Bagshot, Surrey. 6th December 2010. IRIS Connect™, the classroom-based continuous professional development (CPD) experts, announced today that Cramlington Learning Village, the specialist science and vocational college in Northumberland, has bought the lesson observation and CPD solution IRIS Connect. They have started using it immediately with an initial focus on newly qualified teachers and those with a year’s experience.
Ken Brechin, Assistant Head of Cramlington welcomes the adoption of IRIS:
“Our approach to CPD emphasises tailored personal development and IRIS Connect is a key pillar of our approach. We are delighted with our experience of IRIS, which is proving very popular with staff, who have quickly realised that, with IRIS, they are in control of their own observations; deciding when they happen and who observes. The observations can then be used simply for personal reflection, or they can be submitted to a shared library as an example of best practice. This is being seen very much as a pathway to accelerated development.”
Cramlington is a successful comprehensive school of 2300 students recognised as “Outstanding” by Ofsted three times in succession. It has a reputation for innovation in teaching and learning and a ground-breaking approach to CPD which deploys the latest in technological innovation. Cramlington has developed its own teaching and learning model, a six-stage lesson-planning tool called the Cramlington Cycle, which is used to plan all lessons throughout the school. As well as lesson observations, IRIS Connect also serves as a repository of best practice.
Brechin continues: “IRIS Connect has been embraced very quickly by our staff who are using it enthusiastically. As well as helping to facilitate lesson observations, we believe it will help us to populate the Cramlington Cycle with first-class video exemplars.”
“IRIS Connect significantly boosts a teacher’s ability to put training into practice, making it a breakthrough technology for teacher CPD. We are delighted to cooperate with such a high-profile school as Cramlington Learning Village to show how effective this approach can be,” comments Matthew Jacks, Business Manager at Steljes, the exclusive UK distributor for IRIS Connect.
With IRIS Connect teachers may gather detailed observational data about their lessons. A library of checklists and instruments may be customised by users and associated with their lesson observations. This empowers teachers to reflect on their current practice, build a portfolio and set targets for future development.
As immediate feedback has been identified as a critical factor in supporting teacher professional development, IRIS Connect facilitates direct communication between mentors and the teachers. This either happens in real-time via an in-ear link, or later, via a dialogue on the IRIS Connect network.
To find out more or to see a demonstration of IRIS Connect, call 08450 724 800
www.IRISconnect.co.ukCome and see us on Stand K15 at BETT 2011
