Staff Development: the top priority for gained time this summer

Since starting as a head of department, my main priority each summer has been curriculum review.  By using the time to evaluate and plan for the following year, we’ve been able to make some great improvements to what we teach.  However, this year will be different.

The plans we made last summer did not, due to the impact of Covid-19, get fully implemented.  This means that to a large degree the first rollout of many of those changes will take place in 2021-22 (with a few tweaks to mitigate the impact of this year’s remote learning on student attainment).

Though other priorities (such as Y6 and Y11 transition, and small group interventions) remain, the fact that we do not need as much time for curriculum review means that the time for another priority is available.  In my mind, the most obvious contender is CPD.

Why prioritise CPD this summer?

It’s widely acknowledged that staff development is important to improving the offer for students, given that high-quality teaching is ‘the most important lever schools have to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils’ (EEF, 2019).  It’s only logical that if developing teaching works to narrow the disadvantaged gap, then it will also be a priority to narrow that so-called ‘gaps’ that have been impacted by Covid-19. Add to this the fact that many secondary teachers will have lost out on meaningful CPD because of TAGs.  Then add the possibility that improving CPD may improve teacher wellbeing and retention (Zucollo and Van den Brande, 2021).  It’s a no-brainer, surely?

However, flexibility and teacher autonomy will still be important if we want the CPD, especially given that the autonomy is an important factor in professionalism (Booth, Perry and Boylan, 2019) and teacher motivation (Teacher Development Trust, 2020).

What will this look like for my department?

For the teachers I lead in my school, we’re taking a two-pronged approach to this.  The first addresses subject-knowledge, by providing teachers with a list of resources that could help with specific topics that we teach (MASSOlit and Litdrive are a great starting point for English teachers, though we’ve also bought in various books over the past few years).  Staff can then use their gained time to access their choice of resources for subject knowledge before sharing this informally in our subject meetings.

The main bulk of the gained time, though, will be dedicated to collaborative CPD.  For this, teachers have the choice of accessing a peer coaching programme, team-teaching or collaborative planning (with the latter two being a possibility for those without gained time, as time is freed up for others to work with them in their existing lessons).

The majority of the department have opted for the peer coaching, which will serve to introduce them to the principles of coaching (an approach which will be a central facet of our CPD offer from September) as well as improving our teaching.  Through this, we’re going to use our gained time to:

• Access CPD sessions on coaching, including practise of coaching skills (Jim Knight’s book on ‘The Impact Cycle’ has proven invaluable for this)
• Observe each other teaching, using the coaching to set goals and give feedback

Through this, I hope to take my department’s CPD in a direction that means teachers get more of a chance to focus on their individual goals and needs, both this summer and in our CPD time next year.  Through this, we can then aim to continue to support our students in overcoming the impact of remote learning and absence that the past 18 months has generated.

References:

Booth J, Perry E and Boylan M (2019) Understanding Teaching as a Profession. Teacher CPD: International trends, opportunities and challenges. P35-41. Available at: https://chartered.college/download-international-teacher-cpd-report/

EEF (2019) The EEF Guide to the Pupil Premium. Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Publications/Pupil_Premium_Guidance_iPDF.pdf 

Teacher Development Trust (2020) Guidance on Teacher Goal-Setting. Available at: https://tdtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Guidance-on-Teacher-Goal-Setting-1.pdf 

Zucollo and Van den Brande (2021) Why better CPD could be the answer to teacher retention. Available at: https://www.tes.com/news/why-better-cpd-could-be-answer-teacher-retention 

Do we need a dictionary of teacher terms?

Developing and maintaining a shared knowledge of what great teaching looks like (whether it be in an individual school or on a wider level) is often referred to as a priority in educational leadership books/blogs.  On this note, I’m really excited for Mark and Zoe Enser’s upcoming book on the concept of a ‘CPD curriculum’, which is bound to generate thoughtful discussion around the topic.

But, as an English teacher especially, I can’t help but wonder if we are clear enough about the terms that we include within this.  Do we need to work on developing a shared understanding of educational terminology, as well as what these concepts look like in practice?

I know that some colleagues dismiss terms like ‘schemata’ or ‘dual-coding’ as ‘buzz words’.  There are also others who see some educational terminology as off-putting or overly pretentious, especially when it comes to the word ‘pedagogy’.  However, I’d argue that for many (though, admittedly, not all) terms, they can be used as a valuable shorthand to discuss, evaluate and improve teaching.

