Marbella's Aloha College are taking an exciting and progressive approach to CPD - not least by establishing cross-curricular collaborative working groups. So we were delighted to be asked to support their initiatives by designing and delivering a session exploring Engagement and Relationships for, over two days, all teachers in the college's secondary phase.
In highly experiential workshops, members of staff explored what engagement "is" - and how to use a range of active and immersive approaches to teaching and learning to secure both it and enhanced relationships with students. Working to one of our frameworks, teachers also spent time in their collaborative working groups to plan and develop new ideas for securing engagement - to be implemented and evaluated over the coming terms.
The programme was delivered by a member of our core team, Jackson Kavanagh - who made excellent use of the little free time he had. "My first evening saw me promenading Marbella's Golden Mile," he told us, "paddling in the sea, and dining on tapas by the marina. And I used the second to explore Marbella's Historic Old Town, taking time to reflect on my experiences in the quiet of the Iglesia de la Encarnacion before feasting on paella and churros in the busier Plaza de los Naranjos. My walk back to the seafront took me down Avenida del Mar, and past an astonishing parade of Dali sculptures - all finished off with a chilled cerveza by the beach, watching the sun set red over a vista of palm trees!"
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