Continual Professional Development

The most valuable resource within any school are its staff, therefore one of the most effective factors in ensuring the best learning experience for our children and young people is to invest in their professional development. At The Oak Partnership we do this in many ways.

Universal Offer

Through a ‘Learning Review Cycle’ we can work with schools and individuals to identify areas for specific professional development.

This may be delivered through regular Professional Development Meetings. Professional Development Meetings may be bespoke to the school; we also regular offer Hub PDMs at which a variety of professional development opportunities are offered across multiple sites.

In Service Training Days (INSET) are also used to target specific opportunities for professional development; these are planned across the Trust so that staff can access the most appropriate development opportunity and expertise within one setting is shared across the Trust.

Schools also use coaching models to target specific areas of teacher development. This includes the use of a Talk for Teaching model; the use of Walkthrus and Action Research.

Leadership Training

Schools are encouraged to use the appraisal process to identify career pathways for all our staff. This can start with Apprenticeships, all the way through Post Graduate Teacher Apprentice and into teaching.

Through the Early Career Framework, we support Early Career Teachers to develop their craft and become strong teachers with a diverse pedagogical ‘toolbox’.

We recognise that all staff can be leaders within and beyond their school. This also includes the opportunity to develop their leadership skills through formal qualifications.

Staff are encouraged to apply for National Professional Qualifications. The Trust supports applications through Teach First for any of the NPQs:

Leading Teacher Development

Leading Teaching

Leading Behaviour and Culture

Senior Leadership

Headship

Executive Leadership

The Trust has successfully supported apprenticeships into teaching, teachers into leadership positions and leaders into Headship. Headteachers into Executive Trust roles. 

Action Research

As a Trust we take an approach to implementing change in line with the Education Endowment Foundation’s publication: Putting Evidence to Work.

We give equal weighting to the four stages of implementation: Explore – Prepare – Deliver – Sustain.

Having identified the priority areas, we use well founded research to consider the best interventions that will deliver the most effective change. Staff are given opportunities to develop approaches through Action Research.

The Trust works closely with the Boolean Maths Hub to explore pedagogical practice in mathematics.

The Trust has previously commissioned Shirley Clarke to lead Action Research Sets, within and beyond our Trust schools, focused on Assessment for Learning.

Apprenticeships

As an establishment of learning within our community we believe that we can create opportunities into Education employment for young people. We therefore offer a range of teaching and non-teaching apprenticeships within all seven settings. Many of our apprentices stay with The Oak Partnership beyond their first apprenticeship qualification, with many going on to higher level work based qualifications.