 Hello, this is Ross at Teacher Talk at the most influential blog on education in the UK today. I am delighted to be joined by Melissa Beco. Melissa is wears many hats, but one of the big hats that she wears is lead in staff professional development. So, Melissa, I'm going to ask you to introduce yourself, tell us more about all the different hats you wear, and can you also tell us one interesting fact about yourself? Okay, so my name is Melissa, as Ross said, I work at the British School of the Audition Nadal, and I've been here for just over six years now. So, my primary responsibility at the moment is to support staff with teaching and learning, so I work with about 150 teachers and assistant teachers across two sites in the city. I'm involved in whole school projects as well, so I support staff with well-being initiatives, organising education conferences. I run an assistant teacher programme that supports and trains assistant teachers to become classroom teachers at TBS, and they're just a few of the things that I'm doing at the moment. Now, what inspired you to leave the UK system, I suppose? I know you're still operating within the UK curriculum, but just a change of scene, was it? Yeah, I think I just got a little bit fed up of the long hours, and from what I understand from friends in the UK, I think nothing's really changed. I just wanted a change of scenery, I just wanted to try something new, just wanted a bit of an adventure really, and I thought, you know, if I go out into the big wild world and I'm not happy, I can just always come back home, but everything was going alright so far. There you go, so for context listeners, Melissa and I, it's probably just before the pandemic, or just as it started, March 2020-ish, we started to do some work together, and then we've been involved in a number of your conferences, and we're going to talk about some of the work that we've done, but just kind of, just to get a little, know a little bit about you a bit more. In fact, I don't know if you did say one interesting fact about yourself, so I'm going to bring that back to you, but could you tell everyone, well, let's start with this question, tell us about your educational background, and then give us an interesting fact. Okay, so educational background, I'm from working-class family, went to local secondary school, local primary school, both amazing. I would say that I was quite a hard working child, I'm from a Ghanaian family, and therefore there was no other choice but to be quite studious. Performed quite well at school, really enjoyed school, I think my only, the only subject that was really bad at was science, you know, science was like the thorn in my side, but luckily passed that GCSE, went on to college, university, studies of PGCE, but there was a bit of a gap in between that. And what's your subject, specialism, not science? It's not science, I never will be. I would say languages, so I studied languages at university, that was my focus for my PGCE as well, and after my degree I went out to live in Spain for a little while. In terms of my interesting fact, not many people know that I've been on a game show, yeah. Oh, can we ask what show? It was only after GCSE, it was called Dirty Money, I'd be surprised if people would really ask to remember it, but yeah. Oh okay, I'll have a look. So what, where, so you did Spain, did you go off to teach in Spain? Well basically after my degree I didn't want to get a proper job, so I thought well what can I do that stops me going out into the real world, and so I thought and I'd contact the British Council because they were running a pilot scheme to try and support primary schools with learning English, and so I decided that that would be a good way to keep up with my Spanish and also avoid getting a proper job. So when did you get the proper job? Well when I came back probably about a year after university, and I actually went into marketing, I didn't go straight into teaching, for two years until I became a little bit disillusioned with the world. Restless, and it was calling you back wasn't it? Exactly, yeah. Could you give us a snapshot of your teaching career in England before you went to Brazil? So my NQT school was a one-form entry school in central London, very high achieving, really, really good school, very, very hard school to start as an NQT, but I think it kind of molded me into the effective practitioner that I think I am. Not many behavioural issues, so after a while, you know, it's great that I was perfecting some skills, but I thought, you know, I need a little bit of a challenge. In fact, actually, one of the things that persuaded me to leave the school was watching the series The Wire. I don't know if you've ever watched The Wire, or anyone watching has ever seen it, but I watched the series about education and I thought, I actually sat on the sofa in tears and thought, I need to go to a school, like the one that I went to school in, you know, with children who don't have many chances, you know, and so I think I'm a good teacher off into that kind of environment, so I did. So, you know, far rewind to when we first connected, you know, the start of the pandemic, at least for people here in the UK, the press on not just the UK and the vaccines and all the issues that we've had, but also Brazil, you know, I know we're still in the thick of it, but you know, the last 18 months, how has it been for you in Rio in an educational context with staff at your school? I think it's been quite difficult. We've kind of come into a sense of normality now where, you know, we're back in school, but last year, like everyone, we were just thrown into a situation that, you