We wanted all staff to feel better equipped to deal with many of the issues we are seeing in pupils each year. Staff want to make sure they understand all learning needs and are able to met the needs of their pupils in such a way to involve all pupils without some feeling excluded to singled out for certain teaching approaches. Staff wanted to learn about other teaching approaches and how they might (if they felt it would enhance their practice) introduce some aspects in their own classrooms.
We have more and more children coming into our primary school with extra needs both academic and emotional and support staff had expressed a desire for more training on how to make their learning environments and approaches more inclusive. The nursery staff wanted to learn more about the different approaches of Montessori, Froebel, Reggio Emilia and non formal education so they could try to bring some aspects into practice at Windmill. The nursery staff are very interested in contextual learning and joined up projects and the opportunity to hear about how others in Iceland are approaching this with even older pupils was intriguing.