1. What’s happening across the country. England 23 February 2016 Becca Knowles National STEM Learning Centre and Network

2. How did our last academic year of CPD delivery go? 2. LOOKING OUTWARDS What do people say that they want? 3. LOOKING INWARDS What else could we offer? What else do we need to deliver to keep our network upskilled? What might schools need? 1. LOOKING BACK Should we continue it? Can we deliver that? Can we develop courses on these things by next year? Appropriateness checks Scheduling checks The high level needs analysis and planning processes

3. Looking back… Secondary Top 5 themes of 2014/15: New GCSE CPD with Awarding Organisation Linear Assessment – especially bespoke courses CPD promoting stretch and challenge and pupil progress Practical endorsements in A level Science leadership CPD

4. Primary Working Scientifically Assessment and Progression Developing Subject Leaders Support for SCITT trainees

5. Looking outwards… New GCSE specifications will crystalize the agenda for CPD and resources but key areas are likely to include: Enquiry and practical work Maths content Literacy and extended writing Considering what science looks like as a 5 year curriculum. Grading systems in curriculum change – what does top grade look like? What do low attainers do?

6. Looking outwards… Likely DfE priorities looking forward: New Curriculum Assessment Primary subject knowledge Practical work

7. Looking inwards... Impact reported by participants in 2014-15 NETWORK (SW and NW regions): Nov 2014- Oct 2015 (N=694) NSLC and the two sampled Network regions showed largely similar rates of impact There is a substantial variation in the rate of impact reported by different regions. E.g. in Sept 2015 reported impact on pupils was in the range of 71.3 - 89.6%, and the reported wider impact varied from 65.7 to 86.8 %

8. Lessons from Primary Science CPD (Source: ROs monthly reports)

9.  Important collect feedback and act upon it to improve CPD and impact (formative evaluation)  Always link learning to practice, providing hands-on resources  Make sure teachers have a very good understanding of Learning Outcomes  Have a few ‘runs’ of CPD before conducting a summative evaluation Building of impact from CPD is a gradual process and the time of impact measurement makes a huge difference.

10. Impact on STUDENTS by CPD focus Pedagogical Content Knowledge CPD show the highest rate of ‘high’ impact on students CPD activities aimed at supporting learning through Technicians and TAs have the highest number of ‘zero’ impact reports Very low impact reported by train the trainer CPD (due to bad timing of the impact report or b/se of no expectations/support for the impact ?)

11. Different routes of CPD impact on classroom practice Source: Bennet et al (2013) Modes of Professional Development: An evaluation of the impact of different course modes operated across the National Network of Science Learning Centres  We should not expect to see the same rate of impact from CPD activities with different focus and different target audiences  Embedding sustainable changes to classroom practice needs time and support from CPD leaders and other school leaders Importantly, Impact planning and evaluation planning have to be part of CPD Teachers need training and support to learn how to do it e.g. help with Action Planning to set up a timeline for actions, success criteria and evidence collection; include action research and reflective practices Impact evaluation needs to be linked to school/department and personal development

12. CPD needs stated by course participants Leaders: effective use of CPD (reflective practice and evaluation) Reflections on the overall sessions. Perhaps looking at each action plan from the other 3 sessions and mapping out our progress and where we are now plus next steps Secondary teachers: practical activity Even more practicals with suspense and surprise for chemistry. More sharing of what each currently does in their school. Good to see real life examples. Hints in where to find the best research etc. Primary teachers: support with new curriculum and assessment Formative assessment Maybe more on how to assess the children. More assessment Technicians: Specifications for new curriculum and networking Once the new A levels have been running it would be good to attend a course that can advise technicians on any teething problems that have been ironed out.

13. Helping schools become effective users of subject-specific CPD through CPD and resources Based on the evaluation research by Isos Partnership (‘super-user’ study) https://www.sciencelearningcentres.org.uk/impact-and- research/research/research-reports/

14. Types of CPD users (school-level) Strategic user Planned user Semi- planned user Ad hoc user Strong strategic planning that goes beyond the individual and is strongly driven by school / departmental needs Strong support and routine processes for participants to implement, share and embed CPD learning Clear strategy and processes for baselining and tracking most types of impact Well-planned CPD, but largely driven by individual staff needs through a well-run performance management system Some support to participants to implement and share, mostly semi-formal sharing Some strategy and processes for tracking impact, some understanding of how this is done Loosely-planned CPD – slightly hit- and-miss in the way appraisal used to generate CPD choices, heavily influenced by “what is in the brochure” Little support to participants, entirely informal sharing No specific and explicit processes for tracking the impact of CPD, little understanding of how to track impact of CPD Ad hoc planning – no clear rationale or links to annual planning processes No process for sharing and no explicit support No strategy, not clear how to track most types of impact Embedding Planning Evaluating

15. Recommendations for participants, leaders, providers

16. Recommendations for The Science Learning Network Planning: ensure the communication of the CPD offer includes very clear learning outcomes Embedding: reinforce a stronger framework for supporting CPD participants’ capacity for knowledge transfer and sharing of good practice when back in school

17. Recommendations for The Science Learning Network Evaluating: develop more consistent use of the impact toolkit and support for teachers with evidence collection Sustaining: foster a continuous approach to CPD; facilitate subject-specific collaboration local science networks, clusters or partnerships encourage the development of leadership skills support the Science Learning Partnerships as local sustainability ‘engines’