On the right path

Leadership Focus journalist Nic Paton looks at how NAHT and Discovery Education’s new suite of CPD tools and resources is aimed at supporting the whole teacher.

On the
right path

Leadership Focus
journalist Nic Paton
looks at how NAHT
and Discovery Education’s
new suite of CPD tools
and resources is aimed
at supporting the 
whole teacher.

ANDREW HAMMOND, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF LEARNING AT DISCOVERY EDUCATION


We can all probably visualise, perhaps with a shudder, continuing professional development (CPD) courses that fall below par.

“You set cover-work for your class and trek up the motorway to some hotel in Northampton for a few hours of CPD, an egg and cress sandwich and some networking. You’ll hear some pedagogy, discover that other people are better at this teaching than you are and then return with a few tips and a handout. This may enhance your professional capital for a while, but it doesn’t do a lot for your sense of agency and empowerment, or your well-being,” says Andrew Hammond, former head teacher, author and, since last autumn, senior director of Learning at Discovery Education.

As we gradually move into whatever “normality” is going to look like post-pandemic – and, as we report elsewhere, the practical challenges facing schools and school leaders come September are likely to be legion – an awful lot of what came before that was accepted almost unquestioningly is now up in the air.

Whether it is understanding the potential richness (as well as the real limitations) of remote teaching, or learning both to love and hate video conferencing; how we work as education professionals, how we manage our teams and how we organise our workloads have changed out of all recognition since March.

Part of this changing landscape is likely to include CPD. Granted, access to CPD post-pandemic is unlikely to be a change that needs to be addressed with the same urgency as, say, the realities of social distancing in classrooms.

Nevertheless, in a landscape where physical CPD is not only increasingly hard to justify from a cost, cover and time perspective but also now questionable from a social distancing point of view, how to deliver effective long-term professional and personal development for school leaders – CPD that really “sticks” and resonates – is an important question to be considering.

This is where NAHT and Discovery Education’s Pathway programme hovers into view. Pathway is a new suite of remote CPD tools and resources that has been developed for NAHT in conjunction with Discovery Education, and it is due to be launched this September. It is a holistic programme that’s built on a synthesis of professional and personal development and aimed at supporting the whole teacher.

As Letty Pickering, head of Discovery at NAHT, explains: “For some time, we’ve been looking at our CPD offering and saying ‘it’s great, but we can do better for our members’. Historically, our approach to CPD has focused on face-to-face activities – a lot of one-day or half-day events where you’ll have around 30 people in a room with a speaker updating them on a subject.

“While this is effective, we know that travelling to venues can be an issue with this sort of CPD, especially when you have members coming from all over the UK. Our members tell us that cost, too, can be a barrier – the fee for attending, the travel costs and the supply costs of taking individuals out of school for the day.”

Another factor increasingly in the debate mix is the ongoing teacher retention crisis, especially at leadership levels. To that end, how can CPD be used as a way to promote personal well-being and engagement in the industry as well as professional competence and improvement?

As Letty puts it: “Another driver has been ensuring we have an offering that has the well-being of our members at its heart.

“We want our members to be in full control of their learning with Pathway. It’s a fantastic tool that brings everything together, incorporating learning that links back to an individual’s ambitions and motivations.”

So, what is NAHT and Discovery Education’s Pathway programme, and how does it work?

Andrew argues that Pathway should be seen less as a tool offering CPD and more as, what he terms, “continuous professional empowerment” (or CPE). He explains that “empowerment” – essentially professional and personal agency – is increasingly being eroded in our current high-pressure, high-stakes accountability climate.

“The hyper-accountability we see now leads teachers to lose their sense of empowerment and their self-confidence; this has happened to many staff I have worked with over the years,” he suggests.

“When you are measured against very strict and narrow criteria, largely linked to the attainment and progress of the students in front of you rather than your health, well-being and motivation, then the checks and balances are eroded to such an extent that you lose some of those human facets, those motivators and those things you enjoy that brought you into the profession in the first place.”

ANDREW HAMMOND, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF LEARNING AT DISCOVERY EDUCATION


We can all probably visualise, perhaps with a shudder, continuing professional development (CPD) courses that fall below par.

“You set cover-work for your class and trek up the motorway to some hotel in Northampton for a few hours of CPD, an egg and cress sandwich and some networking. You’ll hear some pedagogy, discover that other people are better at this teaching than you are and then return with a few tips and a handout. This may enhance your professional capital for a while, but it doesn’t do a lot for your sense of agency and empowerment, or your well-being,” says Andrew Hammond, former head teacher, author and, since last autumn, senior director of Learning at Discovery Education.

As we gradually move into whatever “normality” is going to look like post-pandemic – and, as we report elsewhere, the practical challenges facing schools and school leaders come September are likely to be legion – an awful lot of what came before that was accepted almost unquestioningly is now up in the air.

