One of the staff meetings I was able to sit in with dealt with a new system of teaching writing in the next term. In the meeting, the Primary Head opened the floor for the English Leader to talk about streamlining a way to teach English throughout primary school. Every primary classroom teacher and their TAs attended the meeting to see how writing will be implemented starting from Term 2. First, the English leader opened it up with a survey to showcase how English is currently being handled. Most of the questions in the survey included questions about the different genres of writing and based on this survey, the English leader created a schedule to teach the different genre. One of the staff meetings I was able to sit in with dealt with a new system of teaching writing in the next term. In the meeting, the Primary Head opened the floor for the English Leader to talk about streamlining a way to teach English throughout primary school. Every primary classroom teacher and their TAs attended the meeting to see how writing will be implemented starting from Term 2. First, the English leader opened it up with a survey to showcase how English is currently being handled. Most of the questions in the survey included questions about the different genres of writing and based on this survey, the English leader created a schedule to teach the different genre. She also created a schedule for each week of the English timetable and included a process, as well as the resources that follow with it.

Next, she dived in deeper about the different process of writing. The English leader strongly emphasized on the use of a hook, and hot and cold tasks during the writing process. Then, she continued to talk about how starter activities such as short 10 minute SPAG lessons to warm themselves up for the writing lesson, as well as the importance to push new vocabulary words to ensure students use high quality words. After modeling some work she has done with her Year 4 students as an experiment, she then proceeded to talk about the marking policy, and how this marking policy will be completely different to what they use now. She strongly emphasized this as she made the discovery that not all teachers mark their students work the same, therefore the implementation of this new writing system will also help to streamline the student's marking. At the end of the meeting, the Primary Head stepped in and provided some feedback regarding what the English Head had talked about and opened the floor for other teachers, as well as TAs' inputs.

During the meeting I definitely felt stressed. It was a lot of information to take in, at once and it was very intimidating to be in a meeting with all the different teachers in Primary. I could not imagine how the English Head was feeling as she presented the new English writing system to her fellow co-workers. At times, I did feel quite confused regarding what was mentioned because I was unfamiliar with the jargon they used. I've only ever had experience in a school that adopted. the American curriculum, unlike this school which adopted a UK National curriculum. Words like "hot task, cold tasks, hooks, T4W" were very unfamiliar to me, so I sought out my mentor to clear up what these words meant. Throughout the meeting, I felt that the meeting was really tedious, but looking back I felt that this meeting was very necessary. As I walked around school and viewed the students' writing, I noticed that a few students from Y3-6 were lacking in the writing department. Students in Year 3 were at the same writing level as those in Year 6, and vice versa. It was definitely not where they should be based on my previous experience in a different school. I could tell that they were really behind. Therefore, I was curious to see how a new system of writing can help to improve the students' writing.

What was good about this experience is that I was able to see a different type of role in the school. Previously, I was only exposed to the role of a teacher and TA in the classroom and since it was such a small school I figured that the teachers would handle their own workload. Instead, I learned that there were different individuals or groups that help to facilitate a better learning enironment such as an English head, Mathematics head, Lower, Upper, and Middle phase leader. What went well in the meeting was that the English head was able to provide an in depth explanation regarding the new system and even provided some data to back up the statements she mentioned. She also modeled what would needed to be done, by showcasing the work she has currently done with Year 4 with the new writing system.