HAMPSTEAD SCHOOL Learning Together Achieving Together Learning Together, Achieving Together: the collaborative process of CPD Tim Brosnan [email protected]

HAMPSTEAD SCHOOL Learning Together Achieving Together

Learning Together, Achieving Together: the collaborative process of CPD

Tim [email protected]

Presentation given at the conference:

Quality of Education - Teachers’ Professional Training and Development: the EU and the SE European countries. Athens 2-3 June 2003


Outline

This presentation has three main aims, to:• Argue that CPD is a reflective process, not a series of

events• Stress that this process needs to be collaborative at

all stages• Explicate some innovative school-based CPD

partnerships involving teachers at Hampstead school working with pupils; each other; and colleagues from universities


Background: Hampstead School

• A Technology College with strong traditions in the cross-curricular use of ICT and the creative arts

• ‘More Cricklewood than Hampstead’• >30% of pupils qualify for free school meals • >40% have English as a second (or third) language• >30% are on the school’s Special Needs register • ~130 (10% of the school population) are refugees• Results well above the average of schools with

similar social intakes – in many cases above the 95th percentile (PANDA) – and equal to or above national averages


Background: people and funds

• ~1300 pupils aged 11-18 years• 88 full-time and 34 part-time teachers• ‘Investors in People’ status (recently re-designated)• €50,000 annual CPD budget

– Only about €500 per FTE teacher

• €20,000 for CPD from Technology College money– An additional €700 per FTE teacher in TC departments

• Additional substantial contribution from staffing budget (~ €100,000) to fund ‘in-house’ ICT CPD


Hampstead’s approach to CPD

• A core, whole-school commitment to being a ‘learning institution’, reflected in Investors In People accreditation (See Staff Development Policy extract 1)

• ‘Learning together achieving together’ based on– Reflection – Review– Target Setting– Continuing Challenge and Support– Feedback and Dissemination

(See Staff Development Policy extract 2)


Reflection

• Continuous personal review of practice• Open discussion of all aspects of the institution at all

team meetings, e.g. of– Staff– Heads of Year– Heads of Department– Senior Management Team

• Requires confidence (in self, team and institution) to be open and explicit about personal, team and institutional failings


Review

Reflection formalised in Annual Reviews of:• Individual teachers (including SMT): against

previously agreed personal targets• Departments/Year Teams: against previously agreed

school, LEA, and (where appropriate) Technology College targets

• School: against School Development Plan and National, LEA and Technology College targets(Staff development policy extract 1)


Target setting

• The Annual Review leads to target setting for each individual in three areas:– Personal– Department/Team– School

• Each individual has a role to play in all three areas.• Departmental targets are not (just) the responsibility

of Heads of Department • School targets are not (just) the responsibility of the

Senior Management Team


Support and challenge

• Aim is to agree challenging and achievable targets• Their point is to raise the achievement of pupils,

teachers, and teams - not to mark out individual teachers, departments or teams as ‘poor’

• Requires and reinforces a school and departmental ethos where colleagues continuously challenge and support each other to raise pupil attainment

• Support involves a wide variety of activities (see Staff Development Policy extract 1), including the development of a variety of collaborative learning experiences


Collaborative learning with pupils

• Cisco networking course taught by the Community Learning Manager as part of the Technology College programme

• Taught ‘off timetable’ at lunchtimes and Friday nights• 16 students, 8 school pupils and 8 teachers• Pupils and teachers also learn together in informal

‘skill sessions’ run in the Independent Learning Centre

• Social and ‘school ethos’ impact of this process is far wider than the participating group


Collaborative learning with colleagues

• ICT staff have no timetabled classes (other than +16)• They work with colleagues in other departments

jointly to plan and teach programmes of study• Costly (~ €100,000 per annum from staff budget) but• High impact on school practice c.f. low impact of

large-scale (> € 300,000,000) national INSET in ICT – the ‘NOF’ programme

• Training in ICT pedagogy and skills is classroom-based, achieved collaboratively with supportive colleagues, and addresses the specific learning/ teaching concerns of each teacher/department


Collaborative learning with universities: School-based MA (1)

• MA in School Effectiveness devised for staff at the school in conjunction with leading colleagues at the Institute of Education, London

• Need identified in the School Development Plan – and the complaint of teachers that they were ‘too tired’ to go to the university at the end of a school day

• Modules and sessions started from the shared school experience of the participants

• School-individual collaboration – fees and time• Additional funding from ‘Business-Education

partnership’


Collaborative learning with universities: School-based MA (2)

• 25 teachers started the course• Year 1 had three modules and was taught at the

school after the school day• Year 2 allowed an optional module and a dissertation

– taught at the Institute of Education• Participants given time for reading ‘away days’• School paid 50% of the course fees• Significant dropout after year 1 – but all participants

valued the experience


Collaborative learning with universities: School-based diploma (1)

• Post-graduate course in Emotional Literacy devised for staff at the school in conjunction with the University of Bristol – leading to a certificate or diploma

• Need identified in review meetings of pastoral staff and in the School Development Plan

• Course devised by steering group of 4 teachers, the school counsellor and an expert in emotional literacy from Bristol University

• School-individual collaboration – fees and time


Collaborative learning with universities: School-based diploma (2)

• 12 teachers on the course• Taught on Fridays/Saturdays with participants given

time off teaching on the Fridays • School paid 50% of the course fees• ‘Action research’ coursework on specific aspects of

EL, with feedback to all school colleagues of the progress and results on INSET days

• Hampstead colleagues now leading courses in EL for other schools


Collaborative working with universities: summary

• Starting point is the self-identification of school needs• Draw in specific expertise from recognised university

experts, jointly to plan courses and modules• Significant amount of teaching at the school, in

school time and developing from the shared experience of the participants

• Joint commitment by the participants, school and university which helps build productive school-university partnerships. No longer “They stone us and say we walk with our heads in the clouds” (O. Elytis)


Summary

• CPD is a continuous process, not a series of events• Makes real (and therefore helps maintain and

develop) a school ethos that learning is life-long• Based on reflection, review, target setting, and

continuing challenge and support for all staff and covering all aspects of school life

• Is collaborative at all stages – and may require the development of innovative forms of collaboration

• Above all requires the trust and confidence in self; colleagues and institution to allow one to be reflective and openly self-critical


Final thought

Effective CPD becomes so ingrained in a school’s way of working that it ‘disappears’ and appears automatic

However, many ‘automatic’ things take continuing effort

Για να γυρίσει ο ήλιος θέλει δουλειά πολλή(Θέλει νεκροί χιλιάδες νά 'ναι στους Τροχούς) Θέλει κι οι ζωντανοί να δίνουν το αίμα τους.

But “Worthy it is”

Documents

HAMPSTEAD SCHOOL Learning Together Achieving Together Learning Together, Achieving Together: the collaborative process of CPD Tim Brosnan [email protected]