The Optimus blog

The blog that inspires leaders in the UK education sector

The Optimus blog

The blog that inspires leaders in the UK education sector

CPD

Lizzie Gait

CPD in the news: Sutton Trust

Across the education sector, colleagues are calling for a greater focus on professional learning for teachers. Lizzie Gait, training development lead, looks at some of the key research and policy documents which are paving the way to improved professional development. In light of the government’s...
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Elizabeth Holmes

How to encourage professional dialogue in schools

Effective face-to-face professional dialogue requires good listening skills, empathy, compassion, understanding and being civil in the event of disagreements. Elizabeth Holmes explains what schools can do to encourage positive discussion. A single conversation across the table with a wise man is...
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Lizzie Gait

What does quality CPD look like to you?

How can you ensure that CPD in your school consistently meets the highest standards? Our new Teacher Quality Mark can help you maintain training standards in your school. Exciting news from camp OE… Here at Optimus Education we have just launched our first online only course! Managing Self-Harm by...
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Lizzie Gait

Tackling staff underperformance: a necessary evil?

Effective support must be provided for colleagues who are underperforming, but in order to ensure improvements take place, high quality training to help those in charge of performance management and appraisal is crucial. Want expert advice from education lawyers on an employment issue? Come to...
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Elizabeth Holmes

The College of Teaching – what’s it all about?

‘The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.’ – Bill Clinton If you’re not a regular on Twitter some of the wrangling over plans for a College of Teaching for the profession may have passed you by. But now a proposal has been published by the Claim Your College...
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Lizzie Gait

Improving Initial Teacher Training: recommendations from the Carter review

The Carter Review of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) was released last month, detailing Sir Andrew Carter’s recommendations for ITT moving forwards. To save you time, we’ve summarised the recommendations for you. We hope you find it useful! The aim of the Carter review was to: define effective ITT...
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Elizabeth Holmes

CPD and the year ahead – the view from the TDT (Part 2)

'Learning never exhausts the mind.' – Leonardo Da Vinci Following on from our recent blog on David Weston and the Teacher Development Trust , we discuss with David the key characteristics of effective CPD and what schools can do to raise the profile and standard of the CPD accessed by teachers...
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Elizabeth Holmes

CPD and the year ahead – the view from the TDT (Part 1)

'Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.' – Albert Einstein There are few people out there with as much interest and involvement in the continuing professional development of teachers as David Weston, Chief Executive of the Teacher Development Trust (TDT) . In the two...
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Elizabeth Holmes

Happy New Year! 15 CPD resolutions for teachers

'I think in terms of the day’s resolutions, not the year’s.' - Henry Moore So, a new calendar year is almost upon us and although we are only a third of the way through the academic year, it still feels like a time to reflect on how things are going – focusing on what we may change for the better...
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Alex Masters

David Laws on workload, Ofsted and CPD

Lib Dem MP David Laws gave a revealing interview with TES this week. Here we have selected the top ten quotes from the Minister of State for Schools with some relevant links to articles from Optimus Education. Teachers still work long hours outside the classroom compared with teachers in other...
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