know, we didn't know what was coming next. We never really had a lockdown here, so we had a lockdown in the sense of we went into remote learning quite early on, so it was a mid-March, and stayed teaching and learning remotely until October, but in terms of the city itself, and that's, we didn't have a full lockdown, but we went through a lot of the things that everyone, educators, went through around the world in terms of how do we actually, you know, navigate this world of teaching and learning online. We had the skill, we had the technology because we were used to using it, you know, way before the pandemic, but how do we actually, how do we use it when we can, when we can only rely on this technology? How do we navigate and balance that with our own well-being as well, and that's, you know, that's one of the takeaways, you know, north that we've finished, you know. Yeah, and for a context that academic year starts in January, is it, in Brazil? So it's February, December, yeah, yeah, so we spent pretty much the whole of the academic year last year in remote teaching and learning, so. And before we came online, you mentioned that staff have just had the vaccines, all staff in the school. How long was that ago? So we had, everyone had the first vaccine, I think it started maybe in May time, I would say, obviously in all of age, but when it got, maybe July time, June time, I think it was, everyone, all educators who hadn't seen, so people that were kind of 40-ish and had it on the same day. And actually, I think that was quite, I really loved the initiative because there was anyone who worked in education, so cleaners, head teachers, student teachers, everyone. And now we're on the kind of 60-year-old people. I guess a final question, could you describe the kind of school environment or assemblies happening or staff teaching behind the lines still, masks on, masks in corridors? What does it look like? The protocols are still in place, so we have children all wearing masks and teachers, assistant teachers, everybody wearing masks. We have, depending on the room size, we have some classes that are split in two, and so we have a group pay, group B and teachers are teaching to both groups using cameras. Some classes are big enough where they can have the whole group together. We have marks on the floor to show us should we be on the left or the right hand side. We have perfect screens in the lunch halls, and only a few people can sit on each table. So it's a full sense of normality, but it's what we have to do at the moment. Yeah, and I guess 18 months of working in this way, or at least you were remotely to begin with, I guess the question is that normality, people taking it seriously, people starting to adapt and teaching certain ways? Yeah, I think it is a sense of, it's normal for us, it's what we've known since we came back to school in October. It makes me a little bit sad as well because you just think that Brazil, Brazilian culture is very warm, and that's something that I appreciate coming from the culture that I do in terms of my Ghanaian background. There's lots of hugging, embracing, and you can't really do that. Some people do sneakily, but officially you can't really do that, and that makes me quite sad, but it will pass at some point. Well, that is interesting to know how you're dealing with it. I guess just switching the topic. I want to ask why CPD? Why is it your role? Is it your passion? I'm assuming it is. Tell me more about how you got into this position. Well, firstly, it is my passion. I'm a bit of a CPD geek, and I think anyone that works with me day to day knows that I will happily talk about CPD all day, every day, outside of school as well. So, why did I get into it? Well, I came to the bit of a crossroads, really. I think it was mid 2019. My contract was up for renewal, and I thought, well, I could carry on. I really like being a classful teacher here, but I feel like I need a bit of a challenge, and this opportunity came up. And as soon as I started the school and I found out that there was this role and this budget dedicated to CPD, I remember saying to a friend, you know, oh my goodness, this is amazing. I've never worked in a school where 10% of the budget is devoted to CPD, that you've got actually some... What a luxury, yeah. I know, I know, it doesn't happen in the UK. No, that's a big budget, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, huge budget. And he said, well, I remember saying to her, I would love to have that role, you know, when I first joined in 2015. So when the job came up, I thought, you know, can I do it? Yeah, I think I could. And I want to do it. I think it would be a challenge. So, you know, why not? I'm going to go through it. And, you know, I kind of think when I went for it, when I applied for it, I thought, I want to put my money where my mouth is, because, you know, as teachers, we sit through insects and some of them are great, some of them not so. And I thought, well, I know what I think is good CPD. So let me build upon what the school has already started and is doing well and let me think about how I can adapt it and make it even better. I would say that when I started, I was using just my own knowledge and then I saw Yes, well, I was just going to ask. Yeah, I was just going to ask, because, you know, my life as a CPD leader, you have your own passions, you have your own excitement, but other people not so excited about what you're excited in. And then you find a lot of things that challenge you and provoke you that take you out of your own bias. And then, you know, I'm a secondary specialist, you're a primary specialist. So you've got to suddenly think, well, these