Support the individual and develop the whole

The DfE standard for teachers’ professional development (2016) states that effective professional development should have ‘explicit relevance to participants’ and account for ‘individual teachers’ existing experience, knowledge and needs’. Whole-school, one-off INSET days where all staff are expected to follow the same activities are unlikely to improve student outcomes and can be an inefficient use of ever-precious resources (Cordingley et al., 2018; DfE, 2016; Weston and Clay, 2018). It shouldn’t be surprising that we need to account for staff experience when we want them to develop – after all, the way in which we approach ‘novice’ and ‘expert’ students is different, and we need to bear this in mind when educating adults. Our challenge Working with our multi-academy trust to develop continuing professional development (CPD), and researching ways to approach professional development in more depth, I was drawn to evidence around meeting the individual needs o