Developing and Maintaining Successful Staff Collaboration - JAWS (Hybrid)

16th January 2023

Nexus International School Malaysia

At Nexus our collaborative communities are fundamental structures for our continued positive impact on student learning and our efforts to continually improve outcomes. This was our motivation to organise a JAWS focused around the topic of collaboration; to share, to learn and collaborate with our colleagues from FOBISIA. It was our second hybrid JAWS, and as such, we felt slightly more confident in our tech know-how and ability to engage those online and in the room, which allowed us to really focus on meaningful discussions.

What did we learn?

The workshops that followed presented a range of practical ideas and strategies around collaboration. The first of these was a double session over the morning and afternoon, exploring successful ways to develop supportive and collaborative teams. Ideas put forward included the importance of norms, considering your own personality type, behaviours and actions within a team, as well as those of your colleagues. We posed questions and gave examples to investigate what successful meetings look like and how to get everyone involved and participating through the use of well planned agendas. Participants considered the teams that they were part of and the success of these to date. The afternoon session focused on the structures needed for successful collaborative teams, including protocols and routines.

The next sessions focused on how to harness the latest technology to support collaboration, giving an insight into the latest Google tools to help save time and maximise organisation, as well as exploration of Canva and how this can be used collaboratively.

SEN specialist, Maddy Proud, and English specialist, Gareth Gorst, gave a quick reminder of these 6 collaborative teaching strategies, illustrating how they were putting them into use through their partnership in a Year 8 class, before asking participants to choose a scenario relating to one style and its use in attendees’ own classrooms.

Participants were then invited to complete their own personality test and consider how their personality impacts on others whilst collaborating. Then on the flip side, how can we support the personalities of others, considering their needs, challenges and objectives?

Our resident expert boarding parent and Maths teacher, Siti Zaleha, presented us with some thought-provoking questions and information to get participants thinking about the collaborative efforts between boarding parents and school teachers, unveiling perspectives on pastoral care.

It was wonderful to collaborate virtually and in-person with so many colleagues and engage in such meaningful conversations, a massive thank you to all that attended.

By Kay McCabe Director of Learning and Innovation Nexus International

School Malaysia

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