On August 1st, we hosted our first ever CPD event. It was held in Endeavour House, Ipswich, and was well attended by registered and external supply staff. The session was presented by Jacqui Frost – Chief Executive of Suffolk Primary Heads Association and co-written by Madeleine Vigar, Executive Director of Suffolk Association of Secondary Heads (SASH).
As everyone began to arrive around 9.45am, the breakfast commenced! We had a delicious selection of pastries and fruit which went down a treat. The session begun with a welcoming speech from our very own Assistant Ops Manager, Debbie Bell. She introduced the team, along with more information on Opus Teach and the plans for the morning.
Jacqui then began the morning with the statement ‘only the brave teach!’. The session developed to cover important topics such as what makes a good supply teacher and what makes a good lesson. Interactive activities whereby everyone could engage and share their knowledge proved a success, with great ideas and reflective commentary being shared. With a wide range of experience within the room, the networking opportunities were a great way to share information and get to know each other.
We also took the time to mention our private Facebook group called ‘Opus Teach Networking Group’. It is a Facebook group (monitored closely by the team) whereby supply staff can network, share knowledge and advise each other. It is not an advertising platform, and never will be. We wanted a community to be built to provide supply staff with a feeling of being in a permanent team. Please feel free to join and contribute, we really hope it becomes a great knowledgeable sharing platform to be utilized.
The event proved a great success with 90% of attendees saying they would attend a similar event. Jodie Hutchings, a primary supply teacher, said: “Thank you once again for the fantastic event that was held earlier today. As someone new to supply, it was really useful and has given me lots of ideas to consider”.
We also had some great feedback from another attendee: “Thank you so much for giving an excellent presentation for CPD and adding a lot of value and ‘street cred’ to your organisation. The guest speaker was right on the button and it is rare to have someone who has the experience of employing Supply Teachers working on Supply and speaking from the two perspectives. It was such a useful morning that had EVERYONE interacting and learning from one another. Thank you for taking the time to listen, to your team, and to supply teachers, who have maintained many schools when their staff could not. I will continue to spread the good news of Opus Teach with confidence that this is a new agency with a great future in Suffolk.”
Debbie said “The Opus Teach team were so proud to be able to provide this free CPD event for our own supply teachers and those from the wider supply network. We were pleased to be able to work with Jacqui Frost from SPHA and Madeleine Vigar from SASH to deliver a useful, interactive session that so many people could benefit from. We pride ourselves on being different and this event was just one of the reasons we are unique, enabling positive outcomes for both supply staff and schools”.
We thoroughly enjoyed our morning getting to know our supply staff better, meeting new individuals and matching faces to names! We hope to be able to provide plenty more CPD sessions in the future covering a whole range of topics, so keep your eyes peeled.
If you attended and wish to provide feedback or even suggest some session ideas, please email the team at [email protected]!
Additionally, please follow us on all our social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) to make sure you don’t miss any future events!
Finally, if you’re interested in more information about supply teaching, or are interested in registering with Opus Teach, please get in contact! You can either give us a call on 03301 242801 or drop us an email at [email protected], or alternatively you can register on our website by clicking here.