Staff CPD
All teachers at Stratford School Academy are committed to the notion that
“Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better”
Dylan Wiliam
At Stratford School Academy we value all our staff and actively encourage their development. We recognise that Continuing Professional Development (CPD) promotes high morale, motivation, self esteem and collegiality in the workforce and strongly believe that the most effective teachers are those who take ownership and give a high priority to professional development. Teaching is not just a job, it is a profession that needs to be nurtured through regular professional development, in order to ensure teachers have the skills, knowledge and understanding to deliver the school aims and improve student outcomes.
All staff members have an entitlement to high-quality continuing professional development and are encouraged to actively seek out opportunities for their own professional development. This proactive and targeted approach to continuing professional development is essential for improving student experiences and outcomes.
CPD for Teachers
Teachers engage in regular, high quality training throughout the year. All training that teachers complete has a clear focus on improving and evaluating student outcomes, and is underpinned by robust evidence and expertise. The fact that the school has received an award for ‘Engagement in evidence and research’ through the SSAT framework for Exceptional Education, is proof that this is fully integrated into the life of the school. Visits from external, high profile Educational researchers such as Tom Bennett, Alex Quigley and Laura Mcinerney are further evidence of our commitment to exposing our teachers to the most relevant and current thinking within education.
Professional development is delivered using a layered approach. All staff engage in training, relating to the whole school development plan, through CPD days and weekly twilight training sessions. To support with individual professional development, all staff engage in half termly instructional coaching sessions to develop their individual pedagogy. These sessions promote collaboration across the school and the sharing of best practice. Further to this, staff have an option to attend fortnightly ‘Teaching and Learning briefings’ to help keep them up to date with current educational research.
Not only are staff at our school experts in the subjects that they teach, they also understand the importance of staying up to date with professional development within their subject areas. Teachers visit departments in other schools, engage in subject specific school hubs, and attend exam specific training to ensure students at the school are provided with the best quality education.
CPD for Support Staff
At Stratford School Academy, we recognise that support staff play a crucial and integral role in promoting the progress of our students. The school invests heavily in the professional development of our support staff to ensure they are highly skilled and adept in their roles.
All support staff engage in professional development to align with whole school priorities and statutory requirements, such as safeguarding and GDPR training. Further professional development is tailored to help support the smooth running of the school, such as fire marshal training and first aid training, and to support individual roles such as positive handling training and CME training.
Successes at SSA
Dylan Wiliams quote that “Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better” is deeply engrained into the culture of the school.
75% of teachers at our school have qualifications in addition to their teaching qualifications. These include Masters qualification in Education and Leadership, SSAT qualifications, and National Professional Qualifications. In fact, 35% of teachers at the school hold National Professional Qualifications in areas such as ‘literacy’, ‘leading teaching’, ‘leading teacher development’, ‘behaviour and culture’, ‘senior leadership’ and ‘headship’.
Teachers at our school share their learning with others both within and outside of school. Stratford School Academy teachers have published articles in national magazines about their work in school and delivered training at Education conferences.
The Teaching and Learning team at Stratford School Academy is composed of 10 people, who specialise in a range of aspects of teaching and learning and professional development, such as leading on the Early Career Framework, leading on PGCE training, leading on developments in AI, leading on teacher engagement with education research through book clubs etc. The team draw on expertise from other teachers around the school to help provide a plethora of high quality, carefully planned training opportunities for all staff.
