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The extra dimension
In pursuit of
the CPD ideal
Can CPD help school
improvement and meet
accountability pressures
at the same time?
All leaders want their teachers
to have good quality CPD that
develops them as individuals and
makes a measurable and significant
contribution to school improvement.
Exactly how schools achieve the CPD
ideal was the central question for us
when we met with senior leaders from
academy schools for a round table event
in London.
Rob Gladwin, assistant Headteacher
in charge of professional development at
the Manor Academy in Nottinghamshire,
was one. He talked about how the school’s
CPD had been transformed since it was
placed in special measures and this new
approach to professional development
was transforming the school.
Manor Academy has established
semi autonomous learning bodies called
teaching and learning communities.
These groups are expected to do up to
three hours of dedicated CPD per week.
“Members of staff from different faculties
are part of these and they use them to talk
about professional development needs,”
he explained. “They help each other with
their professional development. Our
mantra is that the majority of answers can
be found within our institution.”
This approach is very similar to that
taken by Blatchington Mill School in
Brighton and Hove.
“We need to have different models
of how to improve individual teachers,”
explained deputy Headteacher Ashley
Harrold. “We have lead professionals for
teaching and learning in a subject area
and teacher learning communities. I split
it into eight areas of what I think makes
great teaching. The teaching and learning
groups cover these eight areas. Staff focus
on a particular area of pedagogy and
lesson observation targets are linked to
these areas.”
A school’s approach to CPD depends
where it is on the journey to success.
“When we were in special measures it was
top down,” said Rob Gladwin. “But you
can’t sustain that over the long term. It’s
about allowing people to address their
own needs but be supportive of that.”
It is important not to use Ofsted
pressure as a driver for professional
development, leaders agreed. Ashley
Harrold said the needs of the school
should be foremost. “As soon as you
pass on responsibility to Ofsted you lose
authority,” he said. “We have moved
as far away as we can from Ofsted
frameworks for accountability and the
results are going well. There are processes
where a rigid framework needs to happen
but then you often get to a plateau in how
to really crack the perfect teaching and
learning environment.”
Donna Casey, deputy Headteacher at
the Manor Academy, added. “Now we are
starting to get to the point where we don’t
live and die by our Ofsted criteria, but by
doing right for our students. But it’s a real
journey to get there,” she said.
The discussion did highlight the fact
that senior leaders tended to take one of
two views of school improvement – one
was a “fixing what is wrong” approach
and one in which staff were “helped to
be more right”. We discussed research
that showed that the most effective thing
leaders can do is help staff to improve
themselves.
Lesson observations were a subject
of much debate. We agreed that it was
of limited use if it was not used in a
supportive and developmental way. A
commonly discussed alternative is lesson
study, a collaborative enquiry process
based around observing the effects of an
intervention on learning in the classroom.
Nick Hindmarsh, principal of
Dartmouth Academy in Devon, said
it was important that the judgement
element inherent in performance
management process was separate from
the developmental aspects of observation
and other professional development. “In
our school, performance management
observations are done by me and two
deputy heads,” he explained. “The heads of
66 | Summer 2014