Those of us who teach (or have studied) A level English language will be familiar with some of these ideas, as linguist John Swales (2011) explains how specialised terminology is used and shared by members of an occupational group to help them achieve shared goals.  That being said, there are some barriers we need to be aware of if we are are to avoid some of these terms becoming meaningless ‘buzz words’ or representative of a meaning that is contradictory.

Potential Problem 1: Lethal Mutations

This issue is summarised well in this Ambition Institute post from Nick Rose, who explains and illustrates how ideas/strategies from educational research can be misinterpreted, leading to them no longer being effective (or even having a negative impact on learning).

These issues can arise from a misunderstanding of the terms we use.  For example, I have worked with a teacher who shared an example of retrieval practice as students completing a quiz at the start of each lesson on previous content by referring to their notes.  Though this does have the benefit of elevating the importance of note-taking, most of us will be aware that retrieval practice happens when knowledge is (correctly or incorrectly) retrieved from memory.  For this reason, it’s unlikely that tasks that allow students to refer to notes will achieve the same benefits of retrieval from memory.

Potential Problem 2: Scary Terminology

As I’ve mentioned before, some teachers can see educational terminology as unnecessary, pretentious or even intimidating.  Though there are some terms that could definitely fit into each of these categories, I’d also argue that some of these reactions are a result of teachers who lack an understanding (or confidence) with their definitions.

I can see how this might then lead to a dismissal of some of these terms (as by dismissing the term, they can also dismiss their own anxieties around it).  I’ve noticed this in particular with terms like ‘metacognition’, where the meaning is often miscommunicated (some refer to it as synonymous with cognitive science overall), leading to an understandable confusion when a teacher encounters contrasting interpretations.  Like before, this can result in teachers not feeling confident in applying some of the findings from this area of study, as the term itself puts them off the idea.

Potential Problem 3: Changes Over Time

Another area English language teachers will be aware of is the common, perhaps even ‘normal’, process of the meanings of words/terms changing over time.  This is easy for us to see in words like ‘literally’ or ‘sick’, though it’s occurred constantly throughout time (‘girl’, for example, was originally used to refer to any child, regardless of gender).

In educational terminology, we know that sometimes meanings/terms can shift over time, usually due to the ways in which the term has been applied.  An example can be seen in the term ‘formative assessment’ (popularised by Black and Wiliam’s ‘Inside the Black Box’), which Wiliam tweeted about in 2013 to say that not calling it ‘responsive teaching’ was a mistake before explaining in 2018 that referring to it as ‘responsive teaching’ wouldn’t have worked, since ‘it would have given many people the idea that it was all about the teacher’s role’.

Where we all sit on the ‘formative assessment vs responsive teaching’ argument aside, it’s clear that we need to be conscious of when and how educational terms shift over time if we are to have a consistent interpretation of our shared vocabulary.

A Possible Solution?

It’s clear to me that the shared understanding of these terms needs to be clear within an organisation if we want to communicate a shared vision to our teams of what great teaching looks like for that specific community.  However, the problems involved make this no small task - linguists will also be aware of the problems with trying to effect language change from a position of authority (‘change from above’ in linguistic circles).

Perhaps, for these reasons, there should be wider consensus on our shared language: is it time for an international ‘glossary of educational terms’?  And, if so, how can we ensure that it overcomes the issues I’ve discussed without the teaching community losing ownership of our shared language?

Back to School (Again): Priorities for Returning to the Classroom

Between reading Peps Mccrea’s brilliant book on motivation and last night’s #EdChat on the pandemic's impact on curriculum, I’ve started to consider what I might need to prioritise when students start to return to the classroom.  Now seems a good a time as any to bring those thoughts together (especially given that next week is likely to be taken up with planning in the wake of the announcements due to come out on Monday).

This blog is mostly to help me crystallise my own thoughts about the return, but I’m hoping that some of my reflections might be useful for others as we plan for this.

Welcome Back!

My first priority is going to be making students feel welcome when they return.  For my own classes, the ‘meet and greet’ that’s part of our daily routines will be key.  I’m also hoping that referring back to some of our shared learning experiences - like me reenacting ‘Macbeth’ with my wig collection and desk figurines - will help with a sense of camaraderie when they are likely to be feeling worried about both being back in school and also the upcoming GCSE/A level assessment processes.