techniques don't work in this context. And then you have to start to gather more information to then offer a better service to others. So I guess in your context, where you're supporting a good couple of 100 staff across two or three sites, how are you dealing with that challenge as the CPD lead? Do you know, I think I will spend half of my time in one site and the other half in the other site. And, you know, travelling between the two takes about an hour to get from one site to another. But I love working, you know, I get a lot of energy from working with people and I love interacting with people. And so I wouldn't change actually having the broad scope that I do. And I also learn a lot, you know, working with colleagues who've been at the school or have been teaching longer than I've been alive. And so I'm not dismissive of their knowledge and experience. So I gain a lot from them. It can be a bit tiring sometimes, you know, when you're stuck in traffic. But actually, working with all of those people, I get a lot from it as much as hopefully I give something back as well. And I think one of the few benefits of the pandemic is the fact that we have this technology now to bring us together. So prior to the pandemic, we were quite distinct in terms of, you know, one site would have insert on one day, another site on another. Now we just use Zoom or Google Meet to just bring everyone together to deliver that training. And so that's definitely something that I've seen in terms of improving the way to connect with people. And give us a flavour of the types of things that you're doing. So people going off in courses, you know, online events, teach meets, weekly CPD. What's kind of the rhythm of your professional development school? Well, I think there were some some standard events. So we have our weekly insets, which now I'm trying to make as tailored as possible. So there's no blanket inset. We usually have four things running one time. So something that early years thing for, you know, assistant teachers and so on. We also have a biennial conference, which you were part of this year. I was, thank you very much. It was three, three, four days, wasn't it? It was three days. Yeah. Three days all online for the first time. Yeah. And the feedback was really positive. That was definitely. I was gutted because I was buying. I was I was hoping to come out physically, but maybe in the future. But yeah, I know it's a great great event that you do. And I thoroughly enjoyed working with your colleagues. For me, for my CPD, it was great to learn from people working in a different context. So how did how does this? We've done some work on appraisal, which we'll talk about shortly. But how does the how does the CPD kind of tie together? You know, what that warp and weft? I suppose you've got appraisal. You've got school priorities. You've got individual line management meetings. How do you bring it all together with so many people? Well, I think the primary leadership team helps me and supports me with that. So we have our strategic goals, which kind of helps me to define what's our priority for this academic year. And sometimes I really strip it down to half of the year and which year group or which phase do we need to focus on? And what does that look like in practice? And so I talk a lot, as you can imagine. And I communicate a lot with the team. Because I just think I need to make sure that what I'm planning reflects the direction that we're going in as a school, but also, you know, reflects the needs of your team. Because I work with, you know, over 150 people. I don't know all of them individually and all of their needs that coordinators and leaders of sections do. So they've been really helpful in kind of putting me in the right direction. Also critiquing my plans, how can we refine some of my plans and also just being open to some of my ideas, which are, you know, maybe things that they haven't done before. I was going to say, I was waiting for you to define those ideas off the wall, ideas or just I was thinking, you know, critique how you've articulated how you seek feedback and critique. What are the things that you do consciously to move outside your own preferences to ensure that you give a good coverage for everyone that you know, one of the struggles I had leading even just one school with 250 staff and 150 of those were support staff is knowing everybody's names, knowing something that's going on in their personal lives, and then something they need professionally and then trying to tie all that together. It was a great rewarding job, but it was hard work. How do you deal with those challenges and how do you work outside of your own preferences? What do you consciously do? Well, I think one of the things that helped me was a course that I did this academic year. So not long before I started this role, the pandemic started, and so it was kind of survival mode, you know, how do I support teachers to survive? And then I took a step back when we got into a rhythm and thought, well, actually, you know, I know what I think works. I know what I think is effective based on my experience, but I want to kind of take a step back and actually think about the theory behind effective CPD as well. And so I did, I did a CPD leadership course with the teacher development trust, which was amazing. It helped me to understand, well, what is effective CPD and also how do I assess what has been effective? And so I now say to my colleagues that I'm the queen of a Google survey because that's the only way that I can reach people en masse and say, you know, be honest, what have you taken away from this? What do I need to do? What do I need to