Whether it is understanding the potential richness (as well as the real limitations) of remote teaching, or learning both to love and hate video conferencing; how we work as education professionals, how we manage our teams and how we organise our workloads have changed out of all recognition since March.

Part of this changing landscape is likely to include CPD. Granted, access to CPD post-pandemic is unlikely to be a change that needs to be addressed with the same urgency as, say, the realities of social distancing in classrooms.

Nevertheless, in a landscape where physical CPD is not only increasingly hard to justify from a cost, cover and time perspective but also now questionable from a social distancing point of view, how to deliver effective long-term professional and personal development for school leaders – CPD that really “sticks” and resonates – is an important question to be considering.

This is where NAHT and Discovery Education’s Pathway programme hovers into view. Pathway is a new suite of remote CPD tools and resources that has been developed for NAHT in conjunction with Discovery Education, and it is due to be launched this September. It is a holistic programme that’s built on a synthesis of professional and personal development and aimed at supporting the whole teacher.

As Letty Pickering, head of Discovery at NAHT, explains: “For some time, we’ve been looking at our CPD offering and saying ‘it’s great, but we can do better for our members’. Historically, our approach to CPD has focused on face-to-face activities – a lot of one-day or half-day events where you’ll have around 30 people in a room with a speaker updating them on a subject.

“While this is effective, we know that travelling to venues can be an issue with this sort of CPD, especially when you have members coming from all over the UK. Our members tell us that cost, too, can be a barrier – the fee for attending, the travel costs and the supply costs of taking individuals out of school for the day.”

Another factor increasingly in the debate mix is the ongoing teacher retention crisis, especially at leadership levels. To that end, how can CPD be used as a way to promote personal well-being and engagement in the industry as well as professional competence and improvement?

As Letty puts it: “Another driver has been ensuring we have an offering that has the well-being of our members at its heart.

“We want our members to be in full control of their learning with Pathway. It’s a fantastic tool that brings everything together, incorporating learning that links back to an individual’s ambitions and motivations.”

So, what is NAHT and Discovery Education’s Pathway programme, and how does it work?

Andrew argues that Pathway should be seen less as a tool offering CPD and more as, what he terms, “continuous professional empowerment” (or CPE). He explains that “empowerment” – essentially professional and personal agency – is increasingly being eroded in our current high-pressure, high-stakes accountability climate.

“The hyper-accountability we see now leads teachers to lose their sense of empowerment and their self-confidence; this has happened to many staff I have worked with over the years,” he suggests.

“When you are measured against very strict and narrow criteria, largely linked to the attainment and progress of the students in front of you rather than your health, well-being and motivation, then the checks and balances are eroded to such an extent that you lose some of those human facets, those motivators and those things you enjoy that brought you into the profession in the first place.”

1. ORIENTATION

The aim here, explains Andrew, is to enable teachers and leaders to rise above the day-to-day “noise” of a busy school environment and begin to orientate themselves within their careers.

“What motivates them? What drives them? What are they good at? What are the areas they need to work on? Where are they going? Where do they want to be? Where do they see themselves in one year’s, three years’ or five years’ time? And let’s hope it’s not at the exit door,” he says.

A 40-question online questionnaire generates a 12-page report, which you can update annually, detailing what motivates and demotivates you at work. From there, it offers bespoke guidance on how to stay motivated.

This then feeds into skills, leadership and competencies audits and a career planner or “pathway” that enables you to map out your career goals – whether it be one, two, three, five, seven, or 10 years down the line. Crucially, this is not just your professional goals but also how these align with or feed into your personal motivations and interests.

“For example, one of the things that kept me in headship and teaching for all that time was not just the CPD courses I attended, and not even just the teaching,” explains Andrew. “It was the fact that I used to coach rugby and run drama, debating and philosophy after-school clubs, which I loved. Those were my interests; those were the things that kept me in the job. So, your motivational and your extracurricular interests are important.
"[It's about] when we give teachers the compass, they can, hopefully, regain that direction, which can so easily be lost in the overwhelm," he adds.

3. REFLECTION

This final element of the programme is the one that perhaps most sets it apart from conventional CPD. Its focus is not only about encouraging programme users to reflect and build on the first two elements of the programme but also to take time out to contemplate their well-being and mental and emotional health.

Elements in this section include content authored and delivered by renowned experts in well-being and an ‘advice hub’ where you can find the answers to frequently updated questions as well as links to useful sites, helplines and a newsfeed.

This element of the programme is where a user keeps their online professional learning plan in a secure digital dashboard. This then allows them to store, update and reflect on the evidence of their career achievements, progress and milestones, including course certificates and awards, observation write-ups and testimonials.

