Introduction

At Sir William Perkins’s School (SWPS), professional development is grounded in a commitment to ‘flourishing staff’, supported by a CPD offer that is both evidence-informed and responsive to individual need. As a school that celebrated its tricentenary in 2025 and is entering a new phase as a co-educational setting, we are conscious that our approach to professional learning must evolve alongside our community.

Central to this approach is a culture in which professional learning is embedded in the everyday life of the school, rather than confined to discrete training events. Our use of two complementary platforms, InnerDrive’s Teacher CPD Academy and the Chartered College of Teaching’s programmes, journal and online resources, should therefore be understood not as our CPD offer in itself, but as enablers of this wider culture.

We recognise that we are fortunate to be able to draw on both of these platforms, and are intentional in how we use them to support our wider approach to professional learning.

Why both?

Rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, we prioritise both breadth and depth in our provision. While both platforms are evidence informed, regularly updated and offer a wide range of professional learning opportunities, they serve distinct but complementary purposes.

The Teacher CPD Academy offers short, accessible, on-demand modules on key pedagogical areas such as scaffolding, creativity and adaptive teaching. This flexibility enables staff to engage with research in a manageable way, at a time that suits them, which is particularly important in a busy school. As a result, we have seen sustained engagement with professional learning across the year.

Termly usage data from the platform suggests that colleagues tend to dip in and out of multiple courses, while also committing to completing at least one in full. This pattern reflects a broader shift towards continuous engagement with professional learning, rather than isolated participation.

In contrast, the Chartered College of Teaching provides a more structured pathway through its Chartered Teacher programmes. These encourage deeper engagement with research and reflection on classroom practice, supporting more sustained and deliberate improvement over time.

Importantly, this dual-platform approach promotes professional autonomy. Colleagues are able to select development pathways aligned with their individual goals, while still contributing to whole-school priorities. This balance has been key in increasing engagement and ownership across the staff body. In this sense, the platforms do not define our professional development model; rather, they support a culture of ongoing, self-directed engagement with evidence.

Embedding CPD 

A key strength of the Teacher CPD Academy is the ability to curate resources that align closely with whole-school priorities. At SWPS, adaptive teaching has been a central focus in recent years. Working with the Academy, they bring together modules, webinars and articles that support this area and introduce them as a playlist during September INSET as a starting point for professional learning.

These resources are revisited through department meetings, staff meetings and individual reflection. This ensures that CPD is not experienced as a one-off event, but as part of an ongoing process of engagement and application.

Alongside this, the Chartered College’s journal Impact provides an accessible route into research. Articles explore key pedagogical themes from a range of perspectives, enabling colleagues to engage critically with ideas and consider their application within different subject contexts.

We build on this through half-termly teaching and learning working lunches. These sessions, often supported by pre-reading from Impact, create space for collaborative discussion across departments. Hearing how colleagues interpret and apply research in different department areas has strengthened our shared language around teaching and learning, and supported greater consistency in practice.

Internal engagement data and staff voice have reinforced the value of offering flexible and self-directed CPD opportunities, particularly where these are clearly aligned with whole-school priorities. This approach reflects our wider aim to normalise professional learning as part of everyday practice, where engagement with research and reflection are routine expectations, rather than additional tasks.

Underpinning all of this is a deliberate shift towards a culture of evidence-informed practice. Professional learning at SWPS is not something that happens to staff at set points in the year; it is something that is continually constructed through conversation, collaboration and reflection. The platforms we use are valuable because they make high-quality research accessible and manageable, but it is the structures around them – working lunches, triads, departmental dialogue – that ensure this learning becomes embedded in practice.

Working together

Both platforms support a central aim of our CPD strategy: translating research into meaningful classroom practice.

Through the Chartered College’s programmes, teachers are encouraged to reflect on their teaching using research as a foundation, often selecting a class as a case study to trial new approaches. This supports a move beyond engagement with theory towards purposeful implementation.

At SWPS, this is complemented by cross-curricular triads. Staff work collaboratively to identify a shared focus linked to our teaching and learning priorities, such as adaptive questioning or responsive assessment. Short lesson drop-ins allow colleagues to observe and reflect together over the academic year.

This approach has helped to break down departmental boundaries and foster interdisciplinary dialogue. It has also led to more connected curriculum thinking, including the development of cross-curricular projects, such as our Year 8 Sustainability project, creating links between the sciences, maths, geography, history, design technology, Spanish and computer science.

More broadly, our approach reflects the understanding that professional development is most effective when it is sustained, iterative and rooted in classroom application, rather than delivered as isolated training events. We are beginning to see this in practice through greater consistency in teaching approaches and more confident use of evidence-informed strategies.

ECT ready

Both platforms play an important role in supporting teachers at different stages of their careers, particularly Early Career Teachers (ECTs).

As coordinator of initial teacher training and ECT provision, I have found resources such as ‘Teaching Unpacked’ from the Teacher CPD Academy and the Chartered College’s Early Career Hub invaluable. These ensure that professional study sessions remain firmly grounded in evidence-informed practice.

The ability to align specific modules and resources with individual development targets allows for a more personalised approach to professional learning. This supports colleagues in developing their practice in a structured yet responsive way.

A further strength of both platforms is the recognition of professional learning through certification. The completion of modules and formal qualifications provide tangible outcomes for colleagues, which can support further professional learning and development. 

We have found that this visible recognition of effort helps to motivate engagement, reinforcing the idea that CPD is not simply an expectation, but something that is valued and celebrated within the school community.

In the classroom

An important measure of effective CPD is its impact on student learning. One area where this has been particularly evident at SWPS is in our approach to revision. Drawing on principles from cognitive science, including retrieval practice, we have worked to ensure that students engage actively with their learning. The Teacher CPD Academy has supported this by providing ready-to-use lessons that help students understand effective revision strategies. These have been integrated into our PSHCE programme, supporting students to move beyond passive approaches, such as rereading notes, towards more effective and deliberate study methods.

This alignment between staff development and student learning helps to ensure that our CPD offer has a clear and tangible impact in the classroom.

Conclusion

Our use of the Teacher CPD Academy and the Chartered College of Teaching has supported the development of a coherent and evidence-informed culture of professional learning, one that balances accessibility with depth and individual autonomy with collective purpose. Crucially, these platforms do not constitute the CPD offer in isolation; they act as tools that enable a wider culture in which professional learning is continuous, collaborative and embedded in daily practice.

Perhaps most importantly, they have contributed to a cultural shift in how CPD is understood across the school. Professional learning is increasingly seen not as a series of discrete events, but as a sustained process of engagement, reflection and application. This is reflected in greater consistency in teaching practice, more purposeful professional dialogue and increased confidence in engaging with research.

In the context of ongoing challenges around teacher recruitment and retention, a CPD offer that is personalised, evidence informed and visibly valued also plays an important role in supporting staff engagement and wellbeing.

As we continue to refine our approach, our focus remains on strengthening the connection between evidence, professional learning and classroom practice. For schools considering similar approaches, the key question is not simply about what CPD is offered, but how it is embedded.