What does the future hold...?
"There've been moments, where we’ve worried whether we’ll be able to pay our mortgages..."
It’s very strange to think that we’re living through history, that our daily life during the Covid19 Pandemic will become the stuff of tv documentaries and history books in years to come. Our video calls and 2 metres’ distance, our pupil ‘bubbles’ and the ever-present R rate.
And it’s not easy, being a part of history, for anyone.
Jane and I, together, we are Impact Wales. We too have found it tough. Over the last few months there have been moments, where we’ve both worried whether we’ll be able to pay our mortgages. We’ve even considered furloughing ourselves in a bid to manage the considerable drop in our work. Thankfully, we are still working with several long-term contracts, with schools who know us well and know that we can continue to help them support staff to improve even during lockdown.
We counted this morning and we are currently working on business model 5, since March 23rd, when lockdown began in the UK. We’ve had to innovate and reinvent our way of working five times already! That level of innovation is tough. It’s time consuming, it’s mentally and emotionally draining, but it’s us. It is what we do. We believe in impact. That’s why we aren’t silent about what we’re doing. We are still scouring research looking for the most robust, reliable, useful research that we can represent for you, our colleagues.
We have been blown away by the number of teachers and leaders who have signed up for our new Research Bites Webinars. Literally hundreds of staff still eager to learn and discuss how to make learning better for their pupils.
We know now that blended learning, home and in school provision will be needed for an extended period. We know that schools are struggling to manage the enormous demands of reopening safely, so professional learning may not be at the top of the agenda right now. However, we feel it has never been more important. Now the disadvantage gap stands to develop into a chasm, now, more than ever, we need to support excellence in pedagogy and instruction.
Just like children’s learning, teachers’ professional learning must also change. To this end, we will be providing Research Bites Webinars and Resources to help headteachers and senior leaders manage some of that burden. These bite sized chunks of professional learning will be grounded in research and supported by downloadable resources, including our easy to use sketchnotes. They will help teachers create powerful learning that has real impact on learners at a time when education is being pared back to its essentials.
We will be charging for these resources. This is because we have spent time and effort creating them. We feel they have value, that they are valuable. So, we will be requiring you to pay for them. We know that there is still a lot of professional learning available for free, both the brilliant and the less so. However, the ‘free’ is not a long-term solution for a future living alongside Covid19. What teachers need now, is high quality professional learning that makes sense during lockdown and makes an impact on learning. And this, unfortunately, does not come for free.
We believe in impact, so please, support us. Help us to help you create a history of learning during Covid19 worth writing about. Buy our Research Bites Webinars and make a difference to your learners.
Our new Research Bites Webinars will start this Friday, 12th June at 11am. Reserve your place by clicking the button below.
Please note places are strictly limited.
A Little More About Us
Can you trust us? - We have both worked for Welsh Government supporting schools & senior leaders across Wales. We have held senior leadership posts, delivered support to strategic education advisers, and published curriculum support guidance with Oxford University Publishing...but if you need to know more visit our website for testimonials from schools we've worked with.
Why should you buy our support? - Put simply, because we believe in impact. We do exactly what our name suggests. Our school support is always bespoke, high quality and designed specifically for each school we work with. Our focus is on delivering measurable impact for pupils.
Email: enquiries@impact.wales
Website: www.impact.wales
Location: Caerphilly, UK
Phone: 029 2167 9140
Facebook: facebook.com/impactwales123
Twitter: @ImpactWales