Associate College
Sharing Our Learning: A Look Across Our INSET Day
26th June 2025
Friday 20th June, every member of our WAT Family took part in a dedicated professional development day. While each of us experienced a day tailored to our specific roles, this is a chance to see what our colleagues across the Trust were learning and achieving, and to celebrate the launch of an exciting new resource for everyone.
What Our Professional Services Colleagues Did
For our colleagues in professional services, the day was structured as a Professional Learning Summit 2025. This offered a personalised development journey, with staff choosing from over 20 different sessions across five virtual stages, including Leadership, Wellbeing, and Career Development.
The summit featured valuable insights from external experts, including a Menopause Roundtable with consultant Vanessa Walker and a session on mastering written communication with Tiffany Beck OBE from PLMR. Other sessions explored how to use AI to work smarter and how to build a strong personal brand.
What Our Primary Colleagues Did
Our primary colleagues focused on the theme of "Leveraging active observation to facilitate data-driven decision making during teaching". The morning included collaborative video analysis and live deliberate practice sessions to explore strategies for responding to student learning in the moment.
In the afternoon, the focus shifted to more specialised areas. Most teachers and teaching assistants took part in a session on Task Design, exploring how to better link subject knowledge with the tasks they set for pupils. Meanwhile, our EYFS teams received key sector updates and training on 'a Bucketful of Engagement' 鈥� an approach designed to develop children's shared attention skills. Our Pastoral and Student Services teams used the time to conduct case reviews and develop action plans for the year ahead, focusing on strengthening our culture of belonging
What Our Secondary Colleagues Did
In our secondary schools, the day was dedicated to the theme: "Leveraging active observation to facilitate data-driven decision making during teaching".
The highly practical sessions explored classroom techniques such as using "Showcall" to analyse excellent student work and when to "Stop the Show" for a brief, whole-class re-teach.
Colleagues viewed video case studies from our own teachers to see these strategies in action before working together in subject teams to build the techniques into their upcoming lessons.
