Writers’ retreat
On 29 and 30 January 2019, a writers’ retreat was held at Bella Rakha in Oratia for academic staff. Staff spent the bulk of their time working on writing exercises with some time for getting together for informal discussions about the particular challenges of preparing papers/theses, grant applications and writing for the general public.
Exercises included writing a summary of a personal research project intended to introduce the work to the public using non-expert language. Last year’s results were displayed at the entrance to the school offices to give visitors a visual snapshot of the range of research we are doing and the recent additions will be on display shortly as well.
Clinicians’ retreat
On 24 January the clinically qualified staff attended an off-site retreat at the Tāmaki Yacht Club. The programme for the day was highly practical, focussing on best teaching and assessment practice in a clinical setting and clinical updates from a selection of sub-specialty areas. A large part of the day was devoted to discussion of supervision approaches, clinic set-up, and the use of records and technologies to bring students to the point of managing a 1-hour eye exam.
The opportunity to take a full day out of teaching to focus on clinical collaboration was appreciated by the staff and feedback indicates it was considered a positive and constructive day. A follow-up will be planned in due course.