Moving professional development forward

David Greenshields FCCT, Grace College, UK Grace College joined the Emmanuel Schools Foundation in April 2019. At adoption in our small multi-academy trust, we inherited a staff team who were keen to improve their practice and to do all that they could to serve the diverse range of students who form our student population. Yet the school did not have a secure, evidence-driven approach to professional development. As leaders, we were confronted with a significant challenge: how do we build a professional development culture that supports our teachers to be the best that they can be so that the school can rapidly improve?  As the senior leader with responsibility for overseeing this key element of the life of the school, I was committed to ensuring that evidence-based practice drove both the pedagogy of our classrooms and the development culture of our staff team. I had been fortunate that, in my own career, I had already had the opportunity to engage with evidence-based practice th