So many times I have walked into a staff room to find the screen turned off. Originally meant for weekly meetings but rarely used for that purpose.
When turning the screen back on I often receive throw away comments such as “Can we watch Loose Women” to which I often reply, “No you can’t. This screen is perfect for building a strong staff community, celebrating your success as teaching professionals, sharing best practice, and delivering lightweight CPD”.
The reason for such comments is often because the screen loses its value very quickly when turned off or showing less engaging content. If it has never been used to positively impact those viewing the screen then what more can we expect. So where does a school start when looking to install a screen in their staff room? All technology needs a plan and it can be something as simple as using
Post-it Notes marked with
where screens are located, who is looking at them and for how long. This plan needs to be stuck to and updated on a regular basis.
Here’s a few ideas from the TrilbyTV team on how you can rock your staff room screen!
Weekly staff room update
The screen in the staff room is the perfect canvas for senior leaders to keep their staff up to date. A dynamic and time effective way to deliver such a weekly presentation is using Google Slides. As an online presentation tool, once the embed code is added to TrilbyTV your screens are then kept up to date simply by changing the Google Slides presentation. Information can range from safeguarding to attendance stats to health and safety reminders. Statistics show that information presented in a digital format is 83% more likely to be retained. So maybe it’s time to move away from the historical notice board in favour of a more dynamic, digital replacement.
Lightweight CPD
Schools are very busy spaces and teachers are very busy people so it can be difficult to deliver effective CPD outside of inset training days or after school meetings. Adding full screen Twitter feeds of well known educationalists such as @TeacherToolkit or @ICT_MrP to your screen in the staff room means staff can take in short bursts of CPD while they make a drink before heading back to their classrooms.
Sharing best practice
We’ve already mentioned how busy teachers are so it can be extremely difficult for the sharing of best practice. At TrilbyTV we love apps such as
to create stunning eye catching adverts. These are easily saved and added to TrilbyTV as an image slideshow to share what’s happening in everyone’s classrooms. It can also be used to promote cross curricular opportunities.
Building community in the staff room
A positive community equals happy staff. So whether it’s a simple Happy Birthday, a well done for completing a charity challenge or details of a staff drinks evening, keep everyone happy by keeping them updated. Adding a Title Slide directly in TrilbyTV is a super quick and easy way to create an almost instant message. Add an image, add some text, choose between full screen, split screen or image and title. Then post directly to the screen for viewing.
Sharing and showcasing
Let’s not forget why we work with education? Young people of course! Students have an aspiration to see their work showcased and digital signage around the school is perfect for this. Let’s not forget who is responsible for shaping these young people. Sharing and showcasing excellent examples of their work in the staff room is a great way to give teachers credit. TrilbyTV makes it easy to give ownership to staff at all levels using permissions. Therefore allowing the screen in the staff room to always be up to date and relevant.
Reinventing the wheel
The pressure isn’t always on education staff to create content. There’s already lots of content out there and it’s just a case of searching for it. For example Childnet, who aim to make the internet a safe place for children and young people, have lots of free resources
These resources can easily be downloaded and repurposed to reinforce internet safety messaging.
And let’s not forget our young people again, who are more than happy to create polished looking digital content as part of their learning. Imagine having a CV while still at school that says ‘I help create marketing content for my school’s digital signage’. As I always say, it’s not rocket science and never will be. So no more Loose Women and remember the screen in the staff room is perfect for building a strong, positive community. It’s also great for reminding staff on a daily basis how amazing and valued they are.