In June of this year, Lyfta ran two days of intensive professional development for school leaders. We were fortunate enough to welcome school leaders from fourteen different schools and two different MATs to a venue in London. The sessions saw us exploring ways in which curriculum development can be led, how Lyfta can support this curriculum innovation and the ways in which leaders could continue this innovative work with their teachers in their schools and MATs.
The day was split into three sections with the first exploring how we can successfully lead curriculum innovation in our schools. This section of the course drew largely on the work of leading practitioners in the field such as Mary Myatt, John Tomsett and Michael Fullan. However, it also began to explore the ways in which Lyfta can support curriculum enrichment through its
focus areas too.
From here, participants reviewed the efficacy of Lyfta use in their schools so far, sharing ideas for good practice with other participants. They also identified areas for improvement. What made this section of the course so successful was the way in which the participants were able to draw on one another for support, sharing ideas for overcoming obstacles and sharing good practice.
Lastly, participants came up with a plan of action for how they could lead this curriculum development work within their schools. One school leader said that they'd be setting aside twenty minutes per week for teachers to have coaching conversations whereby they could plan with Lyfta. Another mentioned the importance of modeling good practice with Lyfta and said they'd use whole school assemblies to demonstrate good practice to their staff. Whilst another talked about re-launching Lyfta in their school through a one day event in the autumn term where students come off timetable and use Lyfta to explore a variety of different locations and topics.
Another important aspect of the day was the opportunity for shared viewing and discussion of content. During the day, participants watched two of our latest documentary films,
The Desert Ambassador and
Cumbra Vieja. This shared viewing experience was powerful, with participants being able to share and discuss lots of ideas about where the films could be used to support lessons and units of work in their schools. It served as a useful reminder to us all that allowing teachers in our schools the opportunity to view Lyfta's documentary films together will generate lots of great ideas for using them in the classroom.
