CPD at CHSG
At CHSG we are creating a culture where people are motivated to learn and develop and see the value in their professional development for themselves, their students and for the whole school
The greatest single influence on improving the achievement of our students is the teaching in the classroom. Our teachers are encouraged to engage with current research on teaching and learning, be constantly curious and restless about their practice, and to be continually reflective. Our CPD programme for this year is collaborative, offers tiered and optional learning and enables the development of pedagogy, subject pedagogy, and subject knowledge.
We are currently focusing on the following areas as part of our CPD programme:
- How students learn – investigating the cognitive model of learning and exploring how this impacts on our teaching, learning and assessment of students within the classroom both in terms of their behaviour and routines and opportunities to recall subject knowledge.
- Reading and disciplinary literacy –understanding why reading is important, how it should be taught across CHSG and work on exposing our students to highly aspirational reading both within our subjects and beyond the classroom.
The CHSG CPD Programme
Our whole school CPD is delivered online weekly on a Friday morning from 8.15-8.30am. For those unable to partake at this time, the video remains available for the week. All Carshalton Girls’ staff have also been provided with membership to the Chartered College of Teaching to supplement in-school training and provide wider access to academic literature.
Subject specific CPD is led by Heads of Department on Wednesdays and focuses on workbook development to support the curriculum. Even in Covid-times the department time to develop booklets and subject knowledge has proved beneficial and useful to the teams.
Optional CPD opportunities are available after school throughout the year, albeit online, and have provided the ability for collaboration and shared development. Our Professional Reading Group meet every other week to discuss their thoughts on our chosen book, ‘Teach Like Nobody’s Watching’ by Mark Enser. We began a fresh round of our reading group in January and look forward to sharing our views on the latest book, ‘How Learning Happens’, by Paul Kirschner and Carl Hendrick with the rest of the staff body. We have an ever-growing CPD library with fresh new titles added regularly to ensure everyone has the opportunity to read more widely about teaching and learning.
The intention of our CPD programme is that all colleagues’ knowledge of teaching and learning, and in particular the science of learning, will be improved. This therefore ensures every student at CHSG is being taught be experts in both their subject and the field of teaching and learning. Colleagues will feel empowered to try new learning out within their classrooms due to the frequent nature of the training. Subject knowledge is enhanced through curriculum and workbook development and teachers at various stages of their career have access to various programmes that will develop them professionally and support their career prospects.
It is our aim that our teachers will write about their learning journey and share this with fellow colleagues and perhaps even their own blog posts.