Podcast CPD: Putting teachers in control of their CPD

STEVE TAYLOR, CEO, ROBIN HOOD MULTI ACADEMY TRUST, UK In June 2020, as the UK was beginning to emerge from the first COVID-19 lockdown, schools were naturally planning ahead for what we thought would be a fresh start in September. At Robin Hood Multi Academy Trust (a small group of four primary schools in Birmingham), we began to think about professional development opportunities for staff. We couldn’t envisage the level of disruption that has occurred this academic year, yet we did hypothesise that staff development for the school year 2020–21 would largely be based around COVID-19 safety and the upskilling of staff for online learning. With professional development for staff across the country focusing inwardly on systems and procedures for dealing with the pandemic, we realised that education could be about to enter a phase where, at a time when networking and the sharing of practice were needed most, schools might focus on becoming operational at the expense of other aspect