This week at Reach, we’ve had the absolute pleasure of meeting some wonderful Teaching Assistants and Teachers who we’ll be working alongside and supporting throughout the year, and what a lovely bunch they are!
We genuinely love this part of our job. Meeting new staff, hearing about the children they support and getting to know the people working hard in our schools every day is always a highlight. We think TAs and Teachers do an amazing job – juggling a million and one things, thinking on their feet and doing everything they can to help children feel safe, happy and ready to learn.
We kicked off our work together with a full day of training. There was lots of discussion, plenty of sharing ideas and experiences, some great questions and, most importantly, lots of laughter! Because we firmly believe that professional development can be purposeful AND enjoyable.
Rather than waving goodbye after one training day, we’ll be catching up with each group every half term for a focused session. We’ll be taking a themed approach, with sessions shaped around the needs of each individual group. This gives us the chance to really get to know the teams, build on what we’ve already explored and make sure everything we cover feels practical, relevant and useful back in the classroom.
For us, some of the best learning happens when people feel comfortable enough to be curious, ask questions, share the things that have worked brilliantly and talk honestly about the things that perhaps haven’t quite gone to plan!
We’re already looking forward to our next sessions and to seeing where the year takes us.
New faces, new ideas, lots of learning, and hopefully plenty more laughs along the way! Oh, and lots of chocolate biscuits!! (One group had eaten them all before lunch!!)
