The Chartered College of Teaching is pleased to be able to share our recently published Professional Framework. Available for all our members to use and share within their school, this brand new resource provides an evidence-informed framework to support career-long professional learning.

The Professional Framework brings together the Professional Principles from our Teacher, Leadership and Mentor Chartered Status pathways. Drawing from the evidence base around teacher, mentor and leadership effectiveness, these have the potential to act as a valuable guide for professional learning and driver for individual development when used as part of an iterative and supportive, developmental process.

Individuals and schools can utilise the Professional Framework to enhance their approach to professional development planning. For example, the framework can be used:

•    to facilitate reflection and self-evaluation to understand existing areas of strength and potential next steps, in line with individual career aspirations

•    to support the identification of CPD needs and identify meaningful goals for professional learning

•    to support career progression, the development of expertise, and provide recognition

•    as part of a whole-school or trust-wide approach to professional learning and development, with the flexibility for schools to introduce the framework as an entirely new approach or to integrate it into existing approaches as they wish.

Furthermore, the Professional Framework can provide an anchor for professional development throughout an individual’s career. Those leading CPD within school can make links to relevant principles where appropriate, whilst explicitly identifying where external CPD aligns with the Professional Principles can help individuals to understand and recognise how broader CPD experiences fit within their own career development pathway. With teachers increasingly engaging in CPD from a range of sources and providers, this helps to bring coherence to individual professional learning and development. Additionally, the Professional Principles support progression from the Early Career Framework, and also align with new NPQs, meaning they complement the DfE’s ‘golden thread’ that underpins the support, training and development offered to teachers as part of recent national reforms.