Remote professional development: Reflections on the research in the context of secondary school CPD programmes during the 2020–21 pandemic

CLAIRE BADGER AND AMANDA TRICCAS, THE GODOLPHIN AND LATYMER SCHOOL, UK Lockdown closures in March 2020 forced schools to find alternative professional development approaches to support teachers who were switching instantly to a new way of working. This article discusses how one school adapted their internal CPD to support teachers through both periods of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. With teachers having to adapt instantly to a new way of working, it was apparent that, in line with the DfE standards for professional development (DfE, 2016), senior leadership needed to prioritise focusing CPD on colleagues’ immediate needs. Fundamental to this was ensuring confidence with our technical platforms – Google Classroom, supported by Google Meet. However, focusing purely on technical aspects is insufficient as it can lead to teachers being more concerned about delivery mechanisms than lesson content, whereas research suggests that the latter is far more important (EEF,