How can we make departmental CPD more effective?

Across my career, I have experienced different formats of CPD. Some of these have been successful, where they have given staff the opportunity to discuss the impact of strategies on their practice, but others have been less so. In considering how to lead change in my department, I have been greatly influenced by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and their ‘A school’s guide to implementation’. This guide led me to reflect on how implementation of change and training needs to be an ‘ongoing process’ over time (EEF, 2019, p. 31). It also made me realise that the CPD of my staff would be a pivotal part of the overall improvement process, due to the potential for impact on the learning across a whole department. The work of the Behavioural Insights Team (BI Team) has also been beneficial in developing effective CPD sessions. The BI Team use the acronym ‘EAST’ to summarise how, when looking to change behaviours, the process should be (BI Team, 2014, pp. 4–6):