THE EDEN ACADEMY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT SERVICE WEBSITE

The website address is: staff.theedenacademy.co.uk (Save it to your bookmarks!)

Please direct any feedback at all to me - Nick White at nwhite@alexandra-school.co.uk Thank you!

This website aims to enable you to find the support and development you need, whether it is a course, a training provider, a book, DVD or link; or a person within the academy with relevant expertise who may be able to give training or advice.

You will also be able to keep a record of all your professional development, including any backdated training. Other functions are also being added, to help with collaboration, research and many other areas.

Although the website should be useful from the start, we want to develop it much further according to what Eden Academy staff want. It is just for us!

Several training areas, such as ICT skills or signing, have their own dedicated page of information, and these will be added to and updated as time goes by, with your input.

Which other areas do you think need their own page, and what do you think should go on them? Please let me know – you can email me at nwhite@alexandra-school.co.uk

There are bound to be some flaws or bugs at first – please do let me know about them, however small.

It’s OUR website, so we need to make it serve OUR needs – for the good of the Eden Academy’s pupils!

Logging in

To get started, you will need to log in with the username and password that you have been given. (Always do this before you try anything else.) When you log in, you can change your password to something you will find easy to remember.

At any time you can click on Help, a tab at the top of every page, for assistance.

How to set up your profile (5-10 minutes!)

Every member of staff at the Eden Academy will need to set up their own profile on the website. This will enable them to request and evaluate courses, record their training (both ongoing and past courses), and contact other academy staff members with similar areas of interest and experience. Click on View Account

When every member of academy staff has a profile on the website, it will create an online directory enabling us to contact each other easily, including the use of group emails.

1) Please fill in all your details on the first part of the form in Account Settings.

It is expected that most people will put their own school’s telephone number.

If you work at more than one school, choose the one where you work for the majority of your time. If all or most of your week is spent doing an academy role, choose “Central academy team”.

2) On the next part of the form, you are invited to say in which areas you are interested, in which areas you consider yourself “experienced”, and in which areas, if any, you are an acknowledged trainer. You may need to use the arrow keys to scroll through the list of categories.

Adding these “tags” will enable us all to find others who are interested in these areas, perhaps with a view to collaborating, or to email something that may be useful on that topic. It will also help us to advertise training opportunities to the people who would be most interested in them. (You could of course opt out at any time if necessary.)

Don’t feel the need to add more than a few tags – but do be proud of your experience!

If you say that you are an “acknowledged trainer” in an area, it does not necessarily mean that you have qualifications in that area, and it does NOT commit you to delivering further training.

3) Please upload a portrait photo (preferably a recent school one) to your profile.

You can update this information, and your profile photo, at any time by going to Account Settings.

How to search for professional development on an area of interest

a) In the search bar at the top right of the screen, type in a word or words to find information on professional development in a particular area, e.g autism.

b) Your search results will be divided into five categories, shown on tabs. Click on the relevant tab to view, and use your browser’s forwards and backwards arrow buttons to move between them:

c)

Courses – this shows any internal (Eden Academy) courses that may be scheduled. It may also show any recurring external courses that have been recommended by our staff; these will be added to over time. Various online training opportunities may also be shown. Click View for more information. You can add a course (or any page) as a “favourite” by clicking on the heart symbol. You can also “note your interest” in a course, which will give heads of school and admin an idea of which areas of training you and others are interested in.

Providers – this shows UK organisations providing training and/or information in this area. Click View for more information, including the provider’s website, where you can find out about the professional development opportunities they provide. Courses run by external training providers would need to be booked directly with the provider, but the request process (asking permission from your head of school or line manager) can be done online: click “Request to attend this course”.

Staff Directory – this shows Eden Academy staff who have shown on their profile that they have an interest in this area, experience in this area, and/or are an acknowledged trainer in this area. (This will work fully when all staff have created a profile.) Click View to see a colleague’s contact details.