adapt? What further support do I need to provide you? And getting that, you know, staff are quite good. I never get 100% response. Yeah. And do you do that survey anonymously? Well, not so much. No. So I think one thing that I've learned. I tried all those different methods. The anonymous one gave you the information you really needed to know. Yeah. And to be honest, the next one, I'm planning to do one on the inset that I programmed, that I recently devised and adapted, and that will be completely anonymous because I want to know that. Yeah. Because, you know, when you get to a place for staff, just complain, complain about the food, and then you know that you're winning. Well, I just say staff are still quite honest. We've got some, you know, really brutal members of staff who doesn't matter if their email is attached to that response. They will still tell me the truth, which is practically... Well, that's good. Yeah. That's good that you've got those open channels. So tell us about the work that you've done with appraisal because I know I've had a little part to play in this. Give our listeners a little insight into what you're going to do differently. Well, I think at the moment we've got a system that functions, and it functions well to a degree, depending on what your definition of success is. You know, we have appraisal meetings twice a year, we have observations, we have learning walks, and they're fine, and they give information that I think the school needs to know from a quality assurance point of view. But I think what I want to do now is focus on creating a culture of CPD, and that's where the appraisal comes in and is fundamental in helping me to achieve it. So what I want to do is actually separate the appraisal process into processes that the school needs for quality assurance, but then having the majority of it focused on improving teachers and helping them to take ownership. So small changes, things like, you know, making sure that observations are focused on the target or the goals. I'm not going to use the word target anymore. The goal that the teacher is working on and not just having that blanket list of things that you want to see happening in the classroom, having monthly check-in meetings with teams of teachers to make sure that you as a leader are finding out, you know, what is your goal? How's it going? What further support do you need? Rather than just kind of revisiting that goal, you know, mid-year, and then not again to have that, you know, review at the beginning for the next year. My favourite thing with observations at the moment is zooming in on one thing and using that word one thing only. Could you tell us, so what's the new method that you're introducing? Well, I think the new method is going to be the fact it's going to tie into our INSET programme. So I'm revolutionising our INSET programme so that it's all focused on a teacher's goal. So at the moment, I think, you know, the INSET that I designed at the beginning of this academic year was okay, but I could see many things that were wrong with it. This half term is better, but what I would still say is that there were lots of different areas of foci. And as we know, effective CPD, one of the components is having sustained focus. And so next year, our focus is going to be on language development. And we have language development as our overarching strategic goal. And so that's what I want our teachers to focus on. So using data, the knowledge of their class to say, okay, this is a need for my particular class. And this is what I'm going to focus on. And these are the strategies that I'm going to implement to be able to try and make that positive change. And obviously part of effective CPD means that there needs to be some expert input. And so again, we have the luxury of being able to invite in experts. And we have a three day INSET at the beginning of next academic year. So we have a group of EL specialists, we're going to come in, work with each phase to support them with strategies that are appropriate for their phase to then help them to come up with an action plan that will feed into their INSET focus. So it's all kind of trying to bring everything together and make it more meaningful, as opposed to having lots of different goals. Yeah, big jigsaw puzzle, isn't it? Bring it together at the right time. So the appraisal, still two meetings a week, all those traditional mechanisms happen alongside staff setting their own targets? Yeah, I think what I want it to be is when I met with a working party, so as I've said to you before, that everything I do, I want it to be evidence informed. So I sent a CPD evaluation survey to staff, got some really interesting comments back. I've been liaising with a working party to get their feedback on what needs to change. And so anything that I'm actually suggesting is based on the results and the feedback from staff. And so one thing that came through the working party was we don't want to just have a meeting at the beginning of the year and midway through the year, we want to have that ongoing dialogue. And I'm reading a book by A Colquitt, Anthony Colquitt about performance management. And that's one of the fundamentals of its success, is having that regular dialogue. So we need to make sure that we're building that in and not just ticking a box by saying, oh, we've had a conversation with you in March, and we've had another conversation in August. Box ticks, that's it, no. Box ticks. Now you had a bit of nervous laughter earlier when you mentioned the word feedback from staff. Can I unpick some of that critique that you received? Yeah. I think there was lots of positives, lovely, but I kind of, I