grant by 31^st October 2023. Any questions please send these to WELL@cumberland.gov.uk.

We will be in contact shortly to arrange in-person or online visits from Dale, Sue and Patty.

Great Teaching Toolkit GOL

Thank you for returning the signed GTT grant offer letters and evaluation documents for 23-24. We are now in the process of arranging transfer of grants.

Learning Community 23/24 Invites

Last week GTT leads should have received invites to the three learning communities for 23-24. Please accept these meeting invites as confirmation of attendance to the sessions.

Developing Great Teaching with the Great Teaching Toolkit Conference

Friday 13 October 12:30 - 16:00, WGC

We are thrilled to have Professor Rob Coe and the senior team from Evidence Based Education coming to West Cumbria to run a bespoke conference afternoon on Friday 13 October. 

Keynotes and workshops details, provided by the EBE team, can be found below:

Theory of Change Keynote - Professor Rob Coe

Professor Rob Coe sets out our thinking about key features of the Great Teaching Toolkit, exploring how great professional learning can underpin sustained and sustainable school improvement.

Presenting a rationale for prioritising professional learning in schools. Explaining what we mean by teacher expertise and where the focus should lie. Providing a rationale for why a coaching model that is based on reciprocal coaching in collaborative groups is more favourable that an ‘instructional coaching’ model. Whilst, exploring the role of quality feedback as the key to helping complex systems (like classrooms and schools) improve themselves.

Questioning & the Model for Great Teaching Workshops - Jamie Scott & Hannah Bickerdike

Great questioning in the classroom (and beyond) promotes deep thinking, helping students connect and elaborate on ideas. Great questioning to assess thinking helps teachers plan and adapt their teaching to respond to what assessment tells them.  Teachers ask questions every lesson, every day – so it’s important to make sure that teachers and students are asking the right questions to move learning forward.

This session will focus on how questioning can support Great Teaching. Including: the purpose of questioning, question design, using questioning for formative and summative assessment, questioning supporting retrieval practice and long term learning and exploring examples of effective questioning in the classroom.

The Science of Learning Keynote - Professor Stuart Kime

How can you ensure your teaching makes optimal use of the valuable cognitive resources each of your students possesses? Attention and working memory are vital to the learning process and limited in capacity, so what actions can you take to make sure they are not overloaded?

Professor Stuart Kime will answer these questions by reviewing and discussing relevant evidence from cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience, focusing on topics such as: attention, working memory and long-term memory cognitive load theory, the testing effect, work examples and expertise reversal.

Linking robust theory to concrete practice, attendees will leave understanding both the 'what' and the 'why' of techniques informed by the Science of Learning.

This is an opportunity not to be missed. Book places now with the School Development Team.

Reciprocal Reading 22 - 23 Evaluation 

Thank you for returning either your school’s AR poster or WELL Element Evaluation Document.

Sellafield Ltd Secondary Volunteers Programme

Today we welcomed Sellafield Ltd Volunteers to a Secondary Reciprocal Reading training session with Andy Taylor from FFT. The cohort have developed training and thinking skills through this compelling programme and will be visiting Western Schools this academic year to support already implemented reading intervention.

Quote from Andy:

"Great opportunity to work with this group of committed people. This is an exciting endeavor to support new approaches to reading comprehension."

Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA)

This term there are two additional YMHFA courses funded by WELL for WELL schools.

One 2-day course will be held in person and one 2-day course will be held online.

Please see both course's details below:

YMHFA 2 Day Training - In Person Course

Day 1: Wednesday 8^th November 2023 09:30 - 16:30, Whitehaven Golf Club

Day 2: Friday 10^th November 2023 09:30 - 16:30, Whitehaven Golf Club

Full attendance is required to both sessions

YMHFA  2 Day Training - Online Course

Day 1: Tuesday 14^th November 09.00 – 16.30, Online

Day 2: Wednesday 15^th November 09.00 – 16.30, Online

Full attendance is required to both sessions

Places are available to book now with the School Development Team.

