05.19.10
Headteacher Blog – CPD? What Works For You?
TODAY HAS BEEN BRILLIANT!
THE BEST CPD I’VE HAD FOR AGES!
I organised a Strategic Leadership Planning Day for today. David Mitchell has been my Deputy Headteacher now for almost one year and I felt it was time for us to have some reflection time together. There are lots of things that we do really well as a school but there will always be room for improvement and this year I really wanted the School Development Plan to reflect the needs of the school and to be extremely focused and well planned. I also wanted David to have the opportunity to look back at the impact that he has had on the school learning environment and to project forward what his next actions will be and the impact of these actions.
Sometimes we can be very busy “in the thick of doing thin things”.
Reflection time matters.
My first objective was to ensure that my DHT and myself were very clear and in complete agreement about the next steps forward for the school. I wanted us to have a shared vision for school success. We have an amazing staff team and now that we have the right people “On Our Bus” it’s time to strategically plan for the future. One of our first jobs will be to take the school Mission Statement and the School Aims back to the school community to be updated so that they are meaningful and relevant.
Using flipcharts and big pens we wrote down all of the areas that we were particularly interested in developing. I am a very visual learner and using coloured pens and mind mapping helps me to organise my thoughts and priorities. We then turned this into the beginnings of an Action Plan that will be developed next week. Absolutely key to this planning was a discussion about which staff work best in which classes and what the overall strengths of the school are.
By four o’clock today David and I had the basics of an Action Plan in place which will directly feed into our School Development Plan. What we need to do next is to organise the who, when and the intended impact of the actions.
The day was SO productive and I can honestly say that David and I are now completely clear about the direction that the school is moving in. As I drove home I began thinking about the CPD opportunities that are available to staff and how useful / or not CPD could be.
The school CPD programme will be looking very different this next year, David and I have decided that we want CPD to be much more personalised and linked to the needs of each staff member. We are very lucky because we have support from another headteacher, who is a Local Leader in Education. This will ensure that I can access training for all my staff at all levels, whether it be lesson observations, planning ideas or just by creating “link “ teachers across the two schools.
Exciting times at Heathfield Primary School?
Oh yes, I think so!
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