What Every Staffroom Needs

Every staffroom needs a rich mix of teachers using it every day to share ideas, relax and decompress.

This much abused and also much under-used space is an odd mix of the social, the serious and the toxic.

What I see in the best staffrooms are CPD noticeboards and I don’t mean the ones take over by teaching union bumf.

The noticeboards I refer to are the ones devoted to things that teachers will stand and actually read. These are the boards that get noticed for all the right reasons. Hopefully you don’t have a CPD noticeboard like the one in the photo above!

On a CPD noticeboard you will find articles, blogs, top tips, comments, golden nuggets, useful websites, social media posts and more. In other words, you will find plenty of inspiration linked the the bread, butter and jam of teaching, learning and assessment.

The best boards I have seen are those that are looked after and maintained as active channels of communication. The same old stuff that stays there from day 1 of term 1 and is still there 2 terms later isn’t a board that is being looked at anymore.

Sometimes a school will nominate a CPD coordinator to do exactly that – coordinate. You will be blessed if you have someone who does that. More commonly there will be a rotation of staff taking responsibility for the noticeboard and everyone will refresh it with resources and ideas of interest. These aren’t just for display either because they can be used as a talking point for a staff meeting and discussed as strategies and ‘things I tried last week’.

Noticeboards that are fresh and renewed with care and attention keep everyone interested. They also act as a focal point for professional conversations and feed into the school’s informal CPD and training.

A CPD board is easy to set up but more difficult to manage unless you have a system in place.

Why not give it a go and make it the talking point of your staffroom.