Emotional Literacy Support Assistants

The Spring Term programme will be open to book for all Cumberland schools soon. We will be sending all schools an alert when this goes live.

Please see Spring Term cohort dates below:

ELSA Pre - Course Information Session (For Head teachers/ SENCos)

• 6 Feb 2024 15:30 - 16:30, Online

 ELSA Training Day 1: Emotional Literacy / Circle Time / Session Planning

• 20 Feb 2024 09:15 - 15:00, The Greenhill Hotel

ELSA Training Day 2: Building Resilience and Self-esteem

• 27 Feb 2024 09:15 - 15:00, The Greenhill Hotel

ELSA Training Day 3: Managing Emotions / Social and Friendship Skills

• 5 Mar 2024 09:15 - 15:00, The Greenhill Hotel

ELSA Training Day 4: Supporting Children Through Loss and Bereavement/The Use of Story in ELSA Work

• 12 Mar 2024 09:15 - 15:00, The Greenhill Hotel

ELSA Training Day 5: Active Listening / Reflective Conversations, Working with Puppets

• 19 Mar 2024 09:15 - 15:00, The Greenhill Hotel

Bookings will be made via the School Development Team.

Put these dates in your diary for this terms upcoming WELL events!

A live link to our Annual Planner for all 23/24 events is available for Universal and Targeted Grant Offer Schools on our website.

Cumbrian Award 2023/24 Webinar (Attend via WELL Invitation)

• 6 Oct 2023 15:30 - 16:30, Online 

Evidence Based School Improvement Beyond your WELL Plan (Book via SDT)

• 12 Oct 2023 09:30 - 12:30, Hunday Manor Hotel 

Developing Great Teaching with the Great Teaching Toolkit  (Book via SDT)

• 13 Oct 2023 12:30 - 16:00, Whitehaven Golf Club 

Great Teaching Toolkit - Autumn Learning Community (Attend via WELL Invitation)

• 17 Oct 2023 15:35 - 17:00, Online 

WELL Pupil Premium Workshop with Marc Rowland - Attend 1 Session (Book via SDT)

• 6 Nov 2023 09:00 - 12:00, Whitehaven Golf Club 
• 6 Nov 2023 13:15 - 16:15, Whitehaven Golf Club 
• 7 Nov 2023 09:00 - 12:00, Whitehaven Golf Club  

WELL Pupil Premium Governor Webinar with Marc Rowland (Book via SDT)

• 6 Nov 2023 18:30 - 20:15, Online

YMHFA 2 Day Training - In Person Course (Book via SDT)

• DAY 1 -  8 Nov 2023 09:30 - 16:30, (Whitehaven Golf Club)
• DAY 2 -  10 Nov 2023 09:30 - 16:30, (Whitehaven Golf Club)

Action Research Session 1: Launch and Learning Session - Attend 1 Session (Book via SDT)

• 8 Nov 2023 13:00 - 15:30, Energus
• 9 Nov 2023 09:00 - 11:30, Whitehaven Golf Club 

YMHFA  2 Day Training - Online Course (Book via SDT)

• DAY 1 - 14 Nov 09.00 – 16.30, Online
• DAY 2 -  15 Nov 09.00 – 16.30, Online

RR Secondary Community Meeting 1 (Attend via WELL Invitation)

• 16 Nov 2023 15:45 - 16:45, Online

Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning - 3 Days (Book via SDT)

• DAY 1 - 21 Nov 2023 09:30 - 15:30, Whitehaven Golf Club 
• DAY 2 - 20 Feb 2024 09:30 - 15:30, Whitehaven Golf Club 
• DAY 3 - 23 Apr 2024 09:30 - 15:30, Whitehaven Golf Club 

RR Secondary Training Day 2 (Attend via WELL Invitation)

• 22 Nov 2023 09:00 -15:00, Energus

Being an Evidence Informed Governor (Book via SDT)

• 5 Dec 2023 18:00 - 20:00, Energus 

RR Secondary Training Day 1 - Optional Repeat for Additional Cohort (Attend via WELL Invitation)

• 6 Dec 2023 09:00 - 15:00, Energus