{"id":38378,"date":"2025-04-04T16:32:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T15:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shs2025.sophia.sytes.net\/?p=38378"},"modified":"2025-06-07T15:18:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T14:18:35","slug":"if-you-dont-want-to-be-first-and-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shs2025.sophia.sytes.net\/?p=38378","title":{"rendered":"If you don\u2019t want to be first and best, then what do you want?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Vanessa Temple<\/a><\/p>

Sophia High School’s Director of Education<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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If you don\u2019t want to be first and best, then what do you want?<\/h2>

For those of us in education, to be told you are ambitious is not always complementary. What makes wanting to change the game, to strive for something better, or to help create a new vision for the future, something negative?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

At Sophia High School we are working to not only bring this vision of personal development to life for our teachers, but also teachers of the future. This week we are hosting a Virtual Teaching Experience for several Beginning Teachers from the University of Derby<\/a>, on their outstanding <\/span>Postgraduate Certificate in Education with QTS. <\/span>They have previously joined a Virtual Visit morning to experience a range of classes and sample some of the innovative technology we use in our teaching, and now we are excited to be a part of this dynamic new way of working with Paul Glossop and his team to bring exceptional online teaching to life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Excellence from Experience<\/h2>

Having mentored and developed a range of teachers and leaders, from those just starting out through to those who have significant CVs, the one thing that always thrills me is the possibility of where we will go, and the shared focus of how we get there and bring their vision to life. This new kind of online teacher \u2013 what is their vision for their work day, the impact it has on their family, their mental and physical wellbeing? What a wonderful place to be in – this is the unknown, anything is possible!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The focus of everything that we do at Sophia has always been quality. What is needed to bring the highest quality of online education to our families? How to maintain that through working with our team (both teaching and technical)? How are we developing tech partnerships to ensure our work is always cutting-edge? It is not by accident that we were the first DfE accredited online education provider, the first COBIS<\/a> accredited online school, and the only online school with member status of the ISA<\/a>. We set out to bring a level of quality to our work with a plan for curated growth without compromise \u2013 and now we get to share that with amazing Beginning Teachers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

So, how does an initial Virtual Teaching Experience work?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>