With the second Intensive Training workshop coming to a successful end a few weeks ago in the Western Region the teachers have been busy applying all of their new knowledge in their classrooms. The Transformational Teacher Training (TTT) team are now busy ensuring that the teachers are supported in putting into practice all that they have learned through effective monitoring of the classrooms. That’s where our partners from Holy Child College of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) come in.

Eleven Holy Child lecturers and two teachers from Amenano Kindergarten, who have already completed their two years on the TTT programme, attended a two day workshop to prepare them for the second In Class Coaching (ICC) of the year. Between the team they will spend a day in each of the fifty classrooms on the programme in order to support them and offer coaching for any individual challenges they may be facing. The trainers have already identified key areas in which the teachers are likely to need support, such as how to conduct a successful phonics lesson, and so are well prepared for this.

Ghana Education Service officers have also been busy monitoring the classrooms with the use of the Teacher Monitoring Tool (TMT). The GES Officers, which included Circuit Supervisors and Kindergarten Co-ordinators, received two days of training to guide them in how to effectively monitor the teachers using the TMT. The officers have been paired with a member of the TTT team during their classroom monitoring and have been keeping a close eye on the teachers’ effectiveness in planning, in establishing an effective learning environment, in managing classroom behaviour and in carrying out the latest theme. Each teacher will receive a full day of monitoring which allows the team to gather an in-depth picture of what is going on in each classroom.

As this monitoring will continue throughout the two years the teachers spend on the programme, we will be able to see how they improve and their classrooms progress over time.