CPD

CPD: Five things schools should…

Are you planning next year’s CPD programme for your schools? Maria Cunningham suggests five things the evidence says you should leave out

Ten ideas for using research in your school

How do we engage teachers with research? And how can we turn this engagement into impact? Alex Beauchamp offers 10 principles for developing research-informed professional learning

CPD: Books on the balcony...

School leaders can find inspiration and solutions if they build reading for professional development into their schedules, says Yvonne Gandy

Getting subject-specific CPD right

The role of subject-specific CPD and curriculum development in effective teaching is vital. Maria Cunningham looks at the research and some best practice approaches

Teaching climate change

EduCCate Global and a group of Teaching Schools in Derbyshire are supporting teachers to train in climate change education in order to equip children to handle an uncertain future on a warming planet. Headteacher Fiona Cowan explains more about the project and her school’s climate change curriculum

Observing vulnerable students during lessons

For teachers with challenging or vulnerable students in their lessons, observations can become all the more stressful. Daniel Sobel looks at how we must observe the pupils in question and not the teachers...

Supporting teacher practice and wellbeing

Drury Primary School in North Wales has developed a staff programme called the SWIG Club, which promotes wellbeing and encourages teachers to share good practice. Liz Jones explains

Case study: An effective plan for CPD

How does your school plan and implement effective professional development? Drawing on his work at Springfield Junior School, Daniel Jones shares the main principles and logistics behind their approaches to using CPD to develop and sustain high-quality teaching

The role of governors in supporting CPD

How much does your governing board know about effective staff development – and to what extent do governors support and challenge your school’s work in this crucial area? Maria Cunningham advises

CPD in the EAL classroom

As schools become linguistically and culturally diverse, it makes sense to ensure that teaching staff are adequately prepared. Silvana Richardson looks at CPD to enable teaching staff to work effectively in diverse multilingual classrooms

The challenges facing primary science education

Primary science education faces some key challenges since it was overhauled in the national curriculum reforms, including questions over how well ‘working like a scientist’ is promoted and how confident teachers are to deliver lessons. Deborah Roberts explains

Making school-to-school CPD collaborations work

The benefits of schools working together to deliver effective CPD can be far-reaching. Maria Cunningham looks at some practical steps schools might take to overcome the barriers to school-to-school CPD collaboration

Addressing secondary traumatic stress

Secondary trauma occurs when the act of supporting a traumatised young person becomes traumatic in itself – and it is a danger that teachers should be aware of. Darren Martindale advises

How do you choose your CPD ‘experts’?

Many schools work with CPD experts to support staff development, but what should school leaders be looking for when forming these partnerships? Maria Cunningham advises

Using video as part of CPD

The impact of video feedback on teacher-led CPD in Ross Newman‘s schools has been notable. Here, he explains how video feedback was implemented and offers some tips for other schools

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

About Us

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.

Learn more about Headteacher update

Newsletter

Register to receive regular updates on primary education news delivered free to your inbox.