When CPD works well it really benefits teachers, pupils and whole-school improvement. It is absolutely at the heart of school culture and practice. In an environment with challenges around budgets, recruitment, retention and, as always, where pupil achievement is vital, ensuring that CPD is done effectively is paramount.
Through my work at the Teacher Development Trust, I have the privilege to visit many different schools and explore their CPD programmes in detail. A theme that comes up again and again is to what extent teachers should choose their own CPD.
Many teachers have emphatically praised the move from top-down CPD to a smorgasbord of options to choose from. Of course, individuals should have ownership over their own careers, their interests, and their priorities in work. Yet when you’re putting together a whole-school CPD programme, it is not easy, nor necessarily value for money, to offer all the options that people have expressed interest in. Particularly in the context of reduced budgets, how do you balance practicalities, school priorities, pupil needs and teacher needs?
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