work on the positive, but I like to focus on constructive feedback as well. And one particular member of staff, she's brutal face to face. And so I knew that she'd have no problem doing this by Google as well. And she said that. And basically, you know, the insight that I had designed in the first half of the year was kind of labelled as action research. And she was like, it was not a research tool. We weren't able, it wasn't personalised. And what did she say? There was no... These comments are a good fuel for you, for you to make sure that you meet everyone's need. So, yeah. I didn't want to make it awkward, although I don't think she would have done, by saying, you know, that was a really good point. But I took it on board and it helped me to redesign the second half of the year. Now, there you go. Now, let's switch our topic again. Let's talk a little bit about racism and some of the work that you've done. Can I start off with the first question? Have you ever had a role model of someone in your position, a black female CPD leader? Have you had anyone to work alongside to be aspiring to? So, I guess on that note, what would you hope from people listeners' podcasts, people watching the video of our conversation, Melissa? What are your thoughts? I think, you know, I'm very privileged in the fact that I grew up and I went to a school that was very diverse. So, you know, this was in the 80s. I had, I saw black teachers, male and female. In my classroom, I had, you know, children from all across the globe, and I assume that that's what it was like in every classroom. And then, you know, the further in education I got, the less I saw people that, you know, looked like me. Moving into teaching, saying, you know, I don't think, I think I've worked in, I think my second school, there were a couple of black teachers, but not really at all. In my current school, there were a few black teachers, but again, not many. And, you know, we had an inspection recently and we were talking, you know, when we were going through the feedback, we were saying, you know, if you don't see it, how can you be it? And yes, we've got quite a homogenous school community, you know, it's not very diverse at all. It's, you know, 90% Brazilian and mostly white Brazilian. But I think we still need to make sure that they are seeing people in a position, you know, of leadership that maybe looks different to what they imagine. We've got a lot of people here, a lot of black people who are in roles, for example, nannies, maids, cleaners, that are black. And so we don't want children to just think that, you know, black people or people of colour are automatically going to be aligned to those roles. We want them to see, actually, we can be in positions of leadership. So I think what I would like is that, you know, if there are leaders listening, people who are in charge of recruitment is for you to be a bit more intentional. And maybe you are, so I'm not going to say this is a... Yeah. How is your, can I ask the diversity question of your leadership team in Brazil? Is it a diverse or is there work to be done? There's work to be done. And this is something that I'm very vocal about. You know, I don't shy away from saying this to, you know, all of my colleagues that we need to be intentional. Now, I don't believe that you should just choose a person of colour for, you know, safe, safe. You're the best person for the job. Yeah. Reminded of the leadership teams I've worked on and, you know, going back, gosh, 2005 or something like that. And, you know, my diversity radar is much stronger than it was 15 years ago. But, you know, recently, sometimes being around a group of just white females and males having to ask the question on behalf of maybe everybody or people outside the room, where is the diversity across this table? And I think it's important as a man, as a white man to be asking those questions also rather than talking under the carpet. It's uncomfortable as well. It's uncomfortable, I can imagine, to ask those questions as a white man. And it's also uncomfortable for me, as a black woman, to constantly be the one to bring up this, you know, to make that comment, to make that suggestion. And I will continue to do it. But I think it's helpful if, you know, everyone, to be honest, the last probably five plus years, maybe a bit more now. I'm becoming much more confident talking about race and diversity. I still don't know all the conversations and questions to ask, but the more people I talk to, the greater my knowledge and wisdom becomes, I suppose. I know I've still got a lot of work to do, but could you just tell us some of the work that you've been doing, your side in terms of maybe developing that within your school? Yeah, I would say that our journey for training in this area began, I think it was almost a year ago, yeah, it was a year ago now. And it really, the conversation started not long after George Floyd's murder. Because staff were, well, I've talked about staff and I've also talked about my response as well. Staff were talking amongst themselves in terms of what do we do, what, you know, how do we actually contribute to the solution, you know, where do we go with this? From a personal point of view, I was, I don't know, I think it was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. And I actually remember just feeling quite, I felt quite withdrawn. And I, it was a lot for me to process. And so the catalyst for me was an email that came from a group of colleagues who said, you know, we're having this conversation amongst ourselves, but we need some support. Where does the school stand? You know, the school says it's new, what doesn't involve itself