I feel that re-establishing positive relationships will be especially important for those who didn’t engage with all of the learning over lockdown in order to make them feel at ease and motivated to engage with learning going forwards.  I worry about some of these students, as the potential for teachers to berate them for not completing tasks risks losing their engagement going forwards: having a go at them for not completing some essays is not going to encourage them to engage in learning when we return (especially if they had good reason, such as limited internet or helping with the care of younger siblings).

I’m also conscious of how I will help other students to feel welcome.  It’s going to be important for us to be visible around school to greet students and remind them that they are part of a wider community.  This will be especially true for some English classes whose teacher left at February half term.  As well as giving their new teacher an introduction in their live lessons next week, I’m planning on popping by their initial physical lessons too so that they recognise their new teacher as part of the school community too.

Work Over Lockdown: What Have They Retained?

As I mentioned, I still want those who haven’t accessed all of the lockdown work to feel motivated to engage with lessons going forward.  However, it’s going to be just as important that I retrieve and build on the knowledge that we covered in this period for those who did.  What we did was valuable and students need to be aware of that.

For this reason, there’s going to need to be a delicate balance between referring back to that ‘lockdown knowledge’ and subtly scaffolding for those who missed the knowledge (or haven’t retained it, due to the limitations of remote learning and students' specific contexts).

Formative assessment (and the subsequent responsive teaching) will play a big part in this.  I’m really glad that I managed to gather different strategies for assessment whilst keeping 2 metres away from students earlier in the year (the use of mini-whiteboards, as mentioned in this earlier blog, will be vital to help me see what students do and don’t know).  As with the return to schools in September, frequent low-stakes checks of what students do and don’t know will mean that my teaching can be more targeted towards any gaps in knowledge or misconceptions.

Back To Norms

Mccrea’s discussion of social norms in 'Motivated Teaching' really made me evaluate some of my own practice (especially when I consider how I used to react if a large portion of a class hadn’t completed homework).  Re-establishing these social norms will be the lynchpin of a successful return to teaching in the physical classroom.

In terms of behaviour for learning, I’m lucky that I’ll be supported by a school-wide briefing on the first morning back.  We’ve already decided that a significant portion of the first day will be used for all teachers to deliver the same messages to their classes to recap what we do in terms of social distancing/keeping safe and also in terms of what great learning behaviours look like at out school.  Returning to these in my lessons will be important to embed them (both for myself and to support staff across the school), especially in terms of modelling and explicitly teaching these behaviours.

Though behaviour for learning is incredibly important, I’m also very conscious of how I’ll be embedding resilience into my students as part of the process of re-establishing norms.  Many of the students in my Y11 class have struggled with extended writing tasks over lockdown and I’m concerned that this might be due to a lack of resilience and confidence.  For this reason, I want to ensure that I’m doing everything I can to support them so that they feel confident enough to write an extended piece without a detailed structure to follow.

Image credit 

#EdCPDChat Reflections: Independent CPD

It was great to get back into the habit of #EdCPDChat on a Wednesday evening last week and discussing independent CPD seemed apt, given that the current situation has many of us working more independently (due to remote learning).

I was also grateful for this particular topic, as I’d reflected on the impact (and lack of impact) of my own independent CPD last summer (which you can read about in this previous blog post).

Q1: Barriers to independent CPD

@EnserMark mirrored my own concerns from last year at the start of the discussion, stating how ‘reading lots of ideas’ doesn’t always lead to us changing our practice.  In these cases, the extensive reading might not be seen as ‘genuine development’.

@Mr_N_Wood and Mark agreed that time is a barrier in bridging this gap between reading ideas and actual development, with Mark suggesting that reflection time is built into a school’s CPD provision and @DoctorPreece giving ideas of what this could look like (in the form of a coaching culture or reading groups).

Logistics was also seen as a potential barrier by @lcgeography, who has welcomed the growth in remote CPD, as it makes external opportunities more accessible (living and teaching in rural East Yorkshire, I can empathise with this).  Certainly, I’ve found that it’s been useful to access recorded sessions for my own CPD over the past few months (with @researchEdhome and @MyattandCo useful sources for this, alongside the database of online CPD collated by @TeacherDevTrust ’s @KLMorgan_2 - available at this link).  I’ve also found these resources very reasonable in terms of price (most are free); moreover, the quality is excellent- overcoming two additional barriers mentioned by @meredithfox22.

