Professional Development at Chosen Hill School
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Chosen Hill prides itself on being a school where all staff can truly thrive and grow professionally. Staff are well supported and have the time and resources to improve their skills, whether that’s teaching practice, professional qualifications or practical skills.
On joining Chosen Hill all staff participate in an induction programme to introduce them to school policies and systems, to ensure the best possible start to their Chosen Hill career.
All staff have access to the National College and a whole host of training and development available on demand due to our subscription to the college.
We work closely with other schools in our local area and share experience, knowledge and training opportunities across all aspects of school life.
Teaching Staff
Our aim is to ensure that every teacher has the training and development opportunities to enable them to teach great lessons for all our students. The structure of our CPD offer, supports teachers to consistently improve their practice at all career stages. We know that teachers need time, choice and autonomy, within a supportive structure if they are to develop and become even better teachers. As a result much of our professional development is led within subject areas in dedicated Teaching and Learning meetings. There are also Toolkit CPD Sessions and INSET days calendared throughout the year that focus on key teaching and learning approaches.
We trust our teachers to engage in their own professional learning, providing tools and resources to develop their teaching practice and leadership capabilities. We have built a coaching model where teachers and coaches work together as partners using evidence informed strategies from resources such as the curated Walkthrus series.
For more experienced staff who are keen to develop their leadership practice, we also support applications onto UCL’s NPQ programmes, delivered by Odyssey and Balcarras Teaching Hubs as part of our professional development offer.
Early Career Teachers (ECT’s) have an experienced subject mentor who works in partnership with teacher training providers to provide support and guide colleagues through the two year induction period. All ECT’s have a weekly one hour meeting time with their professional mentors in addition to training and development from Odyssey Teaching School Hub, based at Pates Grammar School.
Support Staff
All support staff are given opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge through training and development. The apprenticeship scheme is used to support staff such as Teaching Assistants to become qualified and also for all staff to follow qualifications supported by the apprenticeship scheme. Staff are encouraged to develop skills through additional training wherever possible and are also able to join the NPQ programmes for leadership in schools.
Support staff have regular opportunities to discuss their training and development, both in performance management meetings and throughout the year. Staff can participate in inset sessions and separate, specific training for support staff is available and encouraged.
