“The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all actions concerning children” – Article 3 UNCRC

The Professional Development of Staff at TRS

Professional development for all staff at The Regis School (TRS) is recognised as central to improving the quality of learning and achievement for our students. All staff are entitled to access continuing professional development and are expected to take personal responsibility for their own professional development. At the Regis school we believe effective CPD is a learning opportunity which enables staff to keep their skills and knowledge at the cutting edge of practice, keep up to date with changes and developments in the curriculum and further enhance their pedagogy. It encourages innovation based on knowledge and research, and, most importantly, enables staff to be the best they can be in order to provide the very best provision for our young people.

To ensure CPD is effective we encourage staff to select from a range of CPD strategies to best meet their individual learning needs. The diagram below shows some of the sources of CPD that staff are able to access.

As a result of staff being able to personalise their CPD, it is hoped that we are able to create the right opportunities for staff, which in turn will support the school’s relentless drive to raise standards in teaching and learning, providing the very best provision for all of our young people to succeed.

Student Feedback The daily interactions staff have with young people that help them to reflect on a lesson and the effectiveness of the methods used to facilitate learning. This can be implicit through their responses of engagement, learning and progress or

The Regis School Teaching and Learning target is 70% of teaching to be good or better by July 2013

Daily

Structured

Student Feedback

Observing Others

Collaborative planning

Action Research

SharingPractice

E Learning resources

Learning conversations

Accessing existing research/literature

Mentoring

Professional Learning communities

Coaching

Schools internal CPD programme e.g. workshops

External support e.g. courses, other schools

“The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all actions concerning children” – Article 3 UNCRCexplicit as a direct result of questions from the teacher requesting feedback on aspects of the lesson

Observing Others At TRS staff are encouraged to use their ‘My Learning Time’ (MLT) to observe other practitioners. Sometimes this occurs informally through team teaching or teaching in open plan environments.

Action Research Daily action research takes place in the form of reflective staff evaluating and considering the lessons they have taught. This practice guides staff to their choice of PLC, learning narrative and case study. From this, developing practice staff are often asked to share their expertise at their PLC’s, staff meetings or at whole school CPD. Staff are also encouraged to study an MA to develop their action research further.

Collaborative Planning and Learning Conversations

All staff have ‘My learning time’. This is protected time which enables staff to meet to discuss planning and learning. Also time is allocated within Faculty meetings, PLC’s and INSET for staff to discuss and co plan.

Sharing Practice The school has a strong culture of sharing practice through either ‘Leading Edge’ (school publication), Faculty Meetings, PLCs, day to day conversations in the team base, in the corridor or at the photocopier!

E Learning resources and access existing literature/research

Each member of staff is provided with a laptop to enable them to access and share resources readily. There is a growing library of electronic resources and books for staff to access and contribute to.

Professional Learning Communities

All staff at the Regis School are a member of a Professional Learning Community (PLC). These are lead by our Assistant Principal responsible for Teacher Development and 10 strategic lead learners, who together support the strategic development of teaching and learning across the school.  This group of innovative and (calculated) risk-taking teachers meet regularly to develop and share best practice before exporting ideas across the school and the Professional Learning communities are one vehicle from which they can do this. We believe Professional learning communities make a difference. In short, being an active participant in a professional learning community helps people make the most of the various initiatives in which they are involved. The greatest impact of professional learning communities is that they make a difference to pupils’ learning and engagement. As Bolam et al 2005 describes, “An effective professional learning community has the capacity to promote and sustain the learning of all professionals in the school community with the collective purpose of enhancing pupil learning”.

At the Regis School (TRS) we value the learning of all in our community and aspire to offer the best professional development for our staff. Research increasingly indicates that sending individuals on one off workshops has little impact on bringing about positive change through the whole school. It is therefore important, that we offer a range of continuing professional development experiences in order to ensure positive

The Regis School Teaching and Learning target is 70% of teaching to be good or better by July 2013

“The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all actions concerning children” – Article 3 UNCRCoutcomes. What is also clear is that the impact of professional learning is significantly increased when a concerted, collaborative effort is made. If teachers work in isolation behind ‘closed doors’ they are left to tackle the many challenges and opportunities that being a teacher presents alone. Continuous and sustainable learning by everyone in the school community must be embraced and we must be prepared to develop ourselves as reflective practitioners, ensuring that what we currently offer has the greatest impact on learning for all our students. “In a fast-changing world, if you can’t learn, unlearn and relearn, you’re lost” Stoll et al 2003. Learning from each other is a critical part of this process and plays a central role in ensuring that the standards of teaching and learning at TRS are at least consistently good and our students receive the very best we can offer.

The professional learning community sessions take place on Wednesdays after school and last 75minutes. The sessions follow a common structure which consists of three main parts, sharing practice and feedback from the previous sessions, new learning and action planning. The aim of the PLCs is to foster a learning culture in which staff are encouraged to learn from each other, feel confident to take risks and aspire to develop innovative teaching that has the greatest impact on student learning. The learning communities seek to address one main key issue: to ‘Improve the quality of teaching so that it is consistently at least good’.

CoachingThe aim of the coaching programme is to contribute to improving the quality of teaching at all levels and ensuring that at least 70 % of teaching is good or better across the school by encouraging staff to focus on the intellectual and practical challenges of their role as a leader and a facilitator.

This will this be achieved by developing, training and deploying 4* coaches across the school to work with staff where there is a need. The coaches are staff who teach consistently ‘good’ lessons with ‘outstanding features’ and have high levels of emotional intelligence. They have been trained by two of our AST’s who between them have a wealth of experience in the practice of coaching others to improve.

