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    • Centre For Professional Learning

    At Consilium, we’re committed to the development of our colleagues. We believe great professional development will help us offer students the best education possible.

    The Centre for Professional Learning exists to develop colleagues at all levels, in all roles.

    We deliver initial teacher training, early career support, and ongoing development to colleagues in middle, senior, and executive leadership positions. We also enable school-to-school support and facilitate networks of colleagues across the trust to grow and improve in their roles.

    All colleagues are encouraged to get involved in developing and delivering training as part of the Centre for Professional Learning.

    AIMS OF THE CfPL

    The primary goal of the Centre for Professional Learning is to become the employer of choice by offering values-driven Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

    Employer of Choice

    • People want to come and work at Consilium Academies.
    • Colleagues want to stay working at Consilium Academies.
    • Colleagues feel they work for an organisation that values them.
    • Colleagues feel their career aspirations will be supported.
    • Colleagues trust they will be supported to be more effective in their role.

    Values Driven CFPL 

    • Colleagues receive professional learning which includes evidence informed content that is relevant to their roles and genuinely helpful.
    • Colleagues receive professional learning designed in a format that’s more likely to actually lead to changed actions and habits.
    • Our schools are more effective as a result of this work, and our students receive a better quality of education.

    Achieving these aims

    • Having a clear professional learning offer that we can articulate clearly.
    • Ensuring there is something in the offer for everyone, and ensuring the coverage of the offer is as comprehensive as that of the highest performing MATs in the school system.
    • Making it easy for colleagues to track what professional learning input they’ve had and to track discussions about professional learning which might aid them in their current role or help towards their next role.
    • Ensuring those who contribute to the professional learning of their colleagues understand in detail the mechanisms of effective professional development.
    • Ensuring that we are able to justify the content that colleagues receive and can provide an evidence base.

     

    THE OFFER AT A GLANCE

    Our internal offer is shared between schools and cross-Trust networks which are led by both colleagues in our schools and external professionals. The school-level offer is owned by the SLT member for professional learning and is delivered by them and other colleagues.

    At school level, we offer:

    • Our ‘universal’ offer for teaching colleagues. This includes whole-school professional learning to drive forward whole-school priorities, and includes regular departmental and subject-specific training. 
    • Any in-school initiatives such as T+L groups and instructional coaching etc.
    • Trust and external delivered support for Early Career Teachers and initial teacher trainees including opportunities for teacher apprenticeships.

    At trust level, we offer:

    • Cross-Trust networks, including our subject networks.
    • Consilium Leaders of Education for subject-specific support.
    • Central Team support and mentoring for all areas of school operation.
    • Internal programmes, led by external professionals for colleagues in schools, but across the Trust:

    Excellence in Pastoral Support

    Excellence in Learning Support Excellence in Behaviour Management

    Excellence in EAL

    Middle Leadership Mastery

    • Optional Trust webinars delivered by leading experts in education.

    This year these include:

    Love Teaching, Keep Teaching (Peter Radford)

    Conceptual Maths (Peter Mattock)

    Behaviour Management (Stephen Baker)

    The Art of Being Brilliant (Dr Andy Cope)

    Middle Leadership for the 21st Century (Bill Lowe)

    How Students Learn and Metacognition (Liz Keable)

    Botheredness (Hywel Roberts)

    Test Enhanced Learning (Kristian Still)

    Disciplinary Literacy and Vocabulary Teaching (Kathrine Mortimore)

    Powerful Questioning (Michael Chiles) Mastering Curriculum (Matt Bromley)

     

     

    On Demand CPD Platform

    We have partnered with Frog Education and created our own CfPL platform. Within the platform we have a learning directory containing a range of on-demand CPD.

    These include:

    • WalkThrus Materials and Programmes Safeguarding
    • Careers Education and Guidance SEND
    • Research Opportunities Health and Safety
    • People Skills Soft Skills IT & Data Finance
    • EAL
    • Oracy
    • Assessment and Retrieval Practice
    • Podcasts
    • Marketing

    We prioritise the continuous growth of our staff through annual Professional Development Reviews, conducted by line managers. These reviews are not pay related and focus solely on development.

    Key Features of PDRs

    Developmental Dialogue: Open discussions about professional roles, aspirations, and challenges. CPD Planning: Staff interests in Continued Professional Development (CPD) activities are captured to tailor our yearly training offerings. Personalised Support: Each staff member receives personalised CPD throughout the year.

    Ongoing Evaluation

    Follow-up sessions in February and July monitor progress and adjust plans as needed, ensuring that our professional development efforts are effective and responsive to staff needs. Our commitment to nurturing the professional potential of each team member is integral to the success and advancement of our Trust.

    National Professional Qualifications

    Through our PDR process, we identify staff members keen to enhance their skills, advance their careers, and contribute to improving school outcomes. We encourage these individuals to apply for the National Professional Qualification (NPQ) programmes.

    We promote both the specialist and leadership NPQs:

    Specialist National Professional Qualification in Leading Behaviour and Culture (NB this can be studied by non-teaching colleagues in pastoral roles in addition to teaching colleagues)

    National Professional Qualification in Leading Teacher Development

    National Professional Qualification in Leading Teaching

    National Professional Qualification in Leading Literacy

    Leadership

    National Professional Qualification in Senior Leadership

    National Professional Qualification in Headship

    National Professional Qualification in Executive Leadership 

    Apprenticeships

    We are committed to providing our staff with comprehensive professional growth opportunities through a diverse range of apprenticeships. These programmes are designed to support staff at various stages of their careers, helping them to gain qualifications and practical experience in their chosen fields.

    Our current apprenticeship offerings include:

    • Teaching Apprenticeship Facilities Management Apprenticeship (Levels 3 and 4)
    • Business Management Apprenticeship
    • School Staff & Community Wellbeing Champion

    We are excited to expand our apprenticeship offerings next year to include:

    • Senior Leadership Apprenticeship plus MA in Educational Leadership
    • Level 5 Coaching Professional Apprenticeship
    • Teaching Assistant Apprenticeship

    early career support 

    At Consilium Academies, all of our Early Career Teachers receive the fully supported Early Career Framework support programme from Teach First. We take part in the ‘direct delivery’ model, with Teach First colleagues delivering training directly.

    On our CfPL platform we have a dedicated area for all ECTs which includes information about the programme, a place to capture mentor meetings, troubleshooting guides and a place to commend colleagues for their support.

    Information on the Teach First curriculum can be found by clicking HERE.

    Our half termly trust webinars are designed to compliment the Teach First course and give access to leading experts in education.

    Initial teacher training

    At Consilium Academies, we support the wider Initial Teacher Training system. We don’t run a SCITT ourselves, but we host trainee teachers from a number of providers, and support our colleagues to be effective mentors for trainees.

    The training and development our colleagues receive as part of our universal offer of professional learning for teachers, and as part of our extended and external offers, help them to better understand the content and evidence which sits behind the ITT Core Content Framework.

    In addition to the regular training which they receive from their accredited ITT provider, and their regular development conversations with in-school mentors, trainee teachers are also able to access our in-school professional learning for teachers and CfPL platform.

     

     

     

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