Resources – this shows any books, DVDs, magazines or journals which are available to borrow from the Eden Academy’s growing collection. It may also show useful websites or downloadable documents. Click View for more information on any item. To ask to borrow any book, DVD, magazine or journal, contact Nick White.

General – this shows any pages or sections of the website which are dedicated to this area, such as Signalong, Health and Safety, and Staff Wellbeing, and any pages which mention that area. Click Read more to go to the page itself. (These pages are collected in the Information section of the website.)

Not finding what you are looking for?

If you are not finding what you are looking for, try slight changes to what you type (e.g. “learning support assistants” with an “s” on the end). It may also help to look at the list of overarching categories that the website uses. You can find the list of categories on the following page and at this link:

http://staff.theedenacademy.co.uk/resources/view/categories-used-by-this-website

Occasionally, a search may come up with a document that just happens to mention your search term, but is not particularly useful. If you let me know when this happens, I may be able to tweak it so that it doesn’t come up in that search again: email nwhite@alexandra-school.co.uk

You could also try clicking on the Information tab and looking at the pages listed A-Z by topic.

CATEGORIES – The website currently uses these categories to organise informationSpecial Educational Needs Therapy CurriculumAutism (incl. Asperger Syndrome) Physical therapies and methods ASDANBehaviour Management / SEBD (incl. ADHD, ODD)

Physiotherapy English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Physical disabilities Rebound therapy Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)Down's Syndrome Sherborne Developmental Movement Life SkillsDyslexia / Dyspraxia Occupational Therapy Profound Education CurriculumEpilepsy Creative therapies and methods Sixth FormMental Health (incl. Emotional Wellbeing and Counselling)

Art therapy Thinking Skills

Other conditions Drama therapy Curriculum areasSensory Impairments Music therapy ArtBlindness / Visual Impairments Play therapy Design and TechnologyDeafness / Hearing Impairments DramaDeafblindness / Multi-sensory Impairments

ICT Training English (including Literacy)

Assistive Technology Food Technology / Cooking

Improving practice Hardware Global EducationChild Health ICT in the SEN classroom HorticultureChild Development Software HumanitiesDifferentiation Internet GeographyFamilies Microsoft Office HistoryFirst Aid Excel ICT (i.e. teaching ICT as a subject)Health and Safety Powerpoint Maths (including Numeracy)Inclusion Publisher Modern Foreign LanguagesLearning Environment Word MusicLife Saving (Water safety) Outdoor Education (incl. Horticulture)Minibus qualifications Roles and careers Physical Education (incl. swimming)Moving and Handling Administration PSHE (including SMSC/Citizenship)Play Bus escorts RESafeguarding (incl. Child Protection) Catering ScienceTeaching and learning strategies Coaching EducationTransition (to adulthood) FinanceCommunication Governors and Directors AssessmentAugmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

Holiday clubs EQUALS

Elklan training Induction for new staff MAPPIntensive Interaction Leadership skills P-LevelsPECS Learning Support Assistants Routes for LearningSigning Management SIMSMakaton Middle LeadersBritish Sign Language HeadshipSignalong PremisesSpeech, Language & Communication (SLC)

Research and Development

School Meals Supervisory AssistantsTeachingInitial Teacher TrainingNewly Qualified TeachersTherapistsTrainers

How to record a training course manually

All internal training requested and evaluated through this website will automatically be added to your training record. However, you can add training manually to your record. For example, you can add courses that you completed while at a previous workplace. This is called a “historical record”. Click on “Start new task” to add a historical record.

You can get a printable view of your training record by clicking on the printer icon at the bottom of the screen.

You can upload certificates or other images to each course.

You can edit anything you have typed by clicking on the pencil icon.

(NB. You may receive an email notification that this has been done. You can delete this.)

It would be good to take some time to make this your definitive training record. If you have never recorded your training, this may be a good opportunity to start!