High-quality teacher professional development is key to ensuring a good education for children and young people.
Getting it right will be vital for the successful implementation of the revised curriculum and assessment system and a better focus on inclusion.
And it’s a key driver of teachers feeling valued, feeling that they can do a good job, and keeping them in the profession. So it’s important that we do professional development well.
Improving teacher CPD
Understanding what good professional development looks like has been a shared mission for the Teacher Development Trust (TDT) and the Chartered College of Teaching (CCT) over many years.
So when TDT was looking for an organisation to continue its legacy, the Chartered College of Teaching was the obvious choice.
As the professional body for teaching, the college plays a key role in empowering teachers to engage with evidence, to reflect on practice and to influence policy.
TDT’s groundbreaking research and evidence-based policy thinking will strengthen the influential work of the college to make an even greater difference for teachers and pupils.
The links between the organisations are deeply rooted.
TDT’s founder, David Weston, was also one of the founding members of the college. Dame Alison Peacock, chief executive of the Chartered College, was a founding trustee of TDT. Gareth Conyard, chief executive of TDT, managed the relationship with the college for the Department for Education when it was being established back in 2017.
But the connections are more than just personal, going much further through a shared sense of purpose and mission.
Valuable experience
Both organisations are values-led, believing that how things are done - in a spirit of openness, humility and collaboration - matters as much as the task at hand.
That alignment has helped us to work together to develop an understanding of didagogy, the discipline of teaching teachers, and to increase the understanding of teacher agency.
Bringing the work of TDT into the Chartered College is a choice born from mutual respect, clarity and humility.
It is our belief that this coming together will further strengthen the offer available to teachers and school leaders.
A commitment to engaging in meaningful professional development, to seeking opportunities to be curious and to improve, is the hallmark of every profession, and this partnership will provide the platform for an even sharper focus on the importance of professional development.
The college’s Chartered Teacher status already offers a rigorous and respected route for teachers and school leaders, and with TDT gifting its assets and products, the expertise garnered by it over the past decade and more will further strengthen the college’s offer.
And it will add the experience of research, evidence, advocacy and delivery - including of TDT’s outstanding NPQ offer - to the body of knowledge available to the college.
Future plans
Over the coming months, TDT is passing its assets and work to the college and will, eventually, cease to exist as a separate organisation.
But its legacy will live on in the college’s continuing commitment to put effective professional development front and centre in all of its work.
The full details will be confirmed in the coming months, but we are both very clear that this is a decision made in the best interests of teachers and school leaders, who work tirelessly every day, often in the most challenging of circumstances.
Giving them a powerful professional identity and structure is essential if they are to do their jobs well.
And ultimately, of course, that means investing in the support they need to provide the very best education for children and young people.
Gareth Conyard is chief executive of the Teacher Development Trust, and Dame Alison Peacock is chief executive of the Chartered College of Teaching
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