SALAD is great for improving presentation skills and confidence!

To improve the confidence, communication and presentation skills of our Years 7 to 10 students, we have been using SALAD!

They haven’t been taking a trip to the canteen for a healthy lunch to do this, but SALAD actually stands for ‘Speaking And Listening Activity Day’ and is where all of the lessons for the day involved no writing to encourage students to speak and listen.

Normally, the classrooms around school are quiet and calm, but during our SALAD Days, the decibels are notched up as we encourage students to learn differently for the whole day. This involved group work and discussion, debating, presenting, teamwork activities and much more.

It did not matter what the subject was, everyone was able to interact and we could tell our students loved this way of learning on the day as it pushed them out of their comfort zones and helped improve their social skills.

This popular initiative, which is embedded in the school timetable, takes place three times a year and gives the opportunity for our teaching to use new teaching methods and get students to trying something new.

This was the first session of the academic year and we were especially impressed with how much our Year 7 students enjoyed it, as it created a real buzz around the teaching and learning.

The next SALAD Day will take place in March 2026 and we can’t wait to see the innovative teaching sessions our staff have in store for the students.