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Sarah Lin replied to the topic "A Useful CPD Resource – Worth Sharing" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:49:17 +0000

This is useful. I’d probably add one final question for some teams: “What are we already doing well that we don’t need to change?” There’s a tendency with CPD to assume every discussion needs to produce an action, when sometimes… Read more»

Sarah Lin liked forum post "A Useful CPD Resource – Worth Sharing" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:49:07 +0000

Sarah Lin liked forum post "A Useful CPD Resource – Worth Sharing" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:49:05 +0000

Sarah Lin liked forum post "A Useful CPD Resource – Worth Sharing" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:49:01 +0000

Natalie Brooks replied to the topic "A Useful CPD Resource – Worth Sharing" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:48:02 +0000

I’ve used a similar structure when looking at technology. The “what could we change tomorrow?” question is particularly useful because it stops the discussion becoming a wish list of new tools. Sometimes the answer is actually to stop using something!

Natalie Brooks liked forum post "A Useful CPD Resource – Worth Sharing" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:47:46 +0000

Natalie Brooks liked forum post "A Useful CPD Resource – Worth Sharing" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:47:45 +0000

Emily Clarke replied to the topic "A Useful CPD Resource – Worth Sharing" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:44:43 +0000

I like the simplicity of this. We tried something similar with questioning in English and found that asking staff to bring an actual example from a lesson made the discussion much more useful. It stopped us drifting into a general… Read more»

Emily Clarke liked forum post "A Useful CPD Resource – Worth Sharing" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:44:31 +0000

Tom Bennett posted a new topic "A Useful CPD Resource – Worth Sharing" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:43:07 +0000

Colleagues, I came across a short CPD resource recently that I’ve found useful for getting departments to talk about classroom practice without turning the session into a presentation. The basic idea is to take one familiar classroom routine and ask… Read more»

Simon Wells replied to the topic "What Should We Be Measuring That We Aren't?" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:38:26 +0000

That’s helpful.
The distinction between measuring activity and measuring impact is probably where we need to focus.
I’ll take that away for the KPI review rather than simply adding more indicators.

Simon Wells liked forum post "What Should We Be Measuring That We Aren't?" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:38:15 +0000

Simon Wells liked forum post "What Should We Be Measuring That We Aren't?" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:38:09 +0000

Emma Price replied to the topic "What Should We Be Measuring That We Aren't?" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:37:04 +0000

I’d put professional development fairly high on the list, although I’m not sure what the measure should be. Attendance at CPD is easy to record but tells us almost nothing about whether it was worthwhile. Perhaps we need to look… Read more»

Emma Price liked forum post "What Should We Be Measuring That We Aren't?" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:36:26 +0000

Emma Price liked forum post "What Should We Be Measuring That We Aren't?" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:36:22 +0000

David Harrington replied to the topic "What Should We Be Measuring That We Aren't?" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:34:47 +0000

I’d be cautious about trying to quantify staff workload too precisely. We can measure things like absence, retention and survey responses, but I’m not sure a Trust-level workload figure would tell us very much on its own. For me, the… Read more»

David Harrington liked forum post "What Should We Be Measuring That We Aren't?" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:34:21 +0000

Simon Wells posted a new topic "What Should We Be Measuring That We Aren't?" -

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 19:31:40 +0000

Colleagues, As we review the Trust KPI framework, I’ve been thinking about whether we’re focusing too heavily on measures that are easy to report rather than measures that are genuinely useful. Attendance, behaviour, assessment outcomes and financial performance are obviously… Read more»

Emma Price replied to the topic "Balancing Trust Consistency with School Autonomy" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 21:01:18 +0000

I agree with both points, although there is a practical issue. Every exception creates another conversation about whether it really is an exception. We’ve sometimes spent more time explaining why a school is doing something differently than we would have… Read more»

Helen Foster replied to the topic "Balancing Trust Consistency with School Autonomy" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:59:51 +0000

SEND is probably a good example of where I’d favour flexibility. We need a consistent expectation around quality of provision, but the actual way that provision is organised will inevitably depend on the school’s cohort, staffing and existing expertise. I’d… Read more»

Simon Wells replied to the topic "Balancing Trust Consistency with School Autonomy" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:58:50 +0000

I’d distinguish between consistency of outcome and consistency of process. For example, I don’t think every school necessarily needs to use exactly the same intervention model for attendance. But we should be able to look at the same headline measures… Read more»

David Harrington posted a new topic "Balancing Trust Consistency with School Autonomy" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:57:21 +0000

Colleagues, One question that keeps coming up as we work through the Development Plan is where we draw the line between Trust-wide consistency and individual school autonomy. There are some areas where I think consistency is clearly beneficial — safeguarding… Read more»

Chris Wood replied to the topic "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:54:23 +0000

That’s exactly the concern I’m trying to avoid.
I’ll map the current definitions alongside the reporting requirements before we look at automation. If we can agree those first, the technical side should be much more straightforward.

