Professional Development: Expert Teacher Programme
At Trinity Academy Leeds we are committed to supporting and championing our staff to become evidence-led, world class practitioners who deliver world class lessons supported by our world class curriculum. Our students deserve nothing less.
As high-quality teaching is the best and most important resource we can provide to our students, we have invested in an outstanding professional development offer for all staff; our Expert Teacher Programme. This world- class offer includes both whole school CPD (Culture Build sessions), subject-specific CPD (Curriculum builds and Subject passion sessions), coaching, fantastic links with Trinity MAT and a huge array of external opportunities (ENHANCE). Our offer is underpinned by the EEF effective mechanisms for professional development (2021) and a culture of positive, low stakes feedback, through which staff thrive.
Trinity Academy Leeds is proud to be part of an ambitious multi-academy Trust (MAT). As such, our staff work with some of the best practioners and leaders in the region. We are committed to sharing best practice across the MAT to ensure our outstanding work enhances the education of as many students as possible. Working for Trinity Academy Leeds will give you the opportunity to attend (and present at) Trinity Fest, our MAT-wide research conference, to publish an article in our in-house annual Journal, TEACH, or our MAT-wide journal, SPARK.
Culture Build
Culture build is our whole-school CPD slot covering the key elements of routine, beliefs and thinking that make us Trinity Academy Leeds. As Peter Drucker famously cited, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ and at TAL establishing a clear and powerful culture amongst students and staff is vitally important. As a growing school with a growing team of individuals, the more effectively we work together under one shared vision, the more successful and supported our young people will be.
Curriculum Build and Subject Passion
These sessions form our subject-specific CPD slots used to contextualise content from Culture Build into subject areas and providing time for Curriculum Leaders to cover and refine key priorities across the curriculum.
Coaching at TAL
Our coaching offer ensures that every member of staff is supported and challenged to reach their potential. We are passionate about using the latest research evidence to inform practice and commit to sharing this with staff through both high quality deliberate practice sessions and one-one coaching.
The three pillars that therefore underpin our Expert Teacher Programme are :
- Drop ins
- Deliberate practice groups
- Coaching
The drop-in feature on step lab allows every member of teaching staff to easily and efficiently leave a short piece of feedback on a short part of a lesson they have seen (the teacher dropping in can also leave a shout out!). The frequent and positive use of this tool among our staff body is paramount to ensuring we create and sustain the culture required to allow our professional development model to thrive
All teaching staff (including ITTs and ECTs) are assigned to a deliberate practice group, run by one of Lead Coaches. A common problem with professional development sessions in schools is the ’knowing-doing gap’ (Knight et al. 2013). This refers to the phenomenon where, in training, teachers might engage with new ideas or strategies but subsequently fail to change the way they teach or make decisions in the classroom. Deliberate practice gives teachers the opportunity to isolate specific areas of teaching practices, rehearse them outside of the classroom, and improve them through feedback. This has been proven to be an extremely effective form of professional development.
All members of teaching staff will be assigned a coach (excluding ITTs and ECTs who instead are partnered with a mentor through our ‘Expert ECT programme’). Staff members will meet with their coach once a fortnight for a coaching conversation which forms part of TAL’s ‘Impact cycle’. Through coaching, each member of staff will identify a goal that motivates them, and, with their coach, will identify one key strategy at a time that they can work on for that fortnight.
Our lead coaches are individuals who have been trained through TAL’s bespoke ‘Coaching Curriculum’ and have been partnered with teachers to:
- Help the them to develop awareness by drawing attention to what is happening in their classroom
- Identify and explain teaching strategies that can help the teacher meet their teaching goals.
- Provide detailed, honest and effective feedback in a psychologically safe environment which encourages challenge and promotes open and honest dialogue.