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Building an evidence-informed and responsive CPD culture

Rachel Ball

Assistant Principal - Teaching and Learning

@MrsBallAP

https://theeducationalimposters.wordpress.com/

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A word of caution:

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1. Know what you want

Deficit v Surplus

Humans first, professionals second

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2. Communicate your vision

To ensure that all students achieve their potential through excellence in teaching and learning and to develop a community where everyone has a passion for learning and we succeed together.

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2. Communicate your vision

  • All members of staff can improve their practice

  • All members of staff have a professional obligation to improve their practice.

  • “Leaders need to create the conditions for teachers, support staff and students to flourish.” Didau

  • All Continuing Professional Development is evidence-informed

A great teacher is one who is willing to do what it takes to be more effective next year than this”

Professor Rob Coe

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How do students learn and why do we need to know?

“A teacher not considering how their students think and learn is kind of like a doctor not being overly concerned about the workings of the body, or a baker taking only a casual interest in the best conditions for bread to rise.”

Craig Barton

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3. Develop a shared language

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4. Prioritise evidence-informed professional development

  • Teacher Learning Communities led by strong teacher volunteers

  • Pre-reading and engagement with the “why”

  • Centralised resources - big whole school priorities e.g. feedback (new policy following successful pilot)

  • Disciplined Inquiry

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4. Prioritise evidence-informed professional development

  • Weekly emails including a Blog of the week

  • Termly newsletter with staff input, podcast and book of the term, CPD focus etc.

  • Extensive CPD library
  • Consistency
  • Foundations
  • Expectations

BUT

  • Lack of autonomy
  • “I already do this”
  • Research around CPD and habit changes
  • Need more intrinsic motivation

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5. Don’t be afraid to change direction - listen to staff

Next steps:

Informal collaboration and sharing of practice is still uncommon - peer observations not common (seen as having to use their “free”time) and observations seen as unwelcome in some departments or something to be feared.”

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'Barely 1% of training is effective in improving classroom practice" (CUREE).  [Effect size: 0.10]

Credit: Josh Goodrich (Steplab)

⅓ of teachers leave within 5 years of qualifying.

In settings with high quality CPD, teachers are far less likely to leave.

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6. Make CPD as accessible and bespoke as possible

  • Voluntary Breakfast sessions (Pick n mix)

  • Ring-fenced Subject development time each week

  • Access to high quality CPD through a Google classroom including Walkthrus resources and all internal sessions

  • Subject development google classrooms

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7. Build a positive culture

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8. Look for answers to problems

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8. Look for answers to problems

  • Problems with Subject leader observations and Quality Assurance
  • Frequency
  • Right action steps
  • Follow up
  • Still seen as judgemental?
  • Lack of deliberate practice

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8. Do your work on Implementation

“In our collective haste to do better for pupils, new ideas are often introduced with too little consideration for how the changes will be managed and what steps are needed to maximise the chances of success. Too often the who, why, where, when, and how are overlooked, meaning implementation risks becoming an ​‘add on’ task expected to be tackled on top of the day-to-day work. As a result, projects initiated with the best of intentions can fade away as schools struggle to manage these competing priorities.”

EEF Implementation Guide 2019

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“Everyone has a plan until they get put on cover.”

Harry Fletcher-Wood

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@samlgibbs1

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9. Get buy in from the top

“In schools where coaching is embedded successfully, leaders prioritise it above any other activity. All coaches are clear that it shouldn’t be cancelled except for illness, and school leaders provide time off timetable for teachers and coaches to engage in coaching and for coach development.

The implementation of instructional coaching requires multiple complementary elements to be successful. Senior leaders therefore need to make a significant upfront and ongoing investment to implement it properly; however, the results in terms of teacher development and student learning can more than match the effort involved.”

  • Make Teaching and Learning a standing item in SLT meetings
  • Everyone has a responsibility for the quality of Teaching and Learning
  • Make use of the expertise
  • Hold each other to account
  • Keep revisiting the vision

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10. Go slow. Changing culture takes time.

“Thoughtful leaders working to create the conditions for high challenge and low threat know that in order to make a difference they have to focus on fewer things in greater depth.”

Mary Myatt

The essence of effective leadership is stopping people doing good things to give them time to do even better things.”

Dylan Wiliam

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The future?

  • Instructional coaching roll out whole school
  • Pastoral CPD
  • Consolidate risk-taking, open-door culture
  • Keep talking and listening to staff
  • Keep the why at the centre of all CPD

July 2022

“...staying true to the evidence on what enables the best conditions for teachers to flourish has been most transformative for the culture of teaching, learning and CPD over the past 3 years.

TDT Report July 2022

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Building an evidence-informed and responsive CPD culture

Rachel Ball

Assistant Principal - Teaching and Learning

@MrsBallAP

https://theeducationalimposters.wordpress.com/

rachel.ball@coopacademies.co.uk