Teachers calmly enter a new world
As Warwickshire’s schools prepare to return for the New Year, teachers in the county will be stepping into an oasis of calm.
Just before the bell rings for the start of term, they will be finding out ways to reduce the stress they may feel during the hectic bustle of school life.
They will be visiting an oasis of calm at a Learning Fair organised by Warwickshire County Council’s Education Development Service.
The fair, at Manor Hall in Sandy Lane, Leamington, will bring together teachers and governors from schools across Warwickshire to discover ways that lessons can be brought to life and working patterns changed in schools.
The oasis will include an area for quiet reflection – to allow people to sit quietly and reflect.
There will also be an Indian head massage – for people to explore stress management, a reflexology and a multi-sensory exhibition featuring ambient music, smells and visual images.
Tess White of EDS said: “For people to be effective, they need to address issues of physical and emotional wellbeing. The Wellbeing Oasis will encourage visitors to explore strategies to manage stress, create a positive working environment and ensure an appropriate work-life balance. Ultimately it is the pupils who benefit and learning which is enhanced.”
Other displays, exhibitions and seminars at the Learning Fair include:
· A curriculum jungle, where teachers can explore ways of bringing different subjects together under a single theme such as Africa, giving pupils an activity-based insight into a different world.
· Using persona dolls with young children to help them learn to express their feelings about themselves and each other.
· An exhibition showing how story telling can be used to fire the imagination of children of all ages
· The latest research into the massive work of progress that is the teenage brain.
Barbara Brown, Head of EDS, said:; “The Learning Fair is offering schools and their governors creative opportunities to think differently about learning and we hope that these will add to the already rich experience that pupils in Warwickshire schools enjoy.”