“It is where you can see your levels of investment in yourself. Through your Pathway dashboard, you can see a summary of your motivations, your skills audits, the different modules you have completed and the certificates you have got and so on,” explains Andrew.

PRACTICALITIES

Of course, for any school leader working in a busy, cash-strapped school environment, the next two key questions here are: how much time is this going to take me? And what is this going to cost me?

Let’s take the cost question first. Pathway will cost £395 for an individual, with a sliding scale based on how many staff in the school enrol. For that amount, you get access to the full suite for 12 months, and you can pay monthly.

Once signed up, you then nominate someone in your school to act as a champion or coordinator for the programme.

After that, it is simply a question of deciding who you want to add onto the programme from within your teams, with everyone being allocated their own space on the platform.

Which brings us to the question of time. Pathway may at first seem like any CPD, in that it is an add-on to the day job. But it’s not.

The fact that, rather than requiring a trip to that hotel in Northampton, it a) is designed to be bespoke to the individual, b) can be carried out flexibly and remotely, and c) is focused on personal as well as professional development, should make it a much easier ‘sell’ to your leadership teams, argues Andrew.

“The way we’d suggest you pitch it is not as yet another thing that people have to do, but as something that, because it is bespoke, they may want to do; as something that may bring them genuine value because it encourages them to invest in themselves, as whole people. It is not a one-size-fits-all course that you have to attend alongside many others,” he says.

“The motivational plan, skills audit, well-being programme and all of the reflections in all of the modules, they are all yours. They are individualised.

"It isn’t another thing that your head teacher has directed you to do. It is the first programme that I have seen that is about you [as an individual],” he adds.

“You can access this material at any time that suits you,” agrees Letty. “You can be sat at home or in your classroom, and you can be reviewing and viewing it again and again and again.

HANNAH TUDOR IS HEAD TEACHER AT ST MARY OF CHARITY PRIMARY SCHOOL, FAVERSHAM IN KENT. SHE HAS WORKED WITH DISCOVERY EDUCATION FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS AND IS THE AUTHOR OF ONE OF THE PATHWAY MODULES.


“For me, it goes back to that point of how do we stop teachers and even our leadership teams thinking of CPD as ‘this is just something else we have to do’? That is what CPD too often is at the moment – just something else they have to do on top of everything else.

“We’re clear in our school that this is not the culture we want to create; professional development and growth have to be inwardly driven. I think a tool like Pathway will help people to have those resources to do that.

“The biggest thing for me in this programme is the opportunity it affords for you to go back, reflect and challenge. As head teachers, we’ve all had that experience where you send someone off on a training course and they come back and say ‘we don’t need to do this anymore because this person on a training course said so’, or ‘I’ve been on this course, and we need to adapt everything in our school to this’.

“What Pathway does, by comparison, is it not only allows you the opportunity to reflect and look at things in your own time but also to come back and challenge what you think about the learning, whatever the topic may be. That, I feel, is powerful, and I don’t think there is the opportunity for teachers to do that at the moment. For example, I would be more than happy for someone to say of my module ‘I completely disagree with what you’ve said there’. That is brilliant because that is what CPD should be.

“Another powerful thing for me is the ability to do this in the comfort of your home. I would love for a few of my staff to get together at each other’s houses and engage with modules as a group. It is a far more relaxed and open way of learning, and again, it creates scope for discussion and challenge.

"It is the opportunity to sit with other colleagues and say ‘I don’t agree with that because…’ and then for them to challenge me on why I don't agree with that. I think that is really powerful.

“Finally, when it comes to the well-being element of the programme, September is going to be an unknown for all of us, isn’t it? There is not a time in education that I can remember like this where staff members’ well-being and the ability to speak out without being perceived as ‘difficult’, ‘oppositional’ or ‘negative’ are going to be so important.

"It is going to be so important for people to be able to say ‘this is how I feel’ and ‘this is what I’m struggling with’.

“At the end of the day, every teacher in the land will be facing the same issues and the same challenges come September, and it is going to be a tragedy if we don’t harness that shared experience and work more – and learn more – together.”

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

What: NAHT and Discovery Education’s Pathway is an online CPD (or CPE as referred to above) programme for school leaders based around nurturing both professional and personal development.

The programme is based around three interactive and intuitive elements: orientation, navigation and reflection.

Where: In your staffroom, at home, by yourself or with colleagues – anywhere in fact. Because it is an online programme, you can access and build on it anywhere.

When: It will be available from September 2020.

How much: £395 for access to the full suite of tools for 12 months, for an individual, with a sliding scale based on how many staff in the school enrol.

How can I find out more? An introductory webinar to the programme for NAHT members was held in June. You can watch the sessions again on our YouTube channel. Further webinars are due to be held during the autumn term. For further information, visit www.discoveryeducation.co.uk/pathway