Welcome

Hello! And welcome to our November newsletter. We hope you're well and coping with the grey weather and the nights drawing in.

This month we have some website updates for you, and a focus on upcoming recommended CPD.

Also this month, our new early career teachers and mentors have been busy attending their first online clinics and coaching on coaching sessions respectively. Sarah Bird, Deputy Director of the Julian Teaching School Hub, had this to say:

"In a recent coaching on coaching session a mentor talked about how their ECT came to a meeting with their own idea of what they wanted to work on in respect of low level disruption (the focus on Steplab and their clinic). Our ECTs have been identifying underlying features that they can use to maintain high expectations, and the ECT discussed how having a rationale for why we are asking the pupils to carry out activities made a link between instructions and the impact on pupil learning, to motivate pupils to follow instructions more readily. This was an area that she felt needed more instructional coaching from her own mentor in her own context. This is a really positive example of how all of the ECT Programme training aligns to support ECTs throughout their induction period."

Website updates

We now have a dedicated page for early career teachers, with everything they need to know about their induction period, including what to expect, what they're entitled to, and where to go for support. Read more about this below.

We have also added important information for your school if you employ an ECT starting their induction in January 2023. Find it here.

And finally: in consultation with our steering group and a working party made up of local Trust leaders, we have produced a staff development charter. Its purpose is to provide a clear rationale for the importance of professional learning in improving student outcomes; and to have a clearly-defined, evidence-informed approach to staff development which supports schools in realising their strategic aims and priorities through improved recruitment, development and retention of their staff. We encourage schools and Trusts to sign up to it.

Keep in touch

You can follow us on Twitter, sign up to receive this newsletter - or just drop us an email: julian-tsh@ndhs.org.uk.

Spotlight on... The Early Headship Coaching Offer 

Structured, unassessed support based on the best available evidence about what makes an effective headteacher.

Am I eligible? 
You are eligible if you meet all these criteria: 

• You are in your first 5 years of headship 
• You are employed in England in a state-funded school or state-funded 16 to 19 organisation when you enrol 
• You have either completed an NPQH or are taking one 
• You have not withdrawn from the additional support programme previously. 

What’s involved? 
The Julian Teaching School Hub is delighted to be working with the Teacher Development Trust (TDT) and Educate Norfolk on this exciting programme.

The programme runs for a 12-month duration. It consists of five one-to-one coaching sessions with an experienced system leader, interspersed with the whole cohort of headteachers attending day visits to local settings.

Day visits help headteachers to understand school leadership in different contexts, and form supportive peer networks. They represent a progression from Educate Norfolk’s Headteacher Support Programme, rather than duplicating this existing support for new headteachers.

Find out more and apply here.

Spotlight on... Recommended CPD

One of our core values is partnerships between learning organisations. Having identified CPD need, we seek to work with a wide range of schools and organisations to identify who is best placed to design and deliver that CPD. This may be one of our local partners, ourselves, someone we have not previously worked with, or a collaboration. What drives our decision-making is fidelity to evidence with intelligent adaptation, another of our core values. Before we signpost any wider CPD to schools, we audit its design for the programme against the evidence base, offering feedback to the programme lead until we are happy that standards are high.

With that in mind, we are happy to recommend the following:

• Assessment Academy Online, provided by Evidence Based Education, in partnership with the Julian Teaching School Hub, L.E.A.D. Teaching School Hub, and Unity Teaching School Hub
• Getting Formative Assessment Right in the Early Years, provided by VNET CIC
• Norfolk SENDCo Now, provided by Norfolk County Council
• Making the Best Use of Teaching Assistants in Norfolk, provided by Norwich Research School in partnership with Norfolk County Council.

Find out more here.

News from Norwich Research School

Deep Dive Day: Effective Continuing Professional Development

Join experts from Norwich Research School for the latest evidence-informed training about planning CPD in your school.

What are deep dive days?
Going more in-depth than a twilight, but not as time intensive as a full course, a deep dive day will be a chance to look at:

• The evidence around effective CPD
• The challenges schools are facing in relation to this
• How the research evidence could be used to address these challenges in your school.

What will it help me to achieve?
You will leave the day with a copy of the Effective Professional Development guidance report, a thorough understanding of the research evidence, and ideas about how to use this to bring about improvement in your school – using examples of real-world case studies.

Who will be leading the day?

• Dr Niki Kaiser – Director of Norwich Research School, President-Elect of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Education Committee, Assistant Head at Notre Dame High School, Chemistry teacher
• Roger Higgins – Director of Professional Development for St John the Baptist Catholic MAT, Director of the Julian Teaching School Hub, Physics teacher.

Who is this course for?
The day will be useful for primary or secondary school leaders who are looking to address CPD as a part of their school improvement plan.

Find out more.