CPD Team

PARTNERSHIP WORKING – CPD ON OUR DOORSTEP !

Curriculum for Excellence places great emphasis and value on partnership working – the CPD Network reflects that in practice. The seminar on the 17 March will profile the contribution from a range of partners who may not have always been recognised as having an impact on the professional development of teachers and support staff, or whose traditional role may have been focussed on colleagues with particular remits : eg pastoral care, additional support needs, behaviour support.

Colleagues from the school library service, social work services, psychological services, the independent and voluntary sector, health  and SQA will outline resources and experiences which are relevant to the professional development of all staff in 7 minute presentations which will set the scene for “Open Space” follow up activity of discussion and sharing.

We realise that our sample range is not exhaustive and hope that pre, during and post the seminar colleagues will be able to share similar or different examples from their own authorities.   If you have partnership working on your doorstep please share it with us on the CPD blog.

This is part of the CPDChallenge series from the National CPD Team

Katie Barrowman challenges you start finding friends and colleagues to support you in your work using the social networking tool, Twitter

What does it involve?

1. have a look at Twitter
2. search for a keyword
3. join Twitter
4. follow a few key educators (try @katiebarrowman, @cpd, @cpdscotsman, @whereisab)

Supporting CPD opportunities

9 great reasons why Teachers should use Twitter Twitter in Plain English

Visit the CPDChallenge Glow group for more…

This is part of the CPDChallenge series from the National CPD Team

Your work belongs on the web; on Glow, on blogs or national web sites. Con Morris challenges you to improve your communications by writing concisely

What does it involve?

1. learn a bit about concise writing

2. describe your work in no more than 150 words

3. include hyperlinks

4. Find a place to publish these on the Internet (your blog, other person’s blog as a comment or on your MyGlow page)

Supporting  CPD opportunity

How users read on the web How to write for the web (esp. general tips section)

Visit the CPDChallenge Glow group for more…

Guest Post from Catriona Oates of Scottish CILT

If you have ever taken part in a book discussion group and thought the format might well be useful for professional purposes, then put this date in your diary – Thursday 28th January 4pm -5pm.

At Scottish CILT ( the Scottish Centre for Information on Languages Teaching and Research ) we are committed to supporting the professional development of languages teachers across Scotland. We do this in several ways: through our programme of CPD events both national and local, on an outreach basis; through our news updates and enquiry service, and through the on-line educational journal, the Scottish Languages Review. We dipped our toes into Glow last session and had our first on-line CPD event in June, which was very successful, attracting 17 participants from across Scotland. We then live streamed the keynote talks from our national conference on MLPS in September.

This session, we took inspiration from David Niven of Wallace High School in Stirling and decided to follow his lead and organise a virtual professional reading group. This is a great idea that David started in his department and it hits a lot of targets for us. We like to think that we help teachers develop professionally through reflection on their own practice and engaging in professional dialogue.

We know that money is tight and CPD budgets are coming under increasing strain; we edit and publish a cost –free educational journal of relevance to languages teachers. It is the most frequently visited part of our website attracting hits worldwide, but we’d like more teachers in Scotland to be aware of it and make use of it, so our first reading text will be Content and Language Integrated Learning : Motivating Students, Motivating Teachers by Prof Do Coyle of Aberdeen University. Do gave the keynote talk at our September national conference and inspired many teachers to think about content and how we approach this in languages classrooms. We’d like to take a closer look at her thoughts on this and make a space to discuss what might be attractive in this idea; what might the barriers be, and where these ideas fits in with Curriculum for Excellence.

If you’d like to join us please get in touch – either with Mandy Reeman Clark (mandy.reemanclark@strath.ac.uk) or myself, Catriona.Oates@strath.ac.uk to register interest for the event and download your free copy of the reading paper. Looking forward to seeing you in the new year!

Visit the SCILT Glow group

This is a guest post from Jean Ward of Kirkwall Grammar School

Two and a half years ago, on  a wintry day in January, I attended the first cohort of training on non directive coaching and mentoring. Like many of my colleagues who have also completed the training, I have discovered I use it in nearly all aspects of my professional and personal life. We are all now looking at ways these skills can be developed in other staff and with our pupils.

