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Supporting Essential Skills
Improving classroom practice
LSDA NI offers in-house support to all DEL funded Essential Skills providers, aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy. Our Development Officers are available to deliver programmes on planning learning, assessment, including using initial assessment to inform ILP's and assessment for learning, differentiation, developing suitable learning contexts, working with the Action Based Activities, managing classroom behaviour and using ILT. The Development Officers supporting literacy and numeracy are experienced teachers: they can provide one to one support where requested in addition to working with staff groups.
Management support
Our Essential Skills management support service for organisations that have recently been inspected has two strands. The Essential Skills team provides a support service for tutors and managers to help meet development needs. We also capture the good practice identified and disseminate it in-house and to the sector.
In addition to post inspection support, we offer all Essential Skills providers advice and guidance on developing self evaluation systems and procedures within a continuous improvement model. Our staff will work with you to review current procedures and make improvements.
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Essential skills helpline
Whatever your query is, we are always at the end of a phone or an email. Our Essential Skills team is available during office hours to answer your questions on Essential Skills policy, literacy and numeracy pedagogy, Essential Skills qualifications, accessing resources or any other Essential Skills related query. You can also contact us through the ESNI website www.essentialskillsni.com and if you join the forum on the site you can ask your colleagues for their responses too.
Connect Communicate Create with Essential skills
In response to requests from Essential Skills practitioners, and in light of guidance from the Inspectorate, LSDA NI has created a new purpose-built resource centre (ESNI HUB) at our new Belfast headquarters. Development days held at the centre aim to facilitate discussion and co-operation between vocational tutors and Essential Skills tutors and foster a culture of creativity and innovation in Essential Skills teaching and learning. Participants are encouraged and supported in developing ideas for lesson content, resources and materials that can be shared with other tutors throughout Northern Ireland.
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