GARTH HILL COLLEGE CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY Policy Owner: A Keen Amended: February 2016 Ratified by Personnel & Communications Committee: 10 March 2016 Next Review Date: January-March 2019 1 February 2016
Amendments made since ratified 08/12/2011: Changes to the content of all pages 2 February 2016
Contents Purpose and Scope Core Principles of our CPD Programme CPD Criteria CPD opportunities Responsibilities for Learning Evidence, Evaluation and Impact Appendix 3 February 2016
Purpose GARTH HILL COLLEGE Continuing Professional Development GHC is on a journey to excellence, and there is a belief in our community that anyone can achieve. The College is committed to establishing the very best staff professional development programme that supports this journey and establishes itself as a virtual training school, that others want to access. The College is committed to: ensuring access to top quality professional development opportunities, growing through collaboration with and learning from others, both within the College and outside being a genuine learning community with the capacity for sustainable, continuous self improvement, achieving beyond expectation Scope This policy and the CPD programme itself applies to all GHC staff, teaching and support, but there is a particular emphasis on the professional development of the teaching staff. Our expectation is for all colleagues, irrespective of career stage, to pro-actively engage in, and take full responsibility for, developing their professional practice to secure provision that leads to good or better educational outcomes for our pupils and students and aspire to our excellence standard. Core Principles of our CPD programme There are five core principles underpinning the College s CPD programme. These are: 1. Developing reflective professionals who take full responsibility for their professional practice and development. 2. Opportunity for all staff to access CPD appropriate to their role and career stage and in accordance with best value principles of comparison, challenge consultation and competition. 3. Empowering staff to develop their skills and competencies progressively and with reference to the College s framework and standards and external standards (1) 4. Continuous review and development of the programme taking full account of individual needs as identified by the College s CPD, appraisal and self evaluation programmes, as well as the College s, local and national priorities. 5. Accrediting staff members professional development where appropriate and possible. (1) These include the College s Excellence as Standard Teaching and Learning Framework; and recognised competency frameworks such as the Teachers Standards, National College for School Leadership s Development Framework, Garth Hill College Leadership Development Programme and competency disciplines for Teaching Assistants, Higher Level Teaching Assistants. 4 February 2016
CPD Criteria Any CPD intervention should meet the following criteria: a) Addresses individual, College and/or local and national development priorities. b) Is of sufficient quality and represents good value for money: i) Whole College INSET needs and subject specific courses identified as a priority in Department and/or College Development Plans are given funding priority from the CPD budget. ii) Curriculum Teams will indicate allocation of funding for CPD within their expenditure plans and ensure that there are adequate funds available to finance relevant INSET including training, travel and supply costs. c) Meets with learning needs identified in Individual Learning Plans, appraisal targets and/or additional needs identified by individuals and line managers during the course of the year. CPD opportunities We are leaders of learning and sharing practice and engaging in meaningful professional dialogue should be part of our working day. Garth Hill College s CPD offers a wide portfolio of different approaches to match the need of learners, so they engage on a number of levels, become excited about their work, take controlled risks, seek out and try new ideas and strategies, reflect and develop their own practice, plan, observe and evaluate together and share their work openly. The approach to our teaching and learning framework and quality assurance encourages teaching staff to habitually share best practice and engage in meaningful professional dialogue in context, in the classroom through spot coaching and blinks to develop classroom practice and secure excellent learning and progress (See Appendix 1). Responsibilities for Learning The individual learner is expected to: aspire to our excellence standard as a reflective professional lead their career development and improvements in their professional practice maintain a reflective record of their professional development, learning needs and engagement with CPD opportunities on BlueSky seek professional recognition including accreditation, as appropriate proactively engage in a wide range of CPD opportunities to secure provision that leads to good or better educational outcomes for our pupils and students The Senior Teacher (CPD) and/or individual line manager will facilitate access to a range of opportunities and resources to help meet individual needs, College and/or local and national development priorities by: Ensuring that CPD procedures are carried out and link directly with College and/or Department Development priorities and individual requirements. Ensuring that training and development programmes are established which clearly link identified needs and performance targets with robust and transparent arrangements regarding the access and planning of training opportunities. 5 February 2016
Ensuring that all staff have access to training opportunities. The College s CPD programme will be calendared and detailed so staff can plan dynamic short-term and long-term CPD journeys. Overseeing efficient and accurate record keeping of CPD using BlueSky to facilitate a rigorous system to identify CPD priorities at individual, subject, and whole-college level and to enable individuals to take ownership of their own CPD, monitor, record, evaluate and grow and develop professionally. Supporting the induction and mentoring teams including Professional Tutor, Senior Teacher responsible for Safeguarding, Site manager, ICT network team, mentors and line managers. Leading the Bracknell Forest Secondary Schools Partnership for School Direct to recruit and train high class graduates with the potential to become excellent teachers; and to provide our teachers with an outstanding training, development and well-being programme and collaborative CPD opportunities such as the Initial Teacher Training Professional Development Programme and Middle Leadership Development Programme. The College provides a genuine learning community with the capacity for sustainable, continuous self improvement, achieving beyond expectation. The College ensures access to top quality professional development opportunities, growing through collaboration with and learning from others, both within and outside the College. Governors evaluate the impact of CPD in supporting College development and ensure the efficient use of resources and support necessary for effective appraisal and CPD. Governors development is facilitated through the Bracknell Forest Governor Development Programme. Evidence, Evaluation and Impact Audits of training needs (collated through line managers and the Senior Teacher responsible for CPD) inform the development of the CPD programme to ensure CPD opportunities meet the evolving needs of individual learners, the direction and strategies of the College and national strategies. The audits will be conducted through these mechanisms: Learning walks, blinks, lesson observations and book reviews Appraisal documentation BlueSky self-reviews and individual learning plans CPD requests and evaluations College and Department Development Plans Coaching and line management meetings Pupil attainment and progress Pupil voice Recruitment and retention data The changing qualification profile of staff The Senior Teacher will report annually to the Leadership team and the Board of Governors on the provision and impact of CPD on pupils, individual staff practice and development, and impact on progress towards the College s strategic aims. 6 February 2016
Appendix 1 - Learning is the job Good learning in context enables teachers to develop and become great practitioners. Teachers at Garth Hill are expected to use the job itself as the subject of their learning and professional discovery, critically engaging and reflecting on their own practice in context; frequently observing and being observed in the classroom. More frequent observation, shorter observations ( blinks ), teaching coaches, lesson observation cameras and the use of spot coaching enable Garth Hill practitioners to stay close to what the Greeks called techne the development of craft. To facilitate our frequent sharing of best practice and professional dialogue, observation does not require pre-arranged appointments, form filling or formal feedback sessions. However, some formal record of learning observed should be carried out at least once in the appraisal cycle (or more frequently to meet the requirements of trainee teachers and colleagues on additional support plans). We do not grade individual observations, nor are they individually used as a measure of teaching provision, rather we seek substantial evidence of progress and learning over time including observation, scrutinising pupils written work, listening to their views and explanations of their learning and analysing and reviewing their outcomes in tests and examinations; all these inform assessments of the quality of teaching and professional development needs. Spot coaching is a form of specialist coaching. Purposeful feedback is provided in the instant that may provide colleagues with the chance to respond there and then. Through trial and error the chances of moving practice forward increase considerably; it is developmental and experiential learning in context. 7 February 2016