This was originally a SEED funded  project which has grown and been sustained in Orkney. The original target group was emergent leaders and  probationer mentors, a  number of whom  have gone on to gain professional recognition from the GTCS in mentoring. Probationers were supported with the introduction of a course called “ The Reflective Practitioner” which took the personal awareness aspect of the coaching course and encouraged these new professionals to examine their interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. Probationers who have benefited from this training and the coaching skills of their mentors are now signing up for the full course.

The course covers the main skills involved in non-directive coaching; listening, questions, body language, silence, scaling and dialogue all to support Clutterbuck’s GROW model.  Staff from all levels of the school service have now completed the initial training. Participants are encouraged to form coaching partnerships, a buddy system of support. The course also runs in Shetland and the Western Isles allowing practice and experiences to be shared. A member of Kirkwall Grammar School staff participated in delivering the course during INSET in Stornoway in October 2009.

In Kirkwall Grammar School we now have a number of staff trained and we wanted to see how we could develop these skills with our pupils.

 We turned to Coaching and Reflective Practitioner course leader Kate Coutts (Shetland Islands Council) to  develop and pilot a 2-day course for S6. We have now had 2 groups through the process and have used their feedback to mould the direction of the course. We also wanted to be able to self deliver. With the help of a colleague and coaching buddy from one of the associate primaries, we are now in the position to offer a  ‘reflective practitioner’ type course to S6 pupils called “ S6 What’s Next?”  We have included in this an introduction to the GROW model as a tool for self coaching on difficult issues. Combining it with some of the AiFL  buddying and peer support techniques, pupils are beginning to tackle what the future may hold in a much more structured manner. Feedback from participants has been very positive. We would like to start looking at the impact it has on their learning overall and quality of their Personal statements and applications.

We now believe we can offer a similar course in S4.  This course will be called “What Now ?” If we make an introduction to coaching and the GROW model at this stage, we can develop the S6 course in to the full coaching course, very similar to that on offer to staff. Who knows? Maybe we can even have staff and pupils training together.

Coaching has a significant role to play in the personal development and independent learning of staff and pupils. We have a lot to explore here in KGS and we may write further blog posts about how we are getting on.

Last year,  S1 also had a significant coaching experience but it demands a separate report. A group of ten pupils participated in the powerful leadership development tool that is METASAGA.  I leave you to find out more about that on your own.

I had an excellent discussion this week with Catriona Oates of Scottish CILT. Like many others, Catriona is looking at how national organisations (such as SCILT) can add value to the culture of teacher-led CPD which is proving so valuable. We discussed a lot of examples such as the various TeachMeets and the recent Flashmeet about which Catriona kindly blogged. One of our conclusions was the need to facilitate online communities on Glow to ignite discussion topics and sharing of practice. Our conclusions?

• renewed determination to find, or be facilitators, for Glow groups such as CPDLead and SCILT
• use CPDShorts to focus on some key areas for debate / professional learning
• use CPDFind to bring colleagues to both of these things
• The MFLE community in Scotland (through LTScotland online service) was a leading and early success story for Scotland in the area of online CPD. Time to relight the fire?

I spent this morning in the company of colleagues from the Highland Council (mainly Dave McCartney, Terry Kerr (CPD manager) and Louise Jones) looking at the various CPD offerings on the Highland Virtual Learning Centre and highland.gov web sites. We focussed on how national CPD tools can enhance the already forward-thinking, online practice in Highland. Specifically:

• a trial of how CPDReflect could be used to exemplify and deepen understanding of the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Framework. This has recently been substantially revised for CfE
• how Glow and CPDShorts could be used to bring collegiate CPD to existing excellent awareness raising CPD on the Highland toolkit and framework
• how CPDFind could be further used to promote all types of CPD in Highland Council
• how the excellent CPD sessions from the recent CfE Showcase could be revisited through regular GlowMeet events over the coming session

I look forward to going back up in December to help take these innovative ideas forward.

This is a guest post from the ‘Curriculum for Excellence – Moving Forward Together’ event in Aberdeen

The Minister for Schools and Skills, Keith Brown MSP, delivered a speech to the delegates at the event this morning. He began by saying that is was quite clear that there has been a real embracing of the change that CfE brings by teachers. He reiterated that the aim of CfE is to give a more rounded education, breadth of education, and for all children to achieve the four capacities.

