A case of collaboration: A trust-wide approach to subject specialist professional development

RICHARD GIUBERTONI, HEAD OF CHEMISTRY, KING EDWARD VI ASTON SCHOOL, UK This article looks at how multi-academy trusts (MATs) can employ and promote professional learning communities (PLCs) to build professionalism, school-to-school support and pedagogy across all schools within a MAT. It considers the structure that has been adopted by the King Edward VI Foundation in Birmingham, the strengths of these approaches, how it has sought to avoid or minimise the issues of running PLCs and the impact seen across the schools involved. The King Edward VI Foundation consists of schools in different contexts, containing two independent schools, six grammar schools and six comprehensives. The PLCs across the Foundation look to build strong professional development, keeping in mind the standards for teacher professional development laid out by the Department for Education (2016). This means that the PLCs are all built around a focus on improving pupil outcomes, underpinned by robust evidence