VIEWS & OPINION
Know your CPD: how teachers can make the most of training
Comment by
DAMIEN ROBERTS, Director & Co-Founder at Derventio Education
Continual professional development (CPD) is an integral part of any career, but in teaching, where the guidelines of education are ever- changing, whether it’s assessment, safeguarding or the curriculum, it’s all the more critical. But with the huge range of courses out there, how can you decide what training would best suit you and, by extension, your pupils?
There are many different types of training; in-house, external, day training, residential courses, online training, conferences, and much more. The investment in time and money can be significant, so the benefits must match up to this. When it comes to CPD, there are a number of considerations that you should be making. The first thing to think of is your long-term goals and what you want to achieve. Are you hoping to take a closer look at the way you assess your pupils, or would you like to find inspiration in using new technology to teach the curriculum? You may have a list of priorities from your own professional development review, or perhaps there’s something within the school-wide improvement plan that you want to contribute to.
Then you can choose the training that’s right for you, looking at the benefits you might need, such as ongoing support or resources to bring back. Feedback from other teachers about the training sessions they’ve attended is incredibly valuable too. This could be others within your school, or potentially teachers from nearby institutions, whether that’s through discussion, or reviews left by other professionals; the insight from your peers is more valuable than anything that the course can advertise.
Following the training session, you’ll need to ensure that the knowledge and practice is embedded and consolidated. By creating a digital CPD record, you can leave notes on the immediate effects of the course, and then monitor the effects over the course of six months or a pre-defined timescale, reviewing the long-term impact of what you’ve learned. This record can then be accessed by other members of staff in your school looking to attend similar sessions, or you can send a link to the details to the rest of your department as a recommendation. Working this way using a central digital system also provides a platform for ongoing discussion, meaning that other teachers can ask their own specific questions about the course, and you can add updates about your progress as you go! Having a digital location to store all of this information ensures it is easily accessible and can be reviewed at any point throughout the year. This information can be invaluable for both staff and leaders, as they can access a catalogue of CPD dialogue which they can use to justify expenditure, or evidence where they have addressed areas for development. Having a range of pre-populated CPD information all available at a push of a button means that CPD co-ordinators can distribute courses very quickly; saving time and streamlining processes.
Finding the right CPD course for you can be of huge benefit to your personal career development, while at the same time providing your students with the best possible learning experience, and by sharing this experience and best practice, you can contribute to whole-school improvement. With CPD all being managed online, you can save time and money and boost the effectiveness of your training.
18
www.education-today.co.uk
Learning outside the classroom equals improved academic results – why don’t more schools run residential trips?
Comment by SAM SEWARD, Managing Director of Edwin Doran Sports Tours, an LOtC accredited provider of sports-based learning outside the classroom
Learning outside the classroom and the acquisition of character education skills such as grit, resilience and determination has been proven to impact positively on academic results.
According to Ofsted, “when planned and implemented well, learning outside the classroom contributes significantly to raising standards and improving students’ personal, social and emotional development.” Great life lessons can be learnt when students are taken out of their comfort zone and forced to address situations they would not typically encounter. This helps them to be more adaptable, to gauge situations, become more intuitive and self aware. Strong lifelong friendships between team members also develop as they live together and help each other throughout the highs and lows of the competition. So why aren’t more schools running such trips when they yield such positive outcomes?
The two main issues are cost and time.
In terms of cost, payment plans spread across several months offer one solution to parents keen to balance their budgets. Pupil premium funding in the state sector and bursaries in the private sector can also be used by schools to part or wholly fund trips for students from disadvantaged backgrounds ensuring that they get the same opportunities as their peers. Time taken can also prove an issue with trips, adding considerably to teacher workload. But help is now at hand as the first digital school trip management systems emerge onto the market helping teachers to dispense with the time-consuming task of preparing and mailing out numerous letters home and to personalise trips, upload photos, videos, itineraries and contingencies for extras such as meals and activities. Parents can register their interest and upload their children’s personal information using a simple online form, significantly reducing the time spent by the school administrator entering data.
My first rugby tour to South Africa, aged 16, was a game changer for me. Plucked from my comfortable middle-class upbringing to spend 3 weeks far from my family in a pure ‘team environment’, I learnt self-reliance at the same time as a real sense of the importance of teamwork, respect and leadership. I was lucky enough to experience a home stay with a very traditional Afrikaner farming family near Kimberley, as well as being hosted by a poor black South African family on the Cape. I was exposed to hugely alien environments and values that have helped shape the way I am today.
The impact was considerable – it made me more resilient, independent and mature. I became culturally aware with a sense of the world and where I stood within it. The life skills I acquired helped focus my attention on academic achievement when I returned to school, refreshed and keen to realise my ambitions.
March 2017
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