Ilminster's On-Site Professional Development Centre
In its on-going quest to be 'Simply the Best!' the Ilminster Principal and Board of Trustees established an on-site Professional Development Centre in the school in 2007. The centre designed to cater for regular, needs based development for its teaching staff.
The 2008 Education Review that focused on Professional Development in schools as part of a National Interest area stated:
Professional Learning and Development
In this review ERO evaluated how well Ilminster Intermediate School is managing professional learning and development. This includes how well the school makes decisions about professional learning and development, the extent to which these decisions are influenced by principles of effective practice, and the changes that have occurred for students and teachers as a result.
Background
School management acknowledges that teaching is a challenging and complex professional role and that the greatest challenge is to meet the learning needs of students so that everyone benefits. At the beginning of 2007, following extensive review of the effectiveness of teacher professional development, an initiative was put in place to address the professional development needs of all teachers through an on-site professional development centre. The role of the professional development centre is to ensure excellence in teaching is maintained throughout the school.
Areas of good performance
Management of professional development: Effective management of professional development is strongly supporting the ongoing professional growth of teachers. Innovative use of resources has enabled all staff to be included in onsite specific, needs-based development. The deputy principal with responsibility for professional development provides high quality well-informed leadership for the initiative. She works closely with each teacher to establish their professional development needs. Individual teachers then receive ongoing support based on current best pedagogical practice.
Decisions about professional development: Decisions about professional development are based on focused self review, including teacher appraisal, analysed student achievement information, school strategic planning processes and a considered response to teacher requests. In addition, all decisions about professional development are well grounded in educational research. School-wide professional development is based on the clearly identified professional needs of teachers and learning needs of students.
Principles of effective practice: The school's approach to professional development includes many of the basic principles of effective practice. These principles include:
· a sound grounding in current theory about what constitutes 'best practice';
· focused classroom observations and immediate feedback to classroom teachers;
· time for thinking, sharing and reflection;
· modelling of good practice;
· the support of high quality resources; and
· making use of a site-based facilitator who is familiar with the school culture and has a clear understanding of the context in which the professional development is taking place.
Adhering to these principles is enabling teachers to continually improve their effectiveness in a supportive professional environment. The resulting improvements to school effectiveness are strengthening the quality of the Ilminster learning community and making a significant contribution to raising student achievement.
Review of professional development: Through focused review, school management has good knowledge of the impact of professional development on school practice. This review is thoroughly documented and provides clear direction for the ongoing refinements and continual improvements to school professional development provision.
Teacher effectiveness: Teachers spoken with during the review process were highly supportive of the school's approach to professional development. A reflective and well-informed approach has assisted teachers to develop a set of agreed, documented beliefs and expectations about what constitutes effective curriculum delivery. Teachers are developing an improved understanding about teaching and learning and have developed clear perceptions of themselves as learners.
website and learning management system.