in politics, but this is not politics. What do we do to be more inclusive? We need to learn, we need to understand practical things we can do. And that was quite good for me because on that personal note, it gave me that motivation, while I'm feeling helpless that, you know, this is another global incident. I'm going to do something about it and this is something I can do because I'm in the role that can actually contribute to this change. And so my colleague and I set on a path of household training and bringing in some outside expertise to lead two in sessions. One was very, one was kind of information sharing. So it was kind of starting from basics in terms of, this is what, you know, this means these are some key terms and this is what it looks like in case you've never experienced it or thought about it. You know, we need to make sure that we're starting with that common understanding. And we walked in someone else who complimented that approach but was more of a reflective support. So helping staff to really unpick what are your thoughts, what are your misconceptions, you know, what's your experience that actually makes you think what you think, you know, whatever, you know, race you are. And it was, I would say, really well received. There was a lot of positive feedback and obviously people that didn't appreciate the training wouldn't necessarily come up to me and share that. And I do know a couple of people who's through word of mouth thought, you know, had said the training was pointless for me and I'm not racist, but you know, you're never going to. Yeah, it's missing the point, isn't it? So can I ask, how are you embedding this throughout the rest of this academic year and moving forward? Well, this academic year, as you know, at the conference, we had a keynote that focused on anti-racism because that was part of our theme, our conference theme. We wanted to focus on, you know, what have we learned through the pandemic and what do we still have to learn? And anti-racism comes as part of that, you know, what can we learn from George Floyd and what do we still need to do? Moving forward from that, we've had, particularly in primary, I would say, a curriculum focus. So we had some training recently, thinking about how do we develop our curriculum so that we're using diverse texts so that children are exposed to picture books or narratives that aren't, you know, aren't focusing on the same, you know, race that they're actually seeing subconsciously being exposed to lots of a variety of different races and ethnicities. And again, it's, we want to make it, one of my keywords is being authentic. I don't want to do training for safe sake. I never want to just tick a box. And I also don't want, and I keep saying this to colleagues who are in agreement, I don't want to have, you know, the race conversation every single day. It's not a case of having that PSHE lesson where we talk about, you know, race and racism. It's about actually introducing things into the curriculum that make it more inclusive. And then you're subconsciously, you know, meeting that need, you're subconsciously addressing anti-racism without having that, you know, blatant conversation every day. And so I think going forward we need to continue that curriculum focus, making it more inclusive. We've started with race and we've made a commitment to staffs that we're going to evolve that and look at gender next academic year, not leaving behind race, but just expanding and then moving on to other areas of inclusion as well. Yeah, no, recently I've been doing a little kind of personal self-development on gender and looking at the official, well, depends on who you're asking in terms of official definitions, but there's 50 plus. Most people can say female and male and that's about it and they might go up into one or two others, but it's astonishing how much is there for us still to learn. So, you know, gender identity in its own rights, a big issue. So, you know, lots of work to be done. I guess my final question is going back to those colleagues who say it's not for them, how are we going to always make it something that's at the forefront of everybody's mind, challenges people's bias perceptions and so that we keep having those difficult conversations? Yeah, I think, you know, when you work with, I think in total there were over 300 education staff at my school. I'm not naive. I don't presume that this focus is going to be for everybody. The fact that we got a lot of positive feedback is great, but I'm also aware that there will be some people who aren't at a point where they're ready to hear this message. They're not ready to be reflective. And from a personal point of view, as someone who has experienced racism, you know, in Brazil, in the UK, other countries I've been to as well, I was prepared for that. So, I kind of put on my armour in a sense so that I wouldn't take it personally when I kind of got that kind of feedback, you know, word of mouth. The only thing that we can do is to kind of keep hammering on with the message, keep making sure that at regular intervals we are re-engaging in this conversation and we're doing something about it. I think there are more people who are interested in this area and want to be proactive in this area than not. And so, if only, you know, a percentage of the school, you know, wants to carry this work on and not all. Okay, I'm not going to be able to change everyone's mind. I'm not going to be able to force people to be interested, but I can make sure that I can encourage the staff who are to keep the momentum going, to have those conversations regularly, to support other colleagues and to be reflective, to think