St Andrew’s and St Bride’s High School
As a school of faith and learning our mission is to do the best for our children, developing their God-given talents and helping them to reach their full potential.
Recognising that high-quality learning and teaching are fundamental to achieving this mission, we set out to ensure that the professional development needs of staff across the school were appropriately supported and enhanced, in a strategic, flexible and creative way. Establishing a voluntary programme of monthly, in-house, Planned Learning Activities (PLAs) and termly Professional Reading Group (PRG) meetings, has allowed us to explore, discuss and debate the latest educational enquiry, thinking and initiatives, helping to ensure that teacher practice is critically informed and up to date, and that our annual programme is both sustainable and responsive.
Remembering that we are a ‘learning school’, has been key to this process, focussing our attention on current issues that are not only relevant to the school but vital to the school’s development now and into the future. Utilising expertise within the school, as well as experts from across South Lanarkshire Council, the West Partnership (our Regional Improvement Collaborative) and beyond, we try to make sure that all training is based on the latest research, best practice and effective pedagogies, empowering and building the capacity and capabilities of our staff as we try to meet the learning needs of our pupils. While some of these topics come from the National Improvement Framework and the school’s improvement plan, many topics are proposed by the staff themselves. At Professional, Review and Development (PRD) meetings, the Professional Standards for Teachers are used to highlight examples of good practice and identify further areas for development, which in turn help inform the focus for some of the PLAs.
Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, this flexible and organic approach to our provision for professional learning has proven to be more crucial than ever. Recognising that the school community extends beyond the four walls of the building, the programme moved to an online format, becoming more reactive and adaptable to the changing needs of our educational provision and support for staff. For example, improving digital literacy had to become a priority; introducing and upskilling the remote learning practice of staff and helping to reassure and build confidence. This was also key to ensuring that staff did not feel isolated when having to work from home. Partnership working through professional conversations could continue.
Approaching professional learning in this way has allowed the school to develop a collaborative learning culture across the school. All colleagues, from experienced practitioners to newly qualified teachers (NQTs), support staff and student teachers, have open access to all learning activities. All PLAs and PRGs are supported by the St Andrew’s and St Bride’s Professional Reading Resource, accessible through GLOW, and is updated regularly.
To date, 96% of our teaching staff have volunteered their time after school, either in person or online, to engage in these meetings. Many attend multiple activities each session with Support Staff engaging in sessions they feel are appropriate to their roles. Specifically for student teachers and NQTs, we offer a weekly, in-house, programme of support and additional training that complements and enhances the Local Authority and University training provided.
Each of these learning opportunities is evaluated with all feedback shared, not only to ensure that they match professional learning requirements and expectations but also to inform classroom practice and have a positive impact on the quality of teaching and learning. Continued high levels of staff engagement have not only highlighted the commitment of staff and belief in continued professional learning but that the quality of the programme is an appropriate and effective use of their time.
The Professional Standards for teachers form a fundamental role within our Professional Learning Programme. They act as a focus for Professional, Review and Development meetings that all staff participate in, helping to ensure that a culture of high standards and expectations are maintained and developed. These Professional Standards are used in a variety of ways during these meetings to coach and support, commend and highlight examples of good practice and sometimes challenge staff on their professional development journey. Using the evidence that these meetings provide, development priorities are then identified and used to help inform the focus of the PLA programme for the coming year. Our teachers go on to use the Professional Standards throughout the year as they regularly record their own professional learning via the Professional Update process.
To ensure high-quality and supportive professional conversations take place, all Middle and Senior managers have been trained in coaching and mentoring techniques. We have set up a number of different ‘shadowing’ programmes for teachers aspiring to become middle leaders and middle leaders aspiring to senior posts. At the start of this journey, staff are supported using a ‘coaching wheel’ to identify their professional development needs. This coaching technique is also utilised during PRD meetings and Stewardship meetings to help develop the self-reflective and critical thinking skills of all staff.
From the word go we wanted our school to be described as a ‘learning school’, highlighting to pupils, staff and parents that we are all constantly learning and trying to enhance the skills we have. It is important that children see that we are not asking them to do what we are not willing to do ourselves.
In the past four years alone, 48% of staff across the school have succeeded in gaining enhanced accredited qualifications, such as: MSc in Leadership and Management; Into Headship; Towards Headship; Masters in Education; Post Graduate Middle Management; SCEL Teacher Leadership and Middle Management; Diploma and Certificate in Inclusion; Nurture Accreditation and Additional Teacher Qualifications in Religious Education, as well as GTC Scotland Professional Recognition for Supporting Teacher Learning and Reading for Pleasure Pedagogy.
A number of staff members act as Lead teachers across the Authority in subject areas such as Literacy, Numeracy, Science, Technology and Physical Education. Most recently, members of our staff were invited to lead South Lanarkshire’s and indeed Scotland’s first secondary OU/UKLA Teachers’ Reading Group, which provides free evidence-based CPD for teachers, support assistants, librarians, reading volunteers and others to enrich their understanding of children and young people’s reading for pleasure and how to support it. Our Local Authority’s wider primary and secondary Teachers’ Reading Group programme is a GTC Scotland accredited professional learning programme.
Through this learning culture, pupils see that teachers are committed to their own learning and willing to invest time and effort for the benefit of pupil learning within the classroom. We are a successful school in terms of academic attainment and wider achievement, which is a reflection of the high quality of learning and teaching that pupils experience.
At a strategic level, the introduction of our PLA and PRG programmes was seen as having an important role in stimulating, supporting and driving effective change across the school, giving an opportunity for more intimate, less formal professional conversations and debates that are relevant to the needs of the school as a whole. Evidence strongly suggests that this model works for our community, so we plan to continue on this journey, enhancing our provision as we go, anticipating and reacting to the needs of our community.