The publication of the Ofsted State-funded school inspection toolkit late in 2025 drew a clear line in the sand for professional learning in England's schools. Expectations for professional learning are no longer just about provision, but impact, coherence, and sustained professional growth. While this shift may cause uncertainty for some, trusts and individual schools that have already become Great Teaching Toolkit (GTT) members find themselves in a position of strength. 

Here's why. 

1. "Evidence-Informed" is baked in

The new framework expects that professional learning is "evidence-informed." For non-GTT schools, this can mean a time-consuming scramble to find evidence for ad-hoc training days or external speakers. 

Great Teaching Toolkit schools operate differently.  

By anchoring their professional learning in the Model for Great Teaching, they have a robust, internationally recognised evidence base underpinning their professional learning. They don't need to retrospectively justify; high quality research evidence is part of the normal business of their school. 

2. "Purposeful collaboration" is baked in

While it can be a struggle to evidence exactly how staff support one another to learn and grow professionally, GTT member schools have a system in place: Great Teaching Teams. 

Great Teaching happens every day in every school. Leverage the expertise in your school with purposeful collaboration that turns shared experience into collective expertise. Inside the GTT, the Great Teaching Teams feature give teachers the space, structure and support to reflect, challenge and improve – together. Because when teachers grow as a team, the whole school moves forward. 

When an inspector asks, "How do your teachers improve their practice together?", you don't need anecdotes – you have a system. 

3. Precision, not guesswork: matching professional learning to individual needs

Ofsted has been critical of overly generic professional development that wastes teachers' time. GTT schools solve this using their suite of powerful feedback tools – including validated student surveys, self-reflections and peer feedback tools – which make it easy to identify specific needs with confidence and precision. 

For the individual teacher, these tools act as a compass, highlighting exactly which area of practice (e.g., Questioning or Teacher-student relationships) requires attention, allowing them to select the corresponding GTT training resources that fits their personal goals.

For leaders, the ability to see these patterns across groups of colleagues means you stop guessing about professional learning priorities. You can deploy resources to support specific departments or phases based on actual diagnostic data. To my mind, this is what a 'coherent' curriculum for professional learning and expertise looks like. 

4. Evidence as part of "normal business process"

One of the biggest pain points for inspection is the workload associated with generating robust and relevant data. Inspectors want to see information that is produced as part of a school's "normal business processes," not simply created for the inspection event. 

This is where the Great Teaching Toolkit provides a massive saving for member schools. The platform naturally generates accessible insights on engagement and professional growth, meaning the evidence is ready before the phone even rings. 

5. Value for money

In a climate where real-terms CPD budgets are shrinking, the disparity between schools is growing. Some spend large sums on travel, hotels, and one-off external speakers that leave little or no lasting impact. 

GTT schools have flipped the model. They are redirecting their funds into a high-quality system that builds internal capacity. They aren't renting expertise for a day; they're building it for a lifetime. 

6. Prioritise staff wellbeing by removing the noise

The new Ofsted toolkit explicitly highlights "unnecessary burdens" as an area for attention. By using the GTT, leaders have already decluttered their professional learning environment. 

They aren't burdening staff with training that doesn't directly impact their practice; they empower them with personalised development cycles that fit seamlessly into everyday practice. Schools can often struggle with feelings of initiative fatigue; leaders of GTT schools provide clarity, promote agency, and ensure relevance – key drivers for staff retention. 

The Widening Gap 

These recent changes to inspection arrangements are not a hurdle for Great Teaching Toolkit member schools to clear; they are a validation of the approach you have already chosen. 

For our current GTT members: Keep going. You are already building the "sustained" and "coherent" culture that Ofsted is prioritising. 

For those yet to join: The distinction is becoming stark. The gap between schools with a systematic, evidence-based approach and those relying on ad-hoc methods is widening. The new inspection framework will simply make that gap visible. If you are ready to stop guessing and start building a professional learning culture that is inspection-ready by design, we look forward to welcoming you. 

P.S. Stuart Kime previously hosted a webinar on using the Great Teaching Toolkit in Ofsted Inspections.

You can watch the recording here. Got questions? Book a call with us to see the platform and what it can do for you!