Creating the climate
Principle
The school workforce will develop more effectively when there is a climate of learning within which the whole workforce expect to be developing personally and contributing to the school’s progress.
School example
A CPD Leader in a Lincolnshire Hospital School has focused on engaging colleagues in reflective professional development activities aiming to build capacity for Leadership. This has been achieved by focusing resources on middle leadership, investing in postgraduate qualifications and engaging with the GTC’s TLA process, all based on classroom research. The school has also made provision for staff curriculum enrichment days, releasing classroom based staff to pursue research, plan or work with colleagues.
How Successful Are We?
Self evaluation guidance can be found here. It provides brief grade descriptions defining the key characteristics of school workforce development under the headings: outstanding, good, satisfactory and inadequate.
Questions For School Leaders
- Do most of the school workforce demonstrate a willingness to initiate and engage in their own personal and professional development?
- How do school leaders create the conditions for the whole school workforce to flourish?
- Are you reassured that the school workforce are committed and enthusiastic about their own development and the personal and wider school benefits?
- How does the school foster a personal expectation/entitlement of the workforce for their own development?
- How far is the whole school workforce aware of the support and commitment of the school leaders and governors to workforce development?
- To what extent are school leaders and governors personally engaged in their own continuous learning and development?
- Is there sufficient clarity about the resources (financial, time, staffing etc) available and is this widely known amongst the whole school workforce?
helpful resources
1. Building School Capacity for CPD
The importance of CPD processes sitting at the heart of school life.
1. Creating the Climate - Self Evaluation Guidance
Learning Community Checklist
A check list for schools reviewing the CPD culture in other schools
Learning Community Impact Questions
A staff survey which could be used at the start and end of a year
Teachers TV
CPD for the wider workforce - Heywood Community High School
Heywood Community College in Rochdale has encouraged its entire workforce to participate in ongoing staff training and development, and shows how the policy has benefited staff and students alike.