about what you're actually doing in the classroom. So, I think my focus is on really those teachers who want to actually make a change and wants support. And I think you'll know that you're, when you want other colleagues, start to stand beside you and you know, speak out on everyone's behalf as well. So, it's very important to... There are many, many, many myself and I'm overwhelmed by the number of colleagues who actually yn cael ei ddweud o ffostau am y byddai'r ffordd y pwyntau arweithio yn y dyn nhw i'r clyweddol. Felly yna yn gweithio'n gweithio. Felly rydw i'r ffordd yw'r teimlo. Yna'r ffawr ar gael yng Nghymru? Yn ymwylwch chi'n gweithio i dda i'r cyflawn ystodol, ac ydych chi'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio i gael ymddangos ei gael y rôl? Ddylai'r perlwyddiol, dwi'n ddych chi'n gŷnodd, ddylai'r ffniau digon, ddylai'r ffaith ddiwrnodd. Okay, ddim o ffaith ddiwrnodd hyn. thread y ffanaeth hwn o'ch meddwl eich bod yn rhan gyfer yn y gymryd, a oedd chi'n ei penderfyn o'r adolyg i'r adolws i'r ddod, edrych i'r meddwl i'r adolyg i ddod i ddod i'r meddwl, a oedd Rholl Gweinwyr yn y ddod i gyn Romaniai, a rhaid i'r edrych i ni'n iddynt i gyd, I wnaeth digwydd i'w ffawr o'r ffawr. Ac rwy'n cyfeirio i gael acio'r ffawr o'r fawr o'r fawr. Rwy'n cwmhwys a chwaith ychydig i'w ffawr o'r fawr, a'r fawr o'r fawr i'w rhaid i'w fawr i'r fawr i'w fawr gwaith o'r fawr yn gweithio. Rwy'n cyfrifio o'r fawr o'r fawr yn gweithio i gael. Rwy'n cyfrifio o'r fawr ar y cwmhwys, ac mae mae'n rhaid i'w fawr o'r fawr, os ydych i gyd ystod, rwyf i mor i ddylyniad. Rwy'n rwyf i'n ffordd i digwydd i gan y syniad. Mae'r ffordd i gyd ddechrau CPD. Mae'n rhai tîm a ddefnyddio'ch cystr� i gael ddechrau'r llei yn lleiddiad lleiddiad lleiddiad lleiddiad lleiddiad lleiddiad lleiddiad lleiddiad lleiddiad lleiddiad. Mae'r gosmarthyn digwydd, mae'n gweld yn cynhyrchu mewn mewn ffordd a'r hyfer yr un oedd ymwyng ac yn rhaid am gallu yn妈e ydych yn unig. can walk around the site or we can stand up and have a brief discussion. You'd be surprised. So maybe I'd thread those two into your CPD agendas. Yeah, I think you might do. Now, one other passion of mine you'll know is teacher workload. What's the issue for teachers in your context? What drives them all crazy? Is it one or two particular things? Marking, marking, marking, marking, which is, you know, it will be no surprise to anyone listening. I think, you know, when I, when I, when I moved into the international scene, this being my first time I'd, you know, done that as a qualified teacher, I was surprised to see how many of the issues from back home were also the same here as well. And I would say marking is something that is definitely takes up a lot of teachers' time. And as I said, when I work with particularly assistant teachers who are a lot of them if not all of them qualified teachers in the Brazilian system, but, you know, I need to learn about best practice according to, you know, the British curriculum, I taught them about marking, how to be a bit more efficient. And again, the light bulb goes on, but I'm just like, well, why are you focusing? Why are you trying to mark 22 books? Why are you trying to mark whole stories? Why are we not just focusing? Like you talked about the yellow box. Focus on something specific. And, you know, think about the value of verbal feedback. Sit with a group of children and focus on them in the moment rather than thinking, you know, I'm going to mark all books. So I try to give strategies to particular assistant teachers in how to alleviate the workload because it's a misconception, you know, that you need to mark everything. It is. It is. But also, I mean, I'm not again, I think one thing that they find difficult is balancing, you know, what I'm saying with also the whole school quality assurance, which is these are the things that I want to see when you're marking. Yes. It's also helping other people in leadership realising. There's still a lot of work to be done. One big final question is what's the one thing that you'd like to see change in education? I guess without putting words into your mouth, I suppose just think of the things that are written down as we've spoken, you know, CPD, racism, appraisal, role models. Would it be any of those or is it something totally different? No, definitely be one of those. I think something that I would like to see happen overnight, which will not, is to see a more inclusive curriculum. I think we have we have things like Black History Month in the UK in October, February in America. And I would love for that not to be needed, because I would like to have a curriculum that every single day is focusing on. Yeah, I saw a hashtag at the start of October, and it was, I can't remember the specifics, but it might have been Black History Month, BHM 365 every day of the year, rather than just a month. And I'd be a big fan of moving towards that dialogue where it is immersed in curriculum plans. Okay, Melissa, we've done our formal bit. I'm going to throw loads of quick fire questions at you. I'm sure you, I don't know if you're young enough to or old enough to remember Timmy Malick, try and get you to pause or hesitate. Okay, so you're nearly of my age, I suppose. Let's start easy. What projects on your desk today? Revamping the appraisal process. Okay, what book are you reading? I'm about to start reading The Fearless Organisation by Amy Eddinson. It was recommended by Chris Moynes. Ah, Chris Moynes. I love Chris. On that note, I was just going to ask actually, what's your favourite CPD moment to date? Do you know, I think it has to be the work that we've done on anti-racism and racial diversity, because it