However, the vast amount of CPD available perhaps makes another barrier more problematic: where do we focus our efforts? @EnserMark pointed out that we often ‘don’t know what we don’t know’ and @m_chiles also suggested that knowing where to focus our CPD efforts is a barrier (with both suggesting the value of feedback in finding these out, through external expertise or in-school coaching processes).

Q2: Does remote learning support independent CPD?

@DanHudson84 responded to Q1 with the idea of using recorded online lessons as a self-evaluation tool to help us identify a focus for independent CPD, something that would not be as easy to do in ‘normal’ circumstances.

However, others argued that the current situation makes independent CPD more difficult, as there’s not as much time for this self-evaluation (with @EnserMark arguing that the current  remote learning training for staff is likely to be more ‘procedural’ than ‘developmental’).

@dnleslie also pointed out that we need to bear in mind that CPD after-school will be coming at the end of a long day (certainly more screen time will not be conducive to staff concentration at that point) and @greeborunner highlighted how collaboration over virtual platforms won’t be as ‘natural’, making this crucial element of successful CPD more challenging too.

From my perspective, I also think that whether or not teachers have the ‘head space’ to work on their independent CPD will depend on their personal circumstances.  A teacher who is simultaneously teaching full-time and managing the home learning of their own children might not have the same capacity to reflect on their practice as someone who does not have young children to support.  Leaders need to be mindful of this with any CPD being delivered at the moment (especially given that it can be trickier to support staff wellbeing when many of us are working from home).

Q3: Leading and supporting independent CPD

I thought that @lcgeography ’s point about independent CPD not needing to be done in isolation was important here, as he highlighted that it’s more about staff having ‘agency and choice’.  This chimed with my own experiences,  as my team have benefited more from sessions where they have structured reflection discussions on a chosen focus area than earlier sessions where I just collapsed an entire meeting as ‘independent CPD time’.

In my opinion, though, the best summary of what leaders can do to support independent CPD came from @greeborunner , as she stated that they need to ‘value it, invest in it, model it, recognise it and value it some more.’  @EnserMark followed that excellent advice up with the suggesting that the ‘value’ element is likely to be best supported by leaders having conversations about independent CPD with staff and ‘being human’.  In this sense, we can also get informal feedback on where staff’s interests lie which - in turn - will help us develop a more personalised CPD offer overall.

If you are interested in hosting an #EdCPDChat session, or have any ideas for topics, then please use the link on the @EdCPDChat pinned tweet to submit your ideas.

Mini-Whiteboards: My Weapon Against Lockdown Learning Loss

Reflecting back on the past term, I wanted to share some of the strategies I’ve used to make the most of the humble mini-whiteboard (the one thing you will definitely want in your classroom come January).

1. Routines

I’ve used mini-whiteboards a lot before, especially when it came to quizzing KS4/5 groups in the run-up to their final exams.  However, starting September with a Year 7 group (fresh from 6 months out of school) made me realise the importance of teaching routines when using mini-whiteboards; this was something I’d taken for granted with the older students, who’d handily already been drilled in these routines by the maths department.

The ‘Show-Me Boards’ routine in Oliver Caviglioli and Tom Sherrington’s Walkthrus book was perfect for this, so much so that I ended up embedding that and other walkthrus into our whole-school CPD programme (our current focus is explicitly teaching questioning routines).  Teaching and explicitly rehearsing the routines has helped my Year 7 whiteboard experience be much more efficient, especially now that they are able to put boards up at exactly the same time and let me read them without too much fuss.

2. For Quizzing

Multiple-choice quizzes, true/false responses, short written responses, pictures: the whiteboard is so much more versatile than verbal feedback.  It also has the added benefit that all students have to guess or contribute in some form (it’s definitely ‘no opt out’ for my classes, as a blank board is a sure way to get me to ask you some questions to help you form a response).

Using mini-whiteboards for this overcomes the tension between ‘hands-up’ and ‘cold-call’, as every student is able to share their answer, giving you a quick indication of what they do (or don’t) know.  With some many gaps in knowledge and misconceptions post-lockdown - as well as an increase in our lesson time to 100 minutes - it’s never been more important to be able to assess and plug gaps within a lesson.  Mini-whiteboards make that first step quick, easy and painless.

I also think there are benefits in terms of effective retrieval practice too: RP works best when the stakes are low.  Mini-whiteboard responses are temporary: perfect for guesses.  Low stakes can easily be, therefore, part of the package.

