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centre exhibition FAIRWATER High School’s sum- mer art exhibition at the Christchurch Centre,Newport will take place nextmonth. The exhibition will contain a


NEWS IN BRIEF Summer of art at


southwalesargus.co.uk


Friday, May 23, 2014


Live feedback is a vital aid for teachers’ development


selection ofwork fromBTEC Level 2 and 3 and A-level students at theCwmbran school, as well as a selection of artwork fromsome Year 9 pupils. The opening night is on June 12


from5pmto7pmand the exhibi- tion will be open to the public until July 18.


Tourism figures


OUTDOOR activity tourism in Wales isworth £481 million to the economyand supports 8,243 Welsh jobs, according toWelsh Government figures released this month. The researchwas undertaken


by VisitWales in partnership with theWales Activity Tourism Organisation, which represents more than 600 outdoor activity tourism providers inWales. The sectormakes a 10 per cent


contribution to theWelsh tourism economythrough £220 million spent by day trippers, £236 mil- lion by domestic overnight visi- tors and £24 million frominterna- tional overnight visitors.


UNTIL recently it was only television present- ers who had live feed- back in their ear - now teachers at a Newport school are “mic’d up” and can be watched live by their managers. Duffryn High School spent £13,000 on head- sets and web-based soft- ware called Iris Con- nect to film one teacher at a time, who walks around the class wear- ing a microphone and headphone while being filmed. The non-public broad- cast appears on a laptop being watched by the head teacher or assis- tant head teacher, who can give instant feed- back to the classroom. Teachers can also film their own lessons and watch them back after- wards to see how they could improve or do things differently, ex- plained head teacher Jon Wilson. The school was praised


ONLINE: A year 7 English class led by Lauren Sharpe is aided by video technology. Lauren Sharpe is pictured wearing an earpiece to connect with another teacher.


in its recent Estyn in- spection report for hav-


ByEmma


Mackintosh 01633 777206 ema@gwent-wales.co.uk Twitter @ArgusMackintosh


ing one of the highest percentages the inspec- torate had seen of good or excellent lessons, with none deemed “un- satisfactory”. “It is live coaching and


is purely linked to staff development,” said Mr Wilson of the school’s new technology, which is internal, password protected and used by each teacher once per half-term, starting with the newest teachers. High-perfor ming teachers are filmed and their lessons edited into segments, such as the start of the lesson, ques- tioning phase, use of re- sources and “plenaries” where teachers explain how progress is made. The lessons are then uploaded to the school website for colleagues to watch.


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