was a big, I wouldn't say it was a risk. When I shared my intention with SLT, it wasn't a question of, do you think we should do it? It was an assertion. We are going to be focusing on this. But just the response coupled with the practical things that happened afterwards, I think that is definitely, without a doubt, my biggest CPD achievement so far. Great. Finish this sentence. If I were Secretary of State, I would. I would fire myself if I've not been in the classroom as a teacher. Fantastic. So stepping down. Okay, if we were, if we had thought, I'm going to be generous with my time here. If we had 48 hours together in Rio, where would you take me? What would we do? What would you show me of the city? Only 48 hours for the marvellous city as it's known. I would do a whistle stock tour of the famous site. So I'd take you to Sugarloaf, Christ of Edema, making sure there was a caipirina in your hand at all times. And then, I think, later on in the evening, I'd probably take you to somewhere to watch a Hoda de Sambos. So Hoda de Sambos is a musical event. I would tell you, how would you rate your Portuguese? Oh, I'm quite hard on myself because I'm a linguist. I would say it's probably a seven, but I came here not even knowing how to say thank you. So I think it's a six. Well, there you go. And you're Spanish, at ten? I'm rusty. It would be higher. I'd probably say like an eight because I'm a bit rusty now. Okay. Now, if you weren't a teacher, what would be your dream job, something wacky off the wall? What was it at school? Okay. If you should get paid for napping, then I would like to be a professional napper because I'm really good at that. Now, I'll join you in that. I read a piece of research on memory about a month ago, and it said that if you have napped between six minutes to 30 minutes, it boosts your memory. So there's a good reason why I fell asleep in loads of leadership meetings, especially after a five period day. Next question, what's your biggest achievement to date? Personal or professional? Oh, personal. I think it has to be teaching my dad how to use a smartphone three years ago. And if you never met my dad, you would understand why that would be my biggest personal and teaching achievement. Great. So big up to your dad out there. Who would you recommend I interview next and why? Okay. If you want to meet, if you want to interview or speak to someone who's no longer in education, I would invite you to speak to my friend, Vendler, who is 90 years old. But it was a pioneer in terms of the direction she took us all in as a head teacher. So she was one of the first head teachers in the UK to have wallless classrooms and... All right, fantastic. No, no, it'd be great if you can connect me with... Is it Vendler? Vendler, Cerny. You might need to get into stories and ask her not to swear. Now we can add a few swear words in. Can I ask Melissa, who is your black female role model? There are so many. Give us a few that come to mind. I would say quite cheesy. Oprah Winfrey is one. She's someone that I studied in school a lot, and I think paves away in a lot of areas. At the moment, I think someone who's living and who presented at the conference is Ronda Taylor Bullock. I think the world that she's doing anti-racism and educating children and families as well is really inspirational. I'll send you some more. I'm trying to... Yeah, okay. That's good. I was privy to Ronda's work when we took part in the conference, and of course Oprah's incredible work. Top piece of advice for CPD leaders? To listen, I would say. Don't rush in, presume that you know everything. Listen and talk to people to find out what the reality is, so you're not just imposing what you think the solution is to the problem that you feel that you've identified. Actually talk to people, listen, and don't feel you need to rush in. Good advice. Where can listeners find out more or connect with you? Melissa, is it LinkedIn, Twitter? Where are you hanging out? Instagram? If you want to be professional and probably not Instagram, I would say LinkedIn. On Twitter, I'm on Twitter, but I'm a bit of a lurker, so I follow lots of really interesting things. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with lurking. So on LinkedIn, yes. LinkedIn, I would say. All right, my final big question. What would you hope to be your legacy? I hope that anyone that I've worked with students and adults would say that I listened and I cared. I care about people improving and not in a blanket way. I want everyone in primary to do better. I try and take the time to understand individual needs with children and adults and try to support them with their identified issue and help them to get that bit better. So hopefully that's what people was. At least one. One. We'll settle with one. So there you go, folks. Melissa Beco, thank you very much. You're a busy lady, and thank you for all your words of wisdom. It's been a privilege to connect with you. For people listening at the time, it's raining in Rio, so it's not the typical sunshine that we expect. Or has the sun come out? There's a glimmer of sun. I think you're lucky charm because the sun is starting to appear out today. So there you go. So, Melissa, thank you very much. The British School in Rio, find out more online. What's the web address for your school organisation, Melissa? Oh, in you go. I should know this. So British School, I might have to do a quick google. Hold on. Is it WR at the end? OK. We'll add that in as well. What is it? All right. Well, we'll add it in. But the British School in Rio, you'll easily find it online. Melissa, thank you for your time and catch up soon. Thank you. Nice to be with you. Bye now.