I’ve been on quite a few training courses in my time. Maybe I have been extremely lucky or unusual but they have all been fantastic, well thought out and I’ve always come away from them enthused and full of energy.

Shhhh … Come closer …. hopefully those that have either sent me on, or actually ran these courses have read enough and stopped reading so I can tell you the truth. I have been on lots of training in my time (again!! I am not THAT old!) in different industries and every time I’ve found myself getting frustrated about being taken away from doing something more meaningful – training in education is no exception.

Don’t get me wrong I love the fact that by continually learning I am continually developing my teaching, but I find that I can get very excited and want to try “everything” only to find that I fall at the first hurdle as I have no time to give to it – the day job of teaching just gets in the way. My priority this year is to try to focus on just one thing, and do it really well, rather than lots of things poorly so I am aiming to accept that if I learn JUST ONE THING … a little golden nugget from a course, then it’s been a good day.

This week we (in our proper jobs as teachers) found ourselves on the opposite side of the training table and several teachers came to the school to look at how we have gone from being in National Challenge to most improved school in the country – nice little plug there for the school 😉 The feedback has been superb and it was so refreshing to meet so many middle leaders who want to make a difference to their student. To those of you that attended, I hope that if nothing else you were able to glean a little golden nugget!