The minister told delegates that CfE, together with the Early Years Framework, places unprecedented focus on supporting our youngest learners, and that the curriculum can help ensure continuity of learning, ease transition and ensure smooth progression.

Mr Brown assured the audience that assessment practices will follow and support CfE, and allow more autonomy for teachers, providing a wider and more challenging range of learning across which learners can demonstrate their achievements.  

There will be further support for assessment in CfE, including the National Assessment Resource and the updated National Qualifications. The current P7 will be the first of the new cohort to sit the new qualifications.

Mr Brown finished by acknowledging the input of people in classrooms across Scotland. He said “As we move forward through implementation, the shape of things becomes clearer,”  and reassured the audience that the Scottish Government and the educational profession are working on creating an educational system that meets the needs and the aspirations of every child in Scotland.

The Scottish Chartered Teacher has been in the news recently, not least in Vienna. The Revised Standard for Chartered Teachers, 2009 was launched by Scottish Government on 29th September. Coincidentally this was the very day that Rosa Murray, Professional Officer, GTCS, Margery McMahon, University of Glasgow, and myself, Sheila Smith, representing the National CPD Team, were presenting at the European Conference of Educational Research (ECER) (http://www.eera-ecer.eu/ecer/ecer-2009-vienna) in Vienna, on the subject of Developing the Chartered Teacher in Scotland and what it means to be an accomplished teacher.

The process of revising the Standard itself is considered to be an example of excellent collaborative practice, involving as it did, a working party made up of stakeholders including; local authority staff, professional associations, representatives of Scottish Government, GTCS Professional Officers, university providers, representation from the National CPD Team and certainly not least, a Chartered Teacher. The working party agreed the principles and parameters of the process of revising the Standard and charged a smaller group to prepare a draft for consultation. There then followed an extensive consultation directly with the profession and through focus groups in various locations around Scotland. The revised Standard was then ratified by GTCS Council.

We believe that we now have a Standard which emphasises the educational and social values which are key to our understanding of accomplished teaching, continues to foreground the strong focus on pedagogy and the leadership qualities and skills which Chartered Teacher demonstrate through their enhanced professional actions. Our international colleagues including Lawrence Ingvarsson and Peter Gronn who have both worked extensively in Scotland were keen to engage with us again and to hear how Chartered Teacher is developing as a concept and as a lived reality for an increasing number of teachers.

The Revised Standard for Chartered Teacher can be found here
http://www.gtcs.org.uk/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.aspx?lID=375&sID=1077

 Thank you very much to the seventeen local authorities who responded to a request for information about how they managed CPD for supply teachers. Some points to emerge:

• There is a wide variation in practice across the country. Almost all responding LAs offer places on locally organised courses to those teachers on the supply list. There are no instances of teachers being paid to attend these other than those employed in schools on mid to long term contracts
• All of the Councils who responded were continuing to administer supply from within the Council
• Seven of the 17 respondents – about 45% – offer tailored CPD for their supply teachers. In a few cases these are extensive and include network meetings, established Glow Groups etc.
• A small number of the authorities expressed their concern that this was a group whose development needs were not being well met
• One problem seems to be a discrepancy between the number of teachers on the supply list and the number who are “active” – eg available for work. Many respondents suggested that they had a large number of inactive teachers, or those who had very limiting conditions for accepting supply work. In one authority more than 750 secondary teachers were on the supply list but the “core” was about 50.
• The issue of PRD for supply teachers is largely unresolved except for those on long term contracts. This means that there are some issues around their readiness to deliver curricular reform.

The 2006 CPD Team paper CPD for Supply Teachers is still largely relevant and could be updated easily if the network felt that was helpful. There are currently no CPD opportunties for supply teachers on CPDFind. If you have a good programme for returning or supply teachers this might be a good place to find new participants.

The team would be happy to put you in touch with each other if CPD for Supply Teachers is an issue that you want to move forward on, or indeed we would happily convene a working party if you felt that would be helpful.

I am very grateful to colleagues in Stirling who are willing to share a copy of their current comprehensive and high-quality “Temporary Teachers’ Staff Development Programme”, and their LNCT agreement on Supply Teachers. Let us know if you’d like a copy.