Effective Professional Development

If professional development is the key lever of school improvement, school leaders need to be able to easily recognise which levers to pull. They need to ensure that professional development not only drives individual employees’ growth, but also contributes to wider school priorities.

Professional development to support school priorities

Effective professional development strategy depends on a holistic approach that gives school leaders oversight of CPD activity but also empowers individuals to take the lead and be accountable for their own professional growth.

BlueSky streamlines this approach. Our intuitive features allow leaders to identify and target CPD needs aligned to school strategy. Meanwhile every member of the school workforce has their own professional development portfolio, which seamlessly links to appraisal objectives and wider school priorities.

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Revolutionising professional development, People strategy in schools, succession planning, School Workforce Challenges

“It’s very useful to have everything in one place where staff can see the impact of their work adding up… staff are now seeing that this system is here to help them become better at their jobs.”

Daniel Brown
Director of Professional Learning and Development, Dulwich College Singapore

Did you know?

74%

of leaders consider teacher development to be important for school
improvement purposes. (Source)

However…

48%

of teachers don’t feel as though their professional development is prioritised
by education leaders. (Source)

Take ownership of your professional growth

BlueSky provides a comprehensive platform that puts teachers in the driving seat, allowing them to document and track their professional development throughout their career. Empowering teachers to take ownership of their own professional growth, with documented and trackable development goals, visibility over progress, and built-in evaluations that provide teachers with a clear view of how their practice is directly contributing to overall school improvement.

Sustainable changes and development require continuous support and follow up. Our platform promotes a long-term perspective of professional development for teachers and allows you to identify areas for growth that align with school priorities.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How can teachers engage in professional development?

There are many ways for teachers to engage in professional development to enhance their skills, knowledge, and classroom practice. Teachers could attend workshops and conferences, take online courses, collaborate with peers, gain feedback from colleagues and managers, engage in reflective practice, research new teaching methodologies, or through their formal quality assurance processes. These are just a few examples – professional development in schools can be effective in many forms and should be selected to suit the needs of the individual.

How can schools support professional development?

A school environment that is conducive to professional learning is vital when designing a professional development strategy. There should be dedicated time for teachers to collaborate with one another and share best practices, and consideration needs to be given to how ECTs will be mentored. Providing teachers with individualised development plans is imperative, with goals that align with both school objectives and the teachers career goals. Ensure your teachers have access to the right resources to grow, and provide them with constructive and actionable feedback.

What are the mechanisms of effective professional development?

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has identified 14 mechanisms that promote effective professional development in schools. These are split into four groups:

Building knowledge
Motivating teachers
Developing teaching techniques
Embedding practice

BlueSky provides teachers with a single centralised platform, offering teachers the means to engage in effective self-review, cover all four EEF mechanism groups and engage with CPD.

The mechanisms encompass strategies such as managing cognitive load, revisiting prior learning, setting and agreeing on goals, providing affirmation and reinforcement after progress, arranging practical social support, modelling the technique, providing feedback, and encouraging self-monitoring, among others. BlueSky provides teachers with a single centralised platform, offering teachers the means to engage in effective self-monitoring.

If you had any more questions that were not answered above, please get in touch.

Supporting teachers from
the ground up

Creating a supportive environment for the professional development and growth of your school staff can be a formidable challenge. Teachers are collegiate and embrace opportunities to develop practice but struggle to find time for CPD, particularly if implementing these new ways of working add extra work to their plates.

That’s where BlueSky can help.

BlueSky empowers your workforce to engage with targeted professional development through streamlined processes that align goals with school priorities and support student outcomes, ensuring all your teachers and school staff feel fulfilled and capable of delivering high-quality education every day.

bluesky-education-individual progress report 2

Recruit and retain top reaching talent, School Workforce Challenges

Unlocking teacher potential

BlueSky supports teachers and school staff to develop practices that impact on student outcomes and create a sense of job satisfaction.

Our online solutions deliver holistic intelligence that allows school leaders to identify and target development needs, as well as recognising expertise across the organisation. Granular reporting means you can create highly individualised professional development plans that feed into school priorities, as needs change within the student cohort.

With strategies and goals personalised to each individual, your teachers can have a clear and comprehensive understanding of their developmental goals, ensuring they feel well-equipped and motivated to attain them.

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Why Choose BlueSky?

BlueSky Education’s award-winning platform empowers education leaders in enhancing their professional development processes, enabling a comprehensive understanding of its impact on classroom practice and school improvement.

By seamlessly integrating quality assurance and holistic intelligence tools, BlueSky facilitates progress assessment, fosters active and ongoing professional dialogue, and encourages school staff to align their professional objectives with school and trust priorities.

Trusted by thousands of schools, trusts, and groups worldwide, BlueSky stands as the foremost solution of its kind, recognised by top awards including a Bett Award for Leadership and Management.