View from the classroom
The groups use a coaching approach called action learning sets. A teacher should be able to share a concern or issue with fellow group members who don’t give solutions but instead ask questions that will help that teacher find the answer. Most people have the answers within them - they just need help bringing them out. We started a Monday full staff briefing to give everyone the chance to gather and discuss the focus of the week as well as share tips and advice. Each briefing features a five minute ‘tweak of the week’ slot in which a member of staff gives a quick presentation on a successful classroom strategy. It might be a behaviour management technique or a teaching technique that really engages pupils. We also introduced a coaching programme led by our exceptional practitioners. If a teacher needs support they agree targets with the coach and work with them twice a week for six weeks. This support usually consists of one to ones and regular lesson observations.
Changing the way you deliver CPD is important, but it means nothing without a means of measuring if it makes a difference. We use the Bluewave.SWIFT system to evaluate and manage our CPD. It’s the foundation stone of our professional development approach and it wouldn’t work without it.
Staff use the performance management and CPD elements of this system to identify their development needs, do the training and then connect any later improvements in their practice back to that training ‘event’. As well as helping staff develop and make a real contribution to our development plan it also tells us which professional development is really effective - and what is a waste of time.
The impact of our new approach to professional development is undeniable. Currently 75 per cent of lessons are either good or outstanding – up from 40 per cent less than three years ago. We were lifted out of category within a year and attainment has shot up. The 2013 GCSE results were the best The Manor Academy has ever seen with over 80 per cent of students achieving five A* to C grades.
No school can be good or outstanding without regular, personalised CPD. This approach will be one of the main engines of our school improvement plan. My advice for schools is to make it the same time every week so that it is woven into the fabric of the school. No-one here is allowed to arrange meetings or leave school when it is CPD time. As leaders we have to show staff we are totally committed to professional development. If we half commit then it simply won’t work.
CPD at Manor Academy – The key features
Professional development at the Manor Academy is guided by a firm set of principles: “CPD is not ‘done’ to staff. They direct it,” says Donna Trusler. “We also believe that the answers to most challenges lie within the academy and this helps us develop a culture of mutual support.”
CPD at Manor is made up of these key approaches: • Performance management review (PMR) targets set by the individual and greater individualisation of CPD
• Creation of teaching and learning communities • Mini CPD sessions at staff briefing, dubbed ‘tweak of the week’ • Development of Teachmeet sessions • Strengthening of professional development links with local academies and schools across the country
Manor dedicates two hours a week to staff professional development. One hour is concerned with whole academy initiatives and pastoral training, with the other focused on teaching and learning community activity. These small groups are made up of staff from a range of different learning strands, led by an exceptional practitioner and focused on developing each member’s PMR targets. Bespoke training sessions are delivered through these sessions, with evidence of the training and its impact recorded in the Bluewave.SWIFT system.
Each teaching and learning community session consists of the same ingredients: feedback from all group members, action learning set activities, focused coaching conversations, Iris feedback and planning, technique modelling to group members, focused independent learning enquiry and personalised group CPD from external providers.
October 2014
www.education-today.co.uk
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