Education and Training

Deb Lees

The Virtual Teachers’ Conference will become an annual event

This Centenary year we welcomed over 600 dancers to St Andrews from all around the world for our 90th Summer School. There was a definite air of celebration throughout, with special events each week, including a Big Ceilidh and a concert featuring musicians present and past, who have contributed so much to Summer School and the RSCDS over the years. A highlight was a joint dance with TAC, who were celebrating their 65th anniversary and 50th Summer School. The power of technology enabled us to see each hall dance the same programme at the same time with one MC announcing and recapping for the dancers on both sides of the Atlantic. A final Ball at the end of Week 4 completed a fantastic month of music and dance, making and renewing friendships, learning and developing skills, and sharing lots of laughter and fun. A huge thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen, including the musicians and teachers, Moira Thomson and all the office staff and the two wonderful Summer School Directors, Jim Stott and Sue Porter.

This year we have maintained our focus on Continuing Teacher Development, including afternoon sessions at Summer School for teacher discussion on various topics, the Teachers newsletter and the second Virtual Teachers’ Conference (VTC). The VTC will become an annual event with five presentations across the week, which will remain available on the website, to view in your own time, either as individuals or watching together with other teachers and dancers. E&T are working with the Teacher’s Associations to develop material for next year’s VTC and welcome ideas and input from other branches and groups. This coming year we will be developing a range of video and other resources to support teachers, both during training and beyond. There is already a lot of information in the Learn section of the RSCDS website, but not always easy to navigate, so a complete review of this area of the website is underway.

Work continues to develop Unit 1 into an online open book exam, which we are planning to introduce next year. Unit 4 information has been reviewed and updated and we have started work on guidance and resources for tutors. This will include developing a tutor training course, to be delivered face to face or online, so that the training is more readily available to prospective tutors anywhere in the world.

Congratulations to all who have completed exams this year, especially those who have gained their Teaching Certificate and are ready to build their teaching experience in their own area and beyond. Well done also to those who have finished their CTI training and developed skills and confidence to make their local classes a fun and friendly place that will really encourage people to come back and bring a friend!

My thanks to Rachel Shankland and Oluf Olufson for all their work during their term on E&T and I look forward to welcoming new committee members in November.