Here it is! My labour of love and final poster for this leadership journey…..

MACKAY_POSTER

This teaching year has been difficult for many reasons, however, I’m proud to be part of the profession which has adapted and changed to deal with the ever changing situation. As teachers, we have had to think outside the box and be creatively, as well as ensure our pupils feel safe and loved within our classrooms. For me, self care and mental wellbeing have been a big part of my development. Asking for help when needed and learning to accept than although I can do anything, I can’t do everything! In turn, I feel this has helped me to be a more reflective teacher.

This year, as a member of staff who is not class committed, I have had to quickly change and adapt plans and take classes at very short notice. This has sometimes put me out with my comfort zone. This has helped to make me less dependant on traditional teaching plans and to foster a more pupil led environment. Watching the children take a led in their learning and using my skills as an educator to help them explore and be curious, while still making sure that learners as achieving to the best of their ability, has been very rewarding and something I will continue to use in the future.

My enquiry project is ongoing. I am seeing more diverse texts and subjects being introduced  across our school. Pupils are happy to share their culture and language. I’m hoping as the restrictions continue to wind down, we will be able to share more as a community and I will be able to restart our pupil voice group, Language Ambassadors.

As we returned to school after Easter, I have reflected on my enquiry question: In what way does diversifying the curriculum affect our community’s tolerance and acceptance of one another?

This project is not going to be completed by the end of this school year and will be a work in progress, continuing into the next school session. The classes with whom I have direct contact with are enjoying the projects they are part of and are fully engaged in their learning during our time together.

As a whole school community, we celebrate and explore Ramadan and our Muslim children have confidently spoken about their faith and some of their cultural celebrations. I have suggested appropriate and diverse resources for teachers and given advice for any colleague who feels uneducated on this festival. I am also supported older learners and their families to celebrate and observe Ramadan within our school communities. The non Muslim children have been respectful and shown interest in the subject and this has fostered a welcoming ethos. There has also been some good and thoughtful questions about Ramadan, some of which I have not been able to answer. This has led to the learning been taking off track from what I had planned and the questions explored and investigated. This has been lovely to see and worthwhile!

As we bring our school year to a close and look forward to a good, and more settled school year (fingers crossed) I would hope to be able to restart our pupil voice group – Language Ambassadors. These pupils will assist me to promote language and cultural understanding in our schools. The group is made up of pupils from across the upper school and a mix of bilingual, monolingual and different ethnic backgrounds.