Welcome to the Alternative Academy Mastermind

Supervision is an essential aspect to continuing professional development and plays a key part in ensuring your good practice, continuing learning, high-quality care, and well-being.  Supervision is the foundational activity ensuring you feel safe, skilled and supported. As a professional tutor it is helpful to develop a practice and discipline of continually reflection on your practice which helps you gain insight and think analytically about your work. Supervision is the safe container which allows for that reflective time and the spaciousness needed to allow reflection, develop insight and help repeat and refine good practice. 

When you decide to make supervision the foundation to your career and self-development plan, you will find that not only does it allow you to fail forward, learn and grow from mistakes, observe problems developing and put then right or avoid repeating patterns in the future it also allows you to grow confident, become proactive, take charge of your career and your learning journey and reconnect you to the joy and passion you have for education young minds. 

 Coming from an education background, supervision maybe a new concept to you, that is because it is not built into educational qualifications. Within the training process of Health professionals, supervision is an embedded process that ensures safe governed practice and is a requirement of qualification and ongoing registration. It is recognised that clinical judgement, ethics and best practice are an ongoing, evolving and messy business and that it is essential that there is a safe, supportive structure that encourages failing forward, learning from mistakes, working within best practice and sharing good practice. A process that acknowledges that working in Health care is challenging and caring for yourself and looking after your own well-being is essential and directly related to the overall success of the care you can provide.   

Reading all of that I am sure you can see the parallels across to educational provision and the same need for that caring support that supervision can offer within the work that you do. 

Supervision is a self-led safe space to explore, reflect and learn from your professional practice, including what went well (validate and amplify), not so well (reflect and learn), and where improvements could be made (grow and develop). Professional supervision is essential for the longevity of your career, regardless of seniority or years worked, every professional requires this safe space. 

Why group supervision is especially powerful.

Supports collaboration and sharing of good practice.

Talk through solutions is a proactive and timely way

Hive mind perspective and problem solving

Having community, connection and growing together 

Promotes innovation, networking, collaboration and team work.

Accelerates your rate of growth as you learn from others – avoiding pitfalls and mistakes and maximising success

· Supervision is a safe and confidential space. 

· Supervision is person centered and is led by you and your needs.

· Supervision is a reflective process.  

· Supervision helps you identify your own ‘blind spots’ and bias preventing your growth and fulfilment

· Supervision aims to support learning, good practice, self- development, competency and reduce risk.

· Supervision should empower you to feel capable and confident within their scope of practice.

· Supervision can help identify learning gaps and learning goals; helping create and professional learning and development career plan.

· Supervision can help you embed learning you have undertaken into real world practice, implementation, and consolidation. 

· Supervision supports your well-being and ensures you have the right supports in place to avoid workplace stress and burnout. 

· Supervision gives a safe place to explore and resolve ethical, professional challenging and barriers to your practice issues.

· Supervision is a regular, dedicated time where you commit to develop your professional credibility, safe practice, and competence. 

· Supervision supports a culture of Candor, integrity, sharing good practice, validation, celebration, affirming positive practice and the continual goal of self-improvement and betterment. 

Supervision is an active process; you will literally get out from it what you put in. It can be helpful to consider what topics and challenges you could bring to supervision. 

Structured discussion on a pupil’s performance and outcome

Assistance with a particular task 

Perspective on a specific challenge or barrier 

Wellbeing check-in and support  

Workload planning, organisation, and management. 

Debriefing discussions 

Skills gap analysis 

Intentional career planning

Learning and development plan 

Consolidation and implementation of learning 

Permission to do things differently. 

Request for accountability 

Sharing and enhancing knowledge

Learning through case study presentation.

Ethical dilemma’s or safeguarding concerns.

Supervision is an active self-led process

You are expected to attend your supervision session with topics for discussion, an openness for reflection, growth and learning and a willingness to explore and be curious. 

You will need to dedicate time to preparing for your supervision sessions and make time after your sessions for implementation. 

You will be expected to prioritise your supervision activities and engage proactively in the process. 

Attending regularly increases effectiveness Supervision is most effective when it is offered regularly, this is because regular supervision can help to develop good working relationships between you and your supervisor, which can in turn encourage more open and honest conversations, which will help with identifying opportunities for development. Setting aside protected time that suits both your work schedule and your supervisors will help ensure the regularity of your supervision.