How is CPD received by different staff members?

-

I am very fortunate to work in a school which has a very robust CPD programme for staff. The school is supported by being a research school and a teaching school hub. These elements feed into a culture of growth for all staff that aims to centre around wellbeing. However through research and interviews I now think we could improve on one aspect of this.

All staff are carefully guided through CPD provision that is tailored to them and their needs. The school starts the tailored CPD programme with a ‘market-place’ event which offers opportunities for staff to speak with specific experts and representatives from different CPD opportunities. These include the teaching school hub which runs subject specific networks and training programmes, the research school which offers webinars and face to face events distilling and analysing the latest research and the in-school coaching programme, which is new but proving to be very beneficial for staff at all stages of their career development.

Guidance and frameworks are readily available and regularly signposted through staff meetings and ‘teaching tips’ which occur once a week in place of a morning briefing. The school PLT (professional learning team) have put together a framework tailored to the setting based on the ‘Great Teaching and Learning Framework’ from the EEF. The framework has been annotated with examples from faculties in the school and published into a document that has been given to all staff. Hard copies are always available in the staff room.

When digging a little deeper into the views of colleagues on the CPD provision via the ‘climate checklist proforma’ I discovered there was still one element of whole school CPD the school had not quite got right yet.

I interviewed five staff members; three had been at the school for longer than 12 years, one was a teacher in their fourth year, and one was an ECT. All five teachers were pleased with the support and choice the school had provided through its ‘twilight toolkit’ programme for all staff. They all felt that the CPD lead along with the PLT were incredibly proactive and supportive. They also all felt able to approach them regarding subject specific external CPD they wished to complete.

The ECT was also confident in their development and the ECF programme and felt fully supported and challenged by their mentor. The fourth-year teacher was excited to be at a school that was so up to date with current thinking in research and this individual was keen to do further reading via their contacts on EduTwit. It was the more experienced teachers who had been teaching for much longer that were a little less enthusiastic. One said, ‘things go in and out of fashion and they end up coming round again called something else’ Another was a little tired of the big picture concepts that were delivered to all teachers together. They wanted to have more ‘fine-tuned, specific tips on specific students we share, or things that occur in our specific setting’. They felt there was a need for more time for staff to share ideas and discuss teaching and less time being ‘preached at’.

The opportunity to discuss and share is something that also came up after our annual multi-academy trust conference. Staff were asked to rotate through workshops and keynote speeches on a tight schedule for a day with little time to ‘chat’ with their counterparts from other schools. One of the biggest pieces of feedback/criticism was that staff wanted to learn from each other and discuss and problem solve specific things together, not have all of their CPD time taken up with outside experts.

Teaching can be a lonely exercise for some teachers who rarely have the opportunity to talk to other teachers due to their full timetables and busy break and lunchtimes. Opportunities for staff to learn from each other and support each other can be invaluable to wellbeing and morale as well as spread ideas and best practice.

This report has fed back to the CPD lead to enable this small change to take place, in particular for those teachers who have been at the setting for a long time and for those who work in small, isolated departments.
 


Popular posts from this blog

STEM week

-
Image
 A small STEM week due to lockdown timing This year's STEM week at Sandringham School was smaller than it would have been due to it coinciding with the return to school after the second school closure of the year. I took a lead on planning the DT lessons for year 7&8 and liasing with the overall project lead. It was a shame we could not implement some of our whole school ideas but I look forward to next year!  Using padlet to create a competitive gallery This year's theme was biodiversity.  In DT students were asked to choose from 3 design briefs to  competitive design section of the lesson. The DT lessons were all tied together across the department using padlet. There were 5 simultaneously taught classes for half a year group at a time totaling 20 classes.  When all classes were complete and all students had uploaded their work an overall winner was chosen. The 3 padlets produced were full of work and students were able to see a live gallery and work being added to them i
Read more

Blue Hearts for the NHS

-
Image
A project to say thank you with a visual collage from as many students as possible. Sandringham Students across all year groups joined together to create an artwork honouring and thanking our heroes in the NHS. I organised this in collaboration with both the Design Technology and the Visual Art Faculties, The project was organised as a starter activity in lessons. Students were asked to make a heart to thank the NHS. The only rule was that it was to be blue, but they were encouraged to use a wide range of materials and tools, which included traditional fine art techniques, photography, CAD, lego, textiles, digital methods and even snow. All of us involved were very impressed with the variety of designs submitted, and the passion from the students. It was so touching to see how much they wanted to thank NHS workers and our frontline heroes. For some students it was much closer to home with a family member on the front line they really wanted to thank. I delivered some A3 laminated print
Read more

Future-proofing D&T

-
Image
  I support Pearson’s conceptual proposal for ‘future-proofing’ design education. As a teacher of Design and Technology I am a passionate believer that sustainability and climate change education should be at the forefront of what we do, not simply a bolt-on to existing design and make projects currently taught in the majority of schools. D&T is often seen as the ‘problem solving’ subject; surely the most important problem to address is climate change. This should be part of the design education fundamentals, framing the way we teach, and what we teach. Our world is fundamentally under pressure due to climate change; a world which is built on a digital infrastructure and language like never before. The key to the future of our subject is equipping students to think like designers and critical consumers in the current and future world. As design educators we have a responsibility to equip our students with skills for the future. This means encouraging our students to become emp
Read more