Teaching can be a lonely profession. Although from a birds-eye view a school seems abuzz with conviviality, for much of the day each individual teacher sees only their own room and hears only their own voice.

In Week 6, the Professional Learning Team orchestrated a new initiative—Pop-In Week. Pop-In Week provided interested teachers with the chance to host their colleagues in their classroom, or indeed to see someone else in action. I did a bit of both—and found it an enormously encouraging experience.

Hosting my colleagues in my English classroom allowed me to do two things. First, I wanted to showcase an approach to teaching analytical sentence construction which I thought they would find useful in their own practice. Rarely do we focus on such granular elements of writing at the secondary level, but I have found this particular pedagogy to be hugely beneficial for my students’ skill and confidence when writing—and writing happens right across the curriculum, from history to geography to science to PDHPE.

Second, and selfishly, it provided me with some extra motivation to be my best self in my classroom. I hold high standards for myself as a teacher—I am committed to teaching my students excellently in every moment of every day—but the rigours of the school term, and the isolation of one’s own classroom, do wear on even the most enthusiastic and professional of educators.

Pop-In Week provided me with a shot in the arm. By signing myself up to have four classes observed throughout the week (by, it turned out, 12 colleagues) I gave myself something to aim up for. I prepared that little bit extra, I conjured the energy with which I had started the year—and my students and colleagues were better for it. We all need something to look forward to—and Pop-In Week gave me just that.

I also loved seeing my colleagues in action. A colleague from Commercial Studies taught a dynamic and thoroughly prepared Year 10 Commerce lesson characterised by humour and clear mastery of his subject. I will incorporate his approach to embedding vocabulary in my own practice. Another colleague’s Year 11 Agriculture lesson reminded me of the importance of explicitly asking students to be precise and descriptive in their written answers.

But Pop-In Week represented, I think, more than a pedagogical refreshment, more than just professional learning—although these it delivered in spades.

No, Pop-In Week served as a reminder that teaching is a collegial profession. Although we so often operate in the confines of our own classrooms, we teachers are rowing the same boat together. Not only do the writing skills learned in English equip our students to write more fluently in their History papers, but the encouragement they receive in one lesson empowers them to try hard in the next.

Pop-In Week was a chance for me to lift my eyes from my own routines and to notice the dedication and professionalism of my colleagues. It reminded me that I am a small part of something much bigger than myself—and that my efforts contribute to the flourishing of the whole School.

John Donne said,

“No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.”

Pop-In Week helped me to remember this. Each classroom is a little patch of fabric which, when well maintained, forms a strong and beautiful quilt which adorns the whole School. Every lesson matters.