It’s our mission to maximise the potential of each student so they can thrive in a fast-paced, ever-changing, globalised world. To achieve this, we look within and ensure innovation and staff development is at the heart of everything we do – so when it comes to teacher training, we look beyond traditional staff training methods.

Traditional training is often built on the deficiency assumption that there is a task the employee isn’t trained to do yet, therefore the employer provides the training required. However, in today’s world, nothing stands still, and the skills needed to thrive in this rapidly evolving landscape must constantly advance.

That’s why at ISA, we take a proactive approach to staff development and encourage ‘peer-to-peer’ training – a training technique that involves participants of the same level engaging in collaborative education.

Our staff are encouraged to alter between learner and trainer to build their own sense of value and feel empowered. Our ‘Training as Sharing’ model has a number of advantages:

• Staff are trained by peers who can relate to the learning process
• Learning is adaptive, timely and relevant
• Training is broken down into bite sized, easy to digest segments with staff moving forward at their own pace
• Strengthens relationships amongst staff and encourages support from one and another

A key example of successful adaptive ‘peer-to-peer’ training at ISA, is our ‘tech chat room’ that was created during the virtual teaching period during lockdown, as a space where teachers could chat and ask tech related questions for their colleagues to answer. It was also a space where they could openly discuss news and gain valuable advice and feedback. Our in-service days were then transitioned to a ‘skills share’ event whereby teachers could demonstrate any recent changes in technological practices and learn from each other.

Moving forward, as the world continues to shift and adapt, we will continue to implement our form of “control” by ensuring all of our staff are up to date with their own learning by sharing.