Discover 20 different ways you can use the IRIS Connect tool, Groups, to save time, increase the impact of projects and drive whole school improvement.

1. 20 ideasfor Groups you could create
Save time
Increase the impact of your projects
Drive whole school improvement

2. Record
staff
meetings
1.
Record your staff meetings and
share them into a Group along with
minutes and actions so that anyone
who didn’t make it on the day can
catch up later.

3. 2.
Internal
training
sessions
Film these and make them available to everyone
across the school via a Group. Use this to
disseminate training resources across the
wider staff and everyone can go back for a
refresher when needed.

4. 3.
Share
practice
with your
department
Share subject specific resources
and video examples of teaching and
learning into a Group just for your
department team.

5. Capture
governors’
meetings
4.
Capture governors’ meetings and create a
Group to keep a record of them and the
accompanying minutes. Your governors
can revisit them when needed or catch up
on meetings they’ve missed.

6. Help
staff
induction
5.
Create a Group for new staff
where they can get a sense of the
school they’re joining by accessing
videos and resources that will help
with their induction.

7. 6.
Encourage
NQTs
If you have lots of newly qualified
teachers, give them a space to collaborate
and share their experiences, provide
mentoring support and resources to help
them excel in their first year.

8. 7.
Support
trainees
Bring all of your student teachers together, share
examples of specific teaching strategies with
them and point them to relevant resources that
will help their growth. You could even invite their
university tutors to the Group to support the link
between theory and practice.

9. Celebrate
excellence
8.
Root out great teaching in your school
and encourage staff to share snippets of
their favourite T&L moments. This is a
brilliant way of celebrating what goes on in
classrooms, creating a shared vision and
gets teachers talking more about teaching!

10. Professional
learning
communities
9.
If you’re part of a PLC in your school, be
it 3 members of staff or 25, you could
create a Group to share practice,
resources and ideas on your particular
community focus.

11. 10.
Whole
school
priorities
Check out the
Group Store
to see if there are
any resources or
courses that could
support you with
your priorities.Are you focused on developing Growth
Mindset learners, teacher feedback or
questioning? Whatever your priorities, create
a Group to provide background research, links
to useful resources and examples of what this
looks like in your school.

12. 11.
Save time
in lesson
study
Are you doing Lesson Study? Save time doing in-
class observations by filming your study lessons, share
them into a Group and keep your research together
in one place alongside video resources. Once you’ve
completed your Lesson Study you could even open the
Group up to the wider school to share your findings.

13. 12.
Ease
pupil
transition
If your local primary schools (or secondary if you’re
a primary) have IRIS Connect, create a Group
to give year 7 teachers an insight into their new
students and give year 6 teachers an insight into
what they’re preparing their students for.

14. Support
EAL across
the school
Do you have successful strategies for
supporting students who have English
as a second language? Get other
lead practitioners in this area on board
to provide a resource for the rest of the
team through an EAL Group.
13.

15. Share
SEN
strategies
Bring your SEN specialists into one
place to share successful strategies
for supporting SEN pupil learning. Create
examples and make them available to all
of the staff at the click of a button.
14.

16. Collaborate
over
distance
If you’re part of a local federation, an
academy trust or teaching school,
why not create a Group to share
practice with colleagues over distance
on a particular area?
15.

17. 16.
Behaviour
management
Are there teachers in your school that
are particularly great at behaviour
management? Create a Group to share
strategies and ‘what works’, to support the
rest of your colleagues.
John Bayley’s
Behaviour
Management
Group
to access additional
information and
advice from the UK’s
behaviour guru.
You could also join

18. 17.
AfL
Build up a bank of successful AfL strategies
that you’ve used in your classroom or across
your school. You could subscribe to the T&L
Essentials Group to find research and examples
that will help you put theory into practice.

19. 18.
Effective
learner
behaviours
Join the SSAT’s Effective Learner
Behaviours Group to get all of the theory.
Then create your own Group to reflect on,
analyse and share what effective learner
behaviours look like in your school.

20. 19.
Leadership
development
Create a Group for aspiring leaders within
the school to provide advice, resources
and video examples that will help with
their career progression.

21. 20.
Action
research
Gather your research and evidence in one
place, build this over time to create a research
hub that’s accessible to you and your fellow
researchers. Open this up to your wider
community to make your findings visible to
your colleagues.

22. What are you waiting for?
Create a Group today.
Click here for more info on how to create a group.