3. Drafting and Redrafting

This has been - by far - the best way I’ve used mini-whiteboards this term with my Y11 and Y13 groups.  At first, I struggled with not being able to hover over students and give ongoing verbal feedback as they practised essay tasks and exam answers.  However, with mini-whiteboards they’ve been able to draft a section, get instant feedback from a distance and then redraft it onto paper.

This has helped my students with focusing on specific elements of their writing (as we’ve used this method to deliberately practise our topic sentence structure and introductions) but it’s also meant that students can quickly make progress within the lesson, rather than waiting for me to take in books and get feedback a week later.  It’s certainly harder with my larger Y11 groups, but in this case I tend to use more whole-class feedback (though, again, I don’t need to wait to take in books for their responses).

I hope that some of this has been helpful.  Please let me know if you'd like to hear more, or if you have any other suggestions for me to make the most of the new-age slate.

#edCPDchat reflections: CPD and Teacher Autonomy

It’s been a busy few weeks (or year…) for many of us, but I was gutted to miss this week’s #edCPDchat, especially given the focus on the relationship between CPD and teacher autonomy.  This is an area that I’m trying to develop in my own department this year (I blogged on the approach I’ve taken here) so I was keen to sit down and take a look through the discussion.

Q1: How do you balance whole-school priorities with individual need, making sure that staff feel the relevance of the CPD that is available to them?

@meredithfox22 made the excellent point that this is a big challenge (there can often be tension between the priorities of a school and individual needs).  She pointed out how appraisal targets might not always be the best way, and I agree with this (especially where these targets are also linked to pay progression and/or student outcomes).

The approach @MMinton10 mentioned could offer another way though, with staff undertaking an action research project and getting training in order to do so.  From what I’ve seen, this is becoming a popular approach in schools and can be an excellent way of engaging staff with research, though I do feel that the CPD that sits alongside it is also important.  Where staff are given too much freedom and little/no guidance alongside this, it’s possible that the process in itself can be forgotten until two weeks before it’s time to share the “findings”.  In short: any individual projects need to be given regular time where staff can collaborate, reflect and refine their approaches.

@MMinton10 also mentioned how her school’s action research focus areas are decided in collaboration with school/department priorities.  I can definitely see the value in this myself, as my department have worked on a similar model (albeit on a much smaller scale) this term, where we all looked to develop our questioning by choosing a single strategy to refine over the term.  It worked well for us as it enabled for more collaboration (through paired reflection time and peer observations) as staff shared an overarching goal that also matched up with a whole-school priority.

However, I’m starting to wonder if @PearceMrs has a better idea to follow, with the mention of an ‘individual CPD plan’ that’s created with a line manager.  She highlighted how it also acts as a form of feedback, so that CPD can be balanced between whole-school and individual needs (it would also mean CPD is responsive to staff need, a priority mentioned by @SaysMiss).  Of course, time could be a potential issue- but perhaps that’s a reason for schools to start to look at how much time they allow for CPD.  Do we really spend enough time developing our teachers?

Q2: Can teachers ever have total autonomy over their CPD?

@MMinton10 made the important point that teacher autonomy is a key ingredient in increasing motivation.  In that sense, we definitely need to value teacher autonomy if we want to retain and develop great teachers.

However, the tension between school priorities and individual needs can make ‘total autonomy’ problematic.  @DoctorPreece mentioned this by stating that we need a shared culture, which whole-school priorities are part of.  I feel that what this looks like (and how much autonomy teachers have as result) will vary from school to school though, especially when you consider @SaysMiss’ point that individual priorities are more likely to be aligned if ethos and culture are explicit.  Perhaps schools who are still developing a sense of shared culture might need less than total teacher autonomy in the meantime?

A teacher’s own knowledge might also impact how much autonomy is best too: @greeborunner highlighted how novices could easily become overwhelmed so maybe, as @DoctorPreece suggests, there should be a narrower range of options in these cases.  That being said, if you were to develop individual CPD plans with line managers (as @PearceMrs mentioned earlier) this might be a barrier overcome through support and coaching rather than narrowing what’s on offer.

