Designing a trust-wide professional development programme

RICHARD HARVEY-SWANSTON, SENIOR LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON, UK KERRI BURNS, SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT ADVISOR, UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON ACADEMIES TRUST, UK TIFF COLE, FACULTY LEAD COACH, UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON ACADEMIES TRUST, UK Introduction  Teacher professional development (PD) is a critical factor influencing student outcomes (Cordingly, 2015) and teacher retention (EEF, 2023). While research has extensively explored the characteristics of effective PD, the process of translating evidence into actionable PD design remains under-investigated. This case study addresses this gap by reporting our approach to designing evidence-based PD for middle leaders at the University of Brighton Academies Trust (UoBAT), a group of 14 infant, primary and secondary academies spanning East and West Sussex.  Our brief was to design, implement and evaluate PD for newly established subject leader groups (‘faculties’), with the aims of improving subject leadership, student outcomes and cross-