careerFOCUS
Networking at a grassroots level reaps rewards
Local Network Groups (LNG) are run by practitioners for practitioners to create spaces in which teachers and trainers can meet to exchange ideas and support each other in their professional development. The Society for Education and Training
(SET) provides support with some of the practical and admin stuff but, other than that, LNGs are shaped by their members. Here we speak to those who have attended, organised and even presented at LNG events to find out what they get out of these grassroots communities of practice.
CASE STUDY SANDRA RENNIE
Sandra attended the last session of the Bradford LNG which discussed Ofsted and the new Education Inspection Framework (EIF).
There was lots of practical advice for teachers who
are about to be inspected and need to show themselves in their best light – which is always useful to know. Questions were answered by expert quality improvement practitioners, and I found that very useful. As an independent training provider, it also made me think about the way government education policy is going and made me wonder how much I agreed with it. I debated the concepts of ‘instruction’ and ‘education’ with my students the following week. How do we recognise which of these is taking place in a given lesson and is ‘education’ or ‘instruction’ more valuable and to whom is it valuable?
The discussion at the network group also gave me useful pointers for my students (trainee teachers) to consider when writing about inclusive practice. For example, what do we think about the focus on end-point assessments in apprenticeships – are there any groups that will be disadvantaged by this? I don’t look for answers from the network group but I do look for the new questions that are emerging from current changes in education policy and practice. Sandra Rennie is a teacher educator with independent training provider SEQUALS.
CASE STUDY HANNAH HOWLEY
Hannah, an apprentice, helped organise the last LNG event at Fareham College in June.
I not only gained evidence for my business administration course but I also improved my
professional development. As I had sorted everything out that would be needed for the
event, such as the catering for roughly 40 people and the room bookings i.e. where we could hold that many people easily and ticking everyone’s names off on a list at the start in case of an emergency, it meant that my problem-solving skills had to be used quite frequently. It also meant I had to communicate with both internal and external stakeholders and I was able to build up my organisational skills, strengthening my independent decision-making. For example, I booked both the large and the small conference rooms just in case we could use one of those instead of the theatre – we ended up using the small conference room. This event built up my teamworking skills, since we’re quite a big team at Fareham and many people were involved in all the individual tasks. It helped me learn to prioritise who I needed confirmation from first and who needed to have their particular task done by a certain date. Overall, I feel I have definitely grown as an apprentice and I feel much more a part of the college than I did before. I have offered to project manage the next LNG event we run here and I hope that one will go as well as this did. Hannah Howley is a business administration apprentice at
Fareham College. 30 ISSUE 37 • AUTUMN 2019 inTUITION
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