The biggest idea for me to consider for Q2, though, was the concept of ‘flexi-INSET time’ mentioned by @PearceMrs (which is very topical, given the recent release of @Emma_Turner75’s new book on flexible working).  I think that I definitely need to consider what this looks like on a departmental level after seeing the benefits of collapsing department time for individual CPD over the past term.  I especially liked how there was still a degree of low-stakes accountability as staff log their engagement, which in turn acts as feedback for those overseeing CPD.  I do agree with @ajm_PE that the potential for wasted time is a potential pitfall, but one that can be overcome if you support staff with the process- perhaps in combination with individual CPD plans.

Q3: How can performance management be a lever for teacher autonomy over their development needs?

Do we need to consider a national model to ensure that there’s a consistent, growth-led approach?

Some big questions here (in line with the well crafted questions throughout from @KLMorgan_2 and @MissLLewis who led this week’s chat).  In my opinion, a lot of the problems highlighted are due to the way performance management has been used by some schools as a ‘high-stakes, high-accountability’ measure that has pressured staff rather than supported them.  @piersyoung mentioned how PM processes often assume a ‘linear system’, which doesn’t reflect the actual processes of learning and progress in staff development.  @lucyheighton also warned that any national model would need to make the links between any criteria and pay progression explicit, though does teacher development and performance management need to be related to pay at all?

I agree with @ajm_PE that PM that is linked to pay is in danger of ‘killing intrinsic motivation’ and with @PearceMrs’ suggestions that development and engagement with CPD should be seen as valuable in itself, rather than being directly linked with outcomes.  At the MAT I work in, we see this as a feature of the ‘mutual professional trust’ that is important to our culture.

When it comes to the idea of a national model, I feel that this could be beneficial, especially as it could facilitate better ongoing CPD when staff move schools (which could, in turn, support teacher retention).  It could also have the potential of weeding out some of the poorer-quality CPD that’s out there by offering a QA process/trusted standard (in turn making better use of both school budgets and teachers’ time).

For the tension between teacher autonomy and school priorities, of course a form of ‘performance management’ (albeit not necessarily in the form many schools will be familiar with) could be useful in maintaining the right balance.  However, less micro-managing and more of the ‘tight-loose’ approach that @KLMorgan_2 tweeted from the @edCPDchat account might be a sensible way forwards.

A massive thank you to @KLMorgan_2 and @MissLLewis for running the chat this week, as well as to everyone who contributed for your reflections.

#edCPDchat will return in 2021.  Follow the @edCPDchat twitter account for more updates.

A Toolkit to Evaluate CPD

In recent years, the school and trust that I work within has committed to the idea that quality CPD needs to be subject-specific by giving more directed time to subject meetings, as opposed to whole-school training.

On one level, this is an excellent opportunity for CPD to become more bespoke; the introduction of personalised, evidence-informed practice projects has also fed into this.

However, I’m conscious that - as a subject leader - much of my understanding of what makes effective CPD comes from my own wider reading, engagement with edutwitter (and more recently #edCPDchat) and external training opportunities (such as the Expert Middle Leaders course with Ambition Institute).  This led to me to reflect on how I can support the other English leads across our trust without an approach that is prescriptive, as the context and priorities of each department do vary significantly.

Part of this has been to focus on collaborative resourcing, through creating folders on Teams to share slides, book extracts/blogs, videos and examples/non-examples.  The launch of a ‘CPD portal’ across our trust will take this further still, as each department will record CPD sessions to share on different elements of English teaching (alongside cross-subject videos) to access as part of department time, or by individual staff.

That being said, I was still keen to ensure that subject leaders were aware of some of the ‘active ingredients’ of CPD (as - like in the classroom - quality resources doesn’t always mean quality delivery).  It was for this reason that I was glad to read Bruce Robertson’s ‘The Teaching Delusion’, specifically when it came to the ‘toolkit’ he mentions (a list of what you’d want to see in the classroom, to help teachers reflect and evaluate).

I then set to drafting a version of this for CPD so that, alongside training on effective CPD and exploration of good practice, the subject leaders I work with would be able to reflect and evaluate on how to develop their delivery of departmental CPD.  I used Robertson’s model for this, aiming to give some examples of what the active ingredients might look like in practice alongside a space to self-evaluate and reflect.  Adam Marsh (@ajm_PE) also gave some really helpful feedback in ensuring that I’d covered different aspects of what makes quality CPD.

It’s still in its infancy at the moment, though the feedback on the draft version has been positive, as well as helping as a shared reference point for discussing the ‘active ingredients of CPD’.  You can see the first part of this below, but feel free to contact me on Twitter (@rjmcdonald24) if you want more details.