Leading Effective Staff Meetings

Starter Place a post-it note on the area of the classroom that you feel best supports learning; add a brief note saying why.

Training Outcomes By the end of this session you will be able to: Plan a successful meeting Compose an effective agenda Run a purposeful meeting Write appropriate minutes

Introduction: Make meetings SMART Agenda items should be SMART Specific Measurable: Clarity on way forwards Appropriate/achievable Realistic (moving from 45% to 89% may be tricky) Time related: Is there enough time for the item?

Poor Agenda Department meeting - Monday M1 Students Exam marking Yr 9 scheme of work Department social

Good Agenda (i) English Progress Meeting: Monday M pm Intervention students in Years 9 and 11. Progress review. (JA) 10mins Standardising exercise - Yr 10 literature assessment (see below) (JA) 30mins Yr 9 scheme of work - thoughts on first draft (EC) 10mins End of term celebration. Where? When? Who? Suggested date 20/07/12 (all) 5mins Minute taker: ST

Good Agenda (ii) Please prepare for the meeting by: Reading the attached draft of the Year 9 non- fiction writing scheme of work Collating data on your identified intervention students and bringing to meeting Bringing along your copy of the mark scheme found in your OCR syllabus

Good Agenda (iii) What will the middle leader need to do to plan for this meeting? What will the team need to do?

Task 1: Planning a Meeting Construct a 4-point agenda for your meeting next week. What needs to be brought to the meeting? What needs to be done by the middle leaders in advance of the meeting? Share the agenda with a partner.

Task 2: Setting the Tone What are the features of negative meetings? What are the features of good meetings?

Task 3: Writing Minutes What template do you use for minutes? Share ideas? Can you agree a common format?

Task 3: Writing Minutes (continued) Agenda itemDiscussion pointsActions agreedBy when/by whom? Intervention students in Years 9 and 11. Progress review. (JA) Booster sessions at lunchtime very effective and surprisingly popular. After-school sessions less so. Parental involvement suggested for 5 Yr 11 students. Data collected. JA to present findings to SLT at progress check meeting this week. All teachers of under- performers to contact parents -- EC to compose letter to send out. Letters to be sent next week. Further booster classes to run for next 3 weeks. Non-fiction writing the focus.

Plenary: Dos & Don’ts What can you add to these? DosDon’ts Give time to planning the agenda. Keep the tone of the meeting positive throughout. Turn the discussion into action points. Give department members the opportunity to contribute by leading on agenda items or bringing examples to meeting. Try to fit too much into the meeting. Spend time on administration or information sharing that can be done outside the meeting by or memo. Use the meeting for moans.