Staff request to work with a coach to enable them to have full ownership of the programme. The coach skilfully enables:

teachers to experience and develop understanding of an integration of knowledge and skills

teachers to gain multiple opportunities to learn and apply information teachers’ beliefs to be challenged by evidence which is not consistent with

their assumptions teachers to have opportunities to process new learning with others.

Coaching helps people to find their own magic!

MentoringThe school offers a strong programme of professional development to support its newly qualified teachers drawing on a range of sources. All NQTs have a professional mentor who they have weekly contact with to support them through their first year of

The Regis School Teaching and Learning target is 70% of teaching to be good or better by July 2013

“The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all actions concerning children” – Article 3 UNCRCteaching. The mentors are all trained, and dedicate an hour a week to supporting the NQTs, to guide them through their first year of teaching, and to ensure they address all of the Teachers’ Standards. The professional Tutor works closely with the mentors and NQTs, to ensure that the professional needs of the NQTs are met, and that the mentors are fully informed and supported in their role.

External SupportWe are pleased to be able to draw on a wide range of external support in a variety of forms, as and when appropriate, to support staff in their professional development. This can include working in partnership with other schools and or organisations; access to courses from leading providers such as NCSL, SSAT; plus access to further accreditations such as the Masters which is outlined below in more detail.

MastersThe school ‘walks the talk’ when it comes to lifelong learning.  Staff at the Regis school are encouraged and supported in accessing Masters level accreditation at the local University (hosted on the Bognor campus and at Hazelwick School in Crawley). Staff can obtain ‘sponsorship’ to fund them on the MA programme from the school and United Learning. Staff can pursue The MA (Education) in Teaching and Learning, Mathematics and Leadership and Management by selecting specific modules from a particular pathway. The MA usually takes 3 years to complete on a part time basis and consist of four taught modules, one per semesters over two years assessed through a 6,000 word essay or equivalence and a dissertation in year 3 of 18,000 words. We are proud that eighteen percent of our teaching staff have achieved or are currently working towards Masters level accreditations and we look forward to welcoming other staff onto the MA programme.

The schools internal CPD programme

The school’s internal CPD programme is created based on the school priorities and the individual professional development needs of staff. It is comprised of professional development opportunities which take place weekly after school and through INSET days. The weekly CPD includes either the PLC sessions; a variety of workshops facilitated by staff from within the school; or is time allocated for staff to select from the range of CPD sources mentioned earlier. It is hoped that this flexible model contributes to an increasingly personalised model.

Middle Leadership Development ProgrammeThe Regis School offers colleagues the opportunity to participate in an established and successful programme for middle leaders. The programme accredited through the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) and can be used towards Masters level accreditation. Participants on the programme work in mixed groups with colleagues

The Regis School Teaching and Learning target is 70% of teaching to be good or better by July 2013

“The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all actions concerning children” – Article 3 UNCRCfrom across the locality, over a 10-month period, in face-to-face sessions and through individual learning in the school. Each participant is matched with a learning coach who supports them with their learning throughout the programme.Participants develop the skills and understanding to:

lead changes and improve the quality of teaching and learning reduce variability and close the gap in achievement learn with and from others, adopting an open mindset support others in their learning identify your own personal effectiveness and how it can continue to be

developed beyond the programme, enabling you to become a life-long learnerThis is done through a range of engaging activities and leadership activities which include

reading and reflecting on key think pieces discussion and activities in your face-to-face sessions with your facilitator and

other middle leaders online discussion with other middle leaders from across clusters trying out new

methods of leadership in your school, academy or children’s centre learning from colleagues, discussing what you have learnt with your learning

coach and feeding that into discussions with other middle leaders in your cluster sessions and online

All participants are expected to carry out a leadership learning challenge which identifies an aspect of practice that can be developed drawing on the skills learnt during the programme. Participants are expected to present the impact of their learning challenge to their senior leadership team at the end of the programme.

To share good practice across the academy, The Regis School has begun to produce a series of Leading Edge publications for all staff. All of the articles are focused on

The Regis School Teaching and Learning target is 70% of teaching to be good or better by July 2013

“The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all actions concerning children” – Article 3 UNCRCteaching and learning and reflect the school’s current priorities which are based on feedback from its own self review as well as external sources such as Ofsted.

Staff asked to contribute articles about the teaching methods they employ and which they would recommend to others. For example, in the last issue key articles included a focus on literacy, academic intervention (differentiation), behaviour for learning and the use of questioning in lessons. As the publication evolves, it is becoming more interactive and an article on questioning ended with a quiz entitled ‘what kind of questioner are you?’ in which teachers were asked to answer a series of questions to indentify which questioning style they use.

There are also a number of common features which appear in every issue including ‘Staff in the Spotlight’. This is written by Sixth Form students who interview specific member s of staff. In the last issue, the Sixth Formers spoke to a Teaching Assistant and the Head of Creative Art who had just completed Masters courses. At the end of each publication, there is also a feature in which students say ‘thank you’ to particular teachers and explain what the teacher has done to help them with their learning.

Looking ahead to future issues, the school is looking to draw on the work staff are doing as part of their action research. Each member of staff has to create a leaning narrative about specific teaching and learning initiatives they have introduced and what they have learnt. It is hoped that some of the learning narratives will form the basis of future Leading Edge articles.

The twice a year publication is professionally produced to reflect the high aspirations the academy has for teaching and learning. It is given out at a prominent time such as at CPD sessions for all staff.

Jo Gessey, Vice Principal – Teaching and Learning, Says:‘Leading Edge has a sharp focus on teaching and learning and is an effective vehicle for spreading practice across the school. Staff are eager to contribute and appreciate the recognition it give them when their work is featured.‘The involvement of students in the production reminds staff that all their hard work has a positive impact on their students who greatly appreciate the help they give them.’

The Regis School Teaching and Learning target is 70% of teaching to be good or better by July 2013