Administration

Department meetings, development, appraisal and INSET

Department meetings

Meetings take place once every two-week cycle and are timetabled so that, as far as is possible, all staff within the Department can attend them.

Meetings are minuted and a copy of the minutes is given to each member of the Department, the Headmaster and the Bursar. The minutes for a recent meeting are appended.

Staff development

There is now a well-established routine for the induction of NQTs and other teachers new to the School. As well as monitoring by the Head of Department, there is also a member of staff outside the Department (CRB) with special responsibility for the induction of NQTs.

Staff are encouraged to attend regular INSET and department meetings may be used for the ‘cascade’ of acquired information.

INSET

Details of courses recently attended by members of the Department are listed below:

JMSNational Teachers’ Conference (Philip Allan)

The Timetabling Course (Lighthouse)

Teacher Support Meeting (AQA)

BHSEnhancing Students Performance in AQA AS/A Specification B Biology (Keynote)

SJSExploring Effective Ways of Stimulating Able Pupils Learning Biology (Keynote)

TLMEnhancing Examination Technique to Raise Performance.

Using ICT in the Delivery of Advanced Biology.

DAJTraining Trainers

UCAS Conference

Staff appraisal

The appraisal scheme is in two stages – one for teaching and learning, the other for pastoral. Each stage takes a year, at the end of which there is a review meeting. Any individual can be started at stage one or stage two. In general, teaching is appraised by the Head of Department (for Heads of Departments the Headmaster will appoint a senior member of staff) and tutoring is appraised by the Head of Year.