GA North Staffs Branch Programme

Thanks to Kate Russell for sharing the programme of the GA North Staffs Branch - another one that I have visited and spoken at.

There's a definite physical slant to the talks, and good to see Ilan Kelman on the schedule too.

SLN: Gold award winning website

"It's a bit like a shanty town - it grows and changes with the people who do things."

Chris Durbin

SLN is (or was) the Staffordshire Learning Network.

It won the prestigious Gold Award from the GA. I have four Silver Awards but have never made it to Gold - yet.

It was founded by county advisors Chris Durbin and Kate Russell, along with developer Andy Holt, and included a bulletin board and a range of resource sharing areas and projects. It grew quickly and in the early part of the 2000s became the place to be with some well known contributors, some of whom became (and remain) friends, and others of whom left teaching or disappeared over the years.

We had three SLN field weekends when some of us got together. The first was to Hartington Hall, the second was to Norfolk - staying at Burnham Deepdale and heading along the coast to a number of locations, and finally to Moira in Staffordshire. These involved field trips and resource swaps and some drinks and chat. I made some great friends via SLN, and it helped me develop as teacher through the second half of the 'noughties' when I also started teaching the Pilot GCSE Geography and then joined the GA.

A TES piece is here.

All memories of SLN (the Twitter of its day) welcome.