Chris Wood liked forum post "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:54:04 +0000

Chris Wood liked forum post "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:54:00 +0000

Chris Wood liked forum post "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:53:54 +0000

Emma Price replied to the topic "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:53:08 +0000

I think the definitions point is the important one. We’ve had situations where two schools have both reported “persistent absence”, but they’ve been using different calculation dates. The dashboard would make the collection easier, but it could also make inconsistent… Read more»

Emma Price liked forum post "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:52:55 +0000

Natalie Brooks liked forum post "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:51:55 +0000

Natalie Brooks replied to the topic "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:51:43 +0000

For attendance and behaviour, could we look at a simple automated dashboard pulling directly from the MIS? Even if we only started with three or four headline measures, it would remove quite a bit of monthly copying. The challenge will… Read more»

Simon Wells replied to the topic "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:50:46 +0000

We’ve had a similar issue with financial reporting. The biggest improvement came when we agreed exactly what the Trust actually needed to see before looking at how each school supplied it. We had previously been collecting considerably more detail than… Read more»

Simon Wells liked forum post "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:50:34 +0000

Chris Wood posted a new topic "Trust Reporting – Can We Reduce Duplicate Data Collection?" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:48:42 +0000

Colleagues, I’ve been looking at the information we currently collect for Trust reporting, and there are a few areas where we’re asking schools for essentially the same information in slightly different formats. The biggest examples at the moment are: Attendance… Read more»

Tom Bennett replied to the topic "Getting Students to Think Before They Ask for Help" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:43:59 +0000

We’ve started using a three-step prompt in a few departments: 1. Read it again.2. Check an example/resource.3. Try something. Only after that do pupils ask for help. It’s deliberately boring! That seems to be part of why it works. It’s… Read more»

Tom Bennett liked forum post "Getting Students to Think Before They Ask for Help" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:43:34 +0000

Helen Foster replied to the topic "Getting Students to Think Before They Ask for Help" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:42:03 +0000

We’ve found that “ask three before me” can be problematic for some of our pupils. For a confident pupil it’s a useful prompt to become more independent, but for some SEND learners it can simply mean sitting stuck for longer… Read more»

Helen Foster liked forum post "Getting Students to Think Before They Ask for Help" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:41:41 +0000

Mark Thompson replied to the topic "Getting Students to Think Before They Ask for Help" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:39:54 +0000

We’ve had reasonable success with a very simple rule: “Show me what you’ve tried.” If a pupil comes over without anything on the page, the first response is usually just that question. It took a while to establish, but pupils… Read more»

Mark Thompson liked forum post "Getting Students to Think Before They Ask for Help" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:38:45 +0000

Sarah Lin posted a new topic "Getting Students to Think Before They Ask for Help" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:36:30 +0000

Colleagues, A question from a recent lesson that I’m sure others will recognise. We have some pupils who put their hands up almost immediately when they encounter something they find difficult. Sometimes they haven’t actually tried anything yet. We’re looking… Read more»

Tom Bennett replied to the topic "Making Research Evidence Useful for Busy Teachers" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:28:04 +0000

We’ve started building a very small “try / review / keep or drop” element into some of our CPD. Teachers choose one change to trial for a few weeks and then discuss whether they actually noticed a difference. It has… Read more»

Helen Foster replied to the topic "Making Research Evidence Useful for Busy Teachers" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:25:58 +0000

I’d add a slight note of caution around the phrase “evidence-informed”. Some approaches have good evidence behind them generally, but that doesn’t automatically mean they’ll work in exactly the same way for every learner. I’d like to see more discussion… Read more»

Helen Foster liked forum post "Making Research Evidence Useful for Busy Teachers" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:25:40 +0000

Helen Foster liked forum post "Making Research Evidence Useful for Busy Teachers" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:25:37 +0000

Helen Foster liked forum post "Making Research Evidence Useful for Busy Teachers" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:25:33 +0000

Mark Thompson replied to the topic "Making Research Evidence Useful for Busy Teachers" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:23:53 +0000

I agree with Emily. We’ve also found that staff are much more interested when there’s a fairly immediate opportunity to try something. One of our recent CPD sessions looked at retrieval practice. Rather than spending most of the session explaining… Read more»

Mark Thompson liked forum post "Making Research Evidence Useful for Busy Teachers" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:23:29 +0000

Mark Thompson liked forum post "Making Research Evidence Useful for Busy Teachers" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:23:25 +0000

Emily Clarke replied to the topic "Making Research Evidence Useful for Busy Teachers" -

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:21:52 +0000

We’ve had some success with starting from the classroom problem rather than the research. For example, instead of giving staff something on vocabulary acquisition and asking them to read it, we’ve started with the question: “Why are pupils still using… Read more»