Matthew Anglesea is Assistant Principal at Durham Sixth Form Centre in North East England. The Centre is graded outstanding by OFSTED, and in a recent monitoring visit, OFSTED commended the highly effective teaching and learning observed throughout the visit. They have used the Great Teaching Toolkit (GTT) as a part of their personal development (PD) programme to further improve student outcomes. We spoke to Matthew to find out more about how they are doing this.
What has your GTT journey looked like so far?
“It started with the Science of Learning course. We were originally part of a GTT pilot group in Durham local authority. We had a small group of around six to eight staff who completed the course as part of their PD programme. Some of that initial learning was used when we rewrote our whole Teaching and Learning policy, which in turn influenced our wider whole school PD programme when we spent two years embedding the new policy with our teaching staff. The GTT helped us support that process. It was trialled with a small focus group, and slowly shared with certain departments that used it as a vehicle to support them in terms of what they were doing for Departmental PD.
This year we have evolved further to have all members of staff accessing the platform. The original whole school PD programme has changed from all staff looking at one particular area of pedagogy, and developing it together, to a more individual approach. We’ve given the staff the option to focus in on a specific area they would like to improve. For example, it might be effective questioning, chunking learning or reviewing learning and they will focus on that for the year. This PD pathway is led by a facilitator and the GTT platform is used to support them with it, both the learning and the student voice tool.”
How has the GTT supported your strategic Personal Development Programme?
“It’s a support mechanism for us. Our Teaching and Learning policy is built around the Evidence Review, which underpins our expectations of classroom practice. The policy and GTT run alongside each other. We’ve got a whole school PD programme and parts of the GTT platform help to drive that forward. A lot of what we use the GTT for is building knowledge. All staff have completed a course this year aligned to their PD strand and they will have also all conducted a student survey. Some of the PD sessions are then spent digesting and having discussions about what the surveys are saying and how staff can develop and react.
The focus is around developing teaching techniques to improve their practice. Staff are also doing triad type work – looking at a strategy that they’re practising and then coming back together to have discussions around their observations. The student surveys on the GTT platform therefore help inform staff on what areas to focus on, and then they look to develop teaching techniques, practise them and get feedback.”
How do you measure the impact that the GTT has had on staff?
“At a basic level, staff will redo their surveys to see if anything has changed. That way, students are continually able to feedback on what they’re seeing in the classroom. However, the whole purpose of PD is to develop teaching techniques that increase the likelihood of improved student outcomes. Our main metric is our student outcomes – and we’ve continued to make significant improvements! Our PD programme has helped to contribute to this success.
I think the work we’re doing around developing staff expertise, and the role that the GTT has had in that development, has proven that it is having an impact. We also conducted our version of a ‘Big Listen’ and gauged staff thoughts around PD and the GTT – the results were really positive. I anticipate that if you came in and talked to staff about it, they would speak positively about both the GTT and the PD programme. Staff can see the progress they’re making and the impact that’s having on the student outcomes.”
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