Hot off the heels of our Learning Chronicles being shortlisted for a Tes Award for 'teacher development initiative of the year', CELT have pushed the boundaries of CPD even further.

Delivered through our very own Centre of Excellence and supported by Academica University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, this week our teachers and teacher-leaders attended the launch day of a first-of-its-kind professional development course.

Our mission is to deliver an exceptional educational experience for all of our learners. To achieve that, we know we have to deliver exceptional learning for our staff too. 

To support us in that, world-renowned Professors Haili Hughes and Carl Hendrick have created 'Exceptional Teaching and Learning' just for us.

This course couldn't be further from the kind of 'one-and-done' CPD so many teachers across the country are fed up with - all inspiration and zero perspiration.  

Instead, Professors Hughes and Hendrick have developed a unique, bespoke blend of live events, webinars, workshops and visits designed to support our schools with the needs they have themselves identified.

As Professor Hughes says: “What we are achieving with CELT is to bridge the inspiration-implementation gap to meet the real needs of schools.”

Of course, there was plenty of inspiration to go around on launch day. Unsurprisingly, staff called it "exciting" and "thought-provoking".

But the real value was evident in their feedback's focus on three aspects: the day's focus on CELT's Learning Chronicles, the opportunity to analyse their own practices, and the immediate usefulness of the strategies and tools they picked up.

We're grateful beyond words for the work of Professors Hendrick and Hughes, and we can't wait to see how the course evolves for the benefit of our staff and our learners.

Watch this space!

If this is the kind of professional development culture you want to be a part of, keep an eye out here for opportunities.