School Workforce

New year, new roles, new networks

As the new year begins, the importance of having supportive professional networks around you is clear. Fiona Aubrey-Smith gives us some suggestions

Coaching: More than just a queue of questions

Investing more time in coaching approaches to professional development could pay dividends for your schools, says assistant principal Laura Mackay. She offers some tenets of good practice

Case study: The power of coaching

Having both experienced significant challenges within their early days of headship, Louise Gohr and Helen Morris first connected through the power of coaching and spotted an opportunity to lead their schools using this life-changing approach

How are schools using evidence-based strategies?

Do you go by intuition, by what your neighbouring school does or what you’ve always done? Or, do you use the Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit to guide your decisions? Recent research has outlined what schools are using and why. Suzanne O’Connell reports

Supporting your EAL learners

In a new series focused on supporting pupils with English as an additional language (EAL), Nic Kidston and Katherine Solomon discuss how schools can learn more about who their EAL learners are and how they can be empowered and supported to fulfil their potential

Teaching assistants’ role in managing behaviour

Research has shown that fear of ‘overstepping the mark’ can stop teaching assistants from managing behaviour. Dr Emma Clarke outlines some of the issues uncovered during her research and suggests ways in which schools, teachers and teaching assistants can support effective behaviour management

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The links between teacher wellbeing and CPD

Does your school’s CPD provision help or hinder teacher wellbeing? Megan Williamson considers the links between effective CPD and teacher wellbeing and offers some practical advice

Case study: Graduate teaching assistants

Properly trained and deployed teaching assistants can have a huge impact on pupil outcomes. Furthermore, the use of graduate teaching assistants can also support your school’s recruitment and training strategy, as Tom Donohoe explains

Tackling teacher retention and turnover challenges

A major on-going research project by the National Foundation for Educational Research is helping us to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics within retention and recruitment for the teacher workforce in England. Dorothy Lepkowska looks at the latest findings

Planning ahead for recruitment

How can you make your recruitment processes more efficient? Rebecca Oram shares some long-term, low-cost strategies for success

Every teacher a researcher

Research in education is becoming ever more vital to raising outcomes. Fiona Aubrey-Smith argues why every teacher should be a researcher and advises on how this can be achieved

A CPD plan for the new year

As 2018 gets underway, Maria Cunningham offers school leaders some new year’s resolutions to help you ensure that your staff’s CPD is effective and high-impact for the months ahead

Effective CPD for school support staff

Teacher development is a clear priority for the most effective schools, but how do you ensure that your support staff are not missing out on crucial CPD? Bridget Clay advises

Appraisals: Passing the threshold

Teachers who have passed the threshold and moved onto the upper pay range should be making ‘substantial and sustained’ contributions to their schools. Brian Rossiter looks at how the threshold system should work and some of the related challenges facing schools

How after-school coding clubs can benefit pupils

In an increasingly digital world, Suzanne Straw looks at research findings showing to what extent after-school coding clubs can support young people to develop skills and further their interest in coding

Setting SMART performance objectives

Setting performance objectives for your staff is a key part of the planning process for the coming year, and with the end of appraisal reviews around the corner, the next step is getting objectives agreed. Jenny Moore offers five steps to making them meaningful...

Effective teacher review and appraisal practices

The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document applies to all maintained schools and the majority of academies. In this article Brian Rossiter shares good appraisal practice as part of the Professional Development Review cycle and performance-related pay

Early learning and child wellbeing research

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) is piloting the OECD’s new study of early learning and wellbeing in England later this autumn term. Caroline Sharp explains what the study is about and what it will mean for schools

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Headteacher Update is the only magazine delivered directly to every primary school headteacher in the UK. It is published six times a year, at the beginning of each term and half-term, to keep headteachers up-to-date with everything going on in primary education.

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