A relatively small all-boys Catholic school. We have 50 students per year group meaning a total of 300 boys in primary and 300 in secondary school. The school is managed by the Missionary Society of St Paul. We have about 100 members of staff in both schools from teachers to learning support educators (these are specialized assistants for students statemented with special needs). As all Catholic schools, although we are managed independently and autonomously, we are still bound to cover local syllabi and curricula by law, we are also covered by sectoral agreements like state schools, while all pays and some funding comes from the government. We are very much focused on providing a holistic approach to education where we value each student as an individual. We also work together to achieve a lovely school community where students their families as well as the staff feel united. These 2 aspects are what we are very well known for across the country. 

- INTER/NATIONAL NETWORKS

As mentioned previously, we are still linked to ministry of education and its departments. Furthermore, we are part of the Secretariat for Catholic education (the board regulating church schools). We are not part of any other networks. One of our assistant heads is encouraging teachers to consider eTwinning and Erasmus+ opportunities. 

As per the sectoral agreement published in 2018: 

Each teacher should have 40 hours of PD per year. A minimum of 12 of these hours  must be SDP sessions where staff and management discuss a certain amount of issues per year to further improve the school. Another minimum 12 hours are whole school PD session where the school brings experts or asks its own teachers to deliver a PD session applied to all the staff. A maximum of 16 hours must be PD sessions sought by the employee. These sessions will be organised either by the ministry, the secretariat for catholic education, the university of malta or other relevant entities locally. These sessions occur during school hours and are on a first come first served basis available to all teachers in Malta. The organizer of these sessions must first obtain an approval from the ministry that the session is certified to be part of the COPE scheme. In addition, the educator attending must ensure the organizer provides him/her with a notification of attendance which includes dates and times of the PD session so these can be added to the hours covered by that teachers. These sessions are voluntary and vary in their themes and content covered. Thus, teachers pick which COPE session interests them and asks permission to attend. The teacher is given approval to attend accordingly (the session may be on a day where a school activity is taken place, or there are many other teachers attending, or maybe the teacher would be missing too many lessons so management may ask him/her not to attend). Teachers are currently struggling to find these hours not because of the lack of COPE sessions but because we feel guilty leaving school. At times they are boring and "more of the same" and teachers would rather stay at school. Another option to add to COPE sessions is departmental meetings. These are meetings between groups of teachers with the same or similar subjects who discuss what they will be doing throughout the year or any issues etc. Teachers have to minute these and ideally an assistant head must be present for the session to be added to COPE hours. Teachers are avoiding out of school COPE sessions and opting to add more departmental meetings even when unnecessary to add to COPE hours. Having said that, we are aware of these COPE hours so we try our best to complete them although it is not known what the consequence for a teacher who does not attend 40 hours is. 

- ROLE OF HEAD TEACHER IN PD

To plan the 12 hours of school development sessions as well as the in school professional development session. 

- WHERE DOES PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OCCUR

Mostly in school but a substantial amount of hours may be out of school too. 

Very low..probably only 3-4 more teachers have used online PD 

- FEASIBILITY OF TA IN OUR SCHOOL

If we manage to integrate the TA PD in our COPE hours [I have a very feasible plan approved by my head of school] that I envisage it is very feasible 

- PERCENTAGE OF TEACHERS WHO PARTICIPATE IN MOOCS

very low...probably 3-4 

Only for newly qualified or newly recruited teachers. In church schools the system varies per school. In my school, a newly recruited/employed teacher is assigned a mentor who just provides assistance and guidance and checks in when necessary for 1 year. To my knowledge in secondary schools there is the same system but more formal and for 2 years. Mentor meeting have to be minuted and the mentor visits the teacher in class when needed and upon agreement. In addition,the head of school should visit the NRT or NQT once every term [3 times per year] on a surprise visit to his/her lesson. The head teacher compiles a report and the teacher may eventually pass or fail her mentee-ship. A fail means the mentoring is extended for another year.

2.      I am in contact via e-mail with an official from the catholic school department (only responsible for catholic schools, not state schools although PD process is the same) in order to understand the current professional development system better since it was only launched in January. It is apparent that online courses are not at this point officially recognized for obligatory PD hours since these hours have to be done during school hours. So, I am waiting for confirmation whether it would be ok if groups of teachers work together during school hours on such online courses and have them recognized. This is actually what is going to be done in my school.

3.      I have been contacted by a director from the ministry of education in Malta who is responsible for supporting schools. He congratulated our school for involvement in this project and I asked if he would be willing to meet me after I conduct the TA course with my colleagues at school; to which he agreed. Therefore, I am HOPING that our success will help encourage this official to discuss with his colleagues about including online courses as officially as part of the Maltese COPE [professional development] requirements.