'Adults are the most important resource in any school.'

(Making Great Progress - Schools with outstanding rates of progression in Key Stage 2, Ref: 00443-2007)

The focus of a primary school is to provide effective learning across a broad and rich curriculum and ensure that all children achieve high standards. Any leadership of school improvement therefore needs to ensure that all adults engaged in the learning process are professionally equipped for the task.

Professional learning that has an impact on classrooms involves:

• learning-focused activity
• two or more teachers working together
• shared planning
• joint observation of groups of children to identify what is being learned, by whom and how
• interviewing and talking to children
• evaluation of learning to gather information
• refining the plans for further teaching
• understanding what has worked and why
• giving feedback to the whole school.

Research has shown us that if professional development is to make a difference to classroom practice, it needs to be collaborative, and to a significant degree contextualised in classrooms.

Leading improvement using the Primary Framework (Ref: 00484-2007BKT-EN)

This booklet provides a wealth of information about effective CPD practices and practical advice.

Particularly useful will be 'Using the Primary Framework to support...' (p. 17) and 'Leading, planning, implementing and evaluating professional learning' (p. 18).

Practical processes for developing assessment for learning:

Developing your practice

Developing strategies that promote classroom dialogue  (PDF 0.05 Mb)