Dear colleague
I've been thinking a lot lately about the gap between intent and impact in professional learning. Most of us go into this work believing deeply in the development of our people and yet the Teacher Development Trust's CPD Landscape report, captures something many of us will recognise uncomfortably well. Around £1 billion is spent annually on teacher CPD in England, yet only 1 in 4 teachers say it adequately considers the needs of their pupils, and personalised, relevant CPD, the thing teachers themselves most commonly cite as influencing their decision to stay in the profession, remains the exception rather than the rule.
With budgets tighter than ever, deciding where to spend your precious professional development time and resource is harder than it's ever been and the volume of CPD available doesn't make that any easier. I want you to know that we feel the weight of that. Every decision we make about what we offer, how we price it, and how we design it is shaped by research and what you tell us you need. We fully understand what the research consistently reinforces that the most effective professional learning doesn't happen to people, it happens through explicit discussion, through experimenting and testing ideas, and through external input that challenges the orthodoxies we've stopped noticing inside our own settings. The format matters, but it is the conditions surrounding the professional development that are significant, and something I think about a great deal in this role.
We hear consistently from members that geography and cost are real barriers, and that when leaders do attend events, they often wish they could have brought more of their team. As a result, our People and Culture Conference on 8 July is moving online so that more leaders, from more settings and regions, can be part of the conversation. The programme is rich, the sessions will be recorded for all who attend, and we've restructured our pricing so that bringing a team is a genuine option.
I also want to make sure Jade Pearce's two-part webinar series in September and October is on your radar. Many of you will know her work already and will understand why I wanted more of our members to have access to her thinking. These sessions aren't about setting a new direction, they're an opportunity to sense-check what's already underway, hold it up against a rigorous evidence-informed framework, and benefit from someone whose insight is genuinely rare.
Whatever your role, both of these opportunities have something to offer you and the people around you. I'd encourage you to explore them, share them with your teams, and where you can engage with them together.
Best
wishes
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