In many ancient cultures, (Hebrew, Persian, Greek and Chinese to name a few) spring cleaning or pre-New Year cleaning are rituals established to cleanse the whole house of undesirable influences and to prepare the house and family for an auspicious future.
Similarly, Sydney Rudolf Steiner College’s “whole school” in-service training programs allows schools to review what is not working well and to find solutions. By committing to a “whole school” training, staff are given new tools, techniques and frameworks to deal with difficulties and challenges. In many ways, the process is like a cleanse, a ritual cleanout of habits, default reactions and responses that no longer serve a school well.
Just a few weeks ago, Linuwel School in East Maitland, undertook a full day training with Dr Shelley Davidow, one of our College practitioners. Over 20 staff undertook Shelley’s one day restorative practise workshop, “Stress-Proof Classroom”. Jane Greenslade, Linuwel Primary School Co-ordinator was delighted. She said:
“The course was so inspiring. The six hours flew. Shelley is brilliant at combining her breadth of knowledge with her academic knowledge. She has a lot of information to impart but it’s high quality, relatable and practical”.
“The best thing about Linuwel doing whole-school training , rather than sending one or two teachers out on individual PD, is that the whole staff team are now on the one page. We’re all applying and promoting Shelley’s techniques. Individually and collectively, we can implement these practises and I think the benefits are tremendous. I’m now confident that we will see the behavioural change that we’ve wanted”.
The other great advantage of providing whole-school training is that Sydney Rudolf Steiner College’s practitioners are able to work with the unique and particular issues of each school. Rather than applying a one-size fits all approach to training, our College can customise a training program to suit the School’s needs.
In 2018, Sydney Rudolf Steiner College collaborated with Kamaroi, Armidale Waldorf School and Linuwel to provide in-house training. Accomplishing organisational change is far more effective when training is done in this way. ‘Whole School’ training participation is like putting ones’ house in order and setting the foundations for a new start. The other advantage is our programs are NESA accredited so all proficient level teachers can obtain credit towards the mandated 50 hours of PD required (for each five years).
If your School needs to slough off some intractable challenges, we can help. The Sydney Rudolf Steiner College has NESA accredited courses which can be tailored. Our College has been supporting teachers’ training and development since 1988. We’ve been helping Schools for as long. Suitably, we’re rather fond of the Irish proverb, ‘A new broom sweeps clean, but the old broom knows the corners’.
Please do call us to talk about your School’s PD training needs. 02 9261 4001
Image credit: Frank McKenna Unsplashed
