Our Development Programmes - Staff
On this page you'll find an overview of the personal and professional development opportunities available to staff at Harris Academy Rainham. If you have any questions please feel free to contact Kimberley Watson K.Watson@harrisrainham.org.uk.
The Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher programme
The Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher programme is a fantastic professional development programme for parents on leave. Their primary aim is to inspire, empower and connect teachers through CPT and professional coaching opportunities whilst on parental leave.
Completing The MTPT Project Accreditation is an empowering experience for teachers choosing to use the period of parental leave as an opportunity to complete self-directed CPD. Teachers involved in our accreditation have enjoyed the following benefits:
- Improved wellbeing on parental leave and when back at work
- Increased sense of motivation to return to work and a re-engagement with their subject and leadership responsibilities
- A supportive community and professional network
- Career redirection, promotions, sideways moves and new roles in different schools
- Preparation for changes to the curriculum, school policies or new job roles
- Increased confidence and sense of professional worth
The two-module MTPT Project Accreditation is underpinned by three coaching sessions per module and empowers teachers on parental leave to document and reflect on their CPD in a more structured manner. The MTPT Project’s ‘no guilt, no pressure’ policy ensures that our accreditation is both motivating and flexible, designed to work around the demands of teachers’ new families.
This is how the MTPT programme describes itself:
"We believe that parents are entitled to make decisions that support their wellbeing and the wellbeing of their families. Wellbeing means different things for different people: for some, this means maintaining a sense of that “teacher” identity during the “break” of parental leave."
"We think creatively about the type of activities that have a positive impact on our students and can therefore be considered effective professional learning, and we love exploring the simplicity or problem-solving challenge of enjoying these with babies and toddlers."
Subject-specific development
Each subject leader develops their own staff within their department, following these guiding principles.
- Subject leaders are commissioned to lead and be responsible for the development of subject expertise of staff in their subject specialist areas.
- Teacher development must include expanding expertise in the subject and supporting effective pedagogy. Subject leaders are expected to grow this learning environment and hunger for development within their departments.
- Subject leaders must develop relationships with external expert organisations relevant to their field. This is crucial to ensuring the continuous development of teachers' expertise within the department.
- Subject leaders should ensure teacher practice is grounded in a cyclic performance of action, evaluation and reflection.
- Subject leaders should ensure the exposure to research-informed practice underpins pedagogical development in departments.
Teachers have their own guiding principles that govern their development.
- Domain-specific knowledge and expertise is the necessary foundation for teacher improvement.
- Teacher exposure and engagement with informed practice and pedagogy is key to developing experts.
- Teachers must understand the science of learning and the components that make up this body of pedagogical knowledge.
- Teachers should be familiar with researched-informed practice considering their use and appropriateness for their area of expertise.
- Teachers are expected to foster and provide a challenging atmosphere and environment for themselves and our students.
Theory Applied Practice (TAP) workshops
As teachers, we should be continually updating our knowledge to ensure our students acquire knowledge. We provide training focused on three domains:
- Cognitive knowledge
- Subject knowledge
- Pedagogical knowledge.
We provide training in the form of weekly teaching and learning sessions, departmental discussions and reading and expect that all teachers have secure knowledge on the following evidence-based research practices within cognitive science:
- The science of learning
- The cognitive load theory
- Dual coding
- Practice: retrieval practice; spaced practice; interleaving; elaboration
Staff should also ensure their delivery of subject content is challenging and of high quality by having excellent knowledge of:
- The most important substantive and disciplinary knowledge in their domain
- The misconceptions that students may have and how to challenge them
- Good pedagogy and understanding of classroom delivery
- The differences in learning and the retention of knowledge between novices and experts.
Teaching and Learning sessions are underpinned by current literature. This includes The Learning Rainforest by Tom Sherington, and Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherington.
‘Teachers with greater content knowledge have higher levels of pedagogical content knowledge, which itself leads to great attention to cognitive activation in their teaching’. Baumert (2010)
Lead Practitioner Programme
This programme is run by the Chafford Hundred Teaching School Hub over a period of 18 months. It is intended for outstanding classroom practitioners who have the potential and capacity to lead on teaching and learning and demonstrate a whole school impact.
SLE (System Leaders in Education) Programme
This programme is intended for current middle or senior leaders who have a proven track record of leading and improving teams who are ready to step into a school-to-school support role. Upon accreditation, SLEs are deployed into other schools to develop the capacity and capability of other leaders to improve outcomes. The SLE Programme is comprised of two training days and run by the Chafford Hundred Teaching School Hub.
SEND Programme – ‘The Practices and Principles of Effective Teaching for SEND.’
This is a DfE endorsed programme aimed at leaders of Teaching & Learning, SENDCos, and mainstream teachers, designed to equip you with knowledge and practical strategies to implement in your school to improve outcomes for SEND pupils. The programme runs over seven months, within which there are three visits to schools with specialisms in SCLN, Autism, ASD, Communication & Interaction difficulties, and Cognition & Learning difficulties.
Middle Leadership Mastery
All middle leaders are currently reading, ‘Middle Leadership Mastery' by Adam Robbins in preparation for undertaking the online course run by Adam Robbins in January 2024.
Newly qualified teachers and trainee teachers
Our in-house NQT training is both rigorous and challenging while being incredibly supportive. At Rainham our unspoken motto is that people come first and as one of our NQTs you will feel this more than you could possibly imagine.
Every Wednesday morning we run training to equip and empower our trainees to become better practitioners. The training is always delivered by one of our school leaders to ensure you receive the best information, technique to develop and improve your practice.
We recognise that the training years are often tumultuous and bring up lots of personal and professional challenges. At Rainham we totally understand this and are dedicated to not just supporting you through the professional challenges but also any personal challenges you may face on your journey to becoming a better teacher.
Here we understand that learning is not just a process to engage in but rather one that engages all aspect of a person. Our training aims to support, empower and equip you to comfortably handle all the opportunities you will have in those first two years.
Our NQTs will benefit from:
- Weekly training and support to improve their practice
- Subject-specific planning day with the Federation trainers or with school leaders
- A strong drive to equip trainees on improving their subject expertise and understanding of curriculum
- Weekly mentoring from their line manager
- Opportunities to access and work with school leaders
- Two Federation conferences a year focusing on developing subject knowledge and pedagogy
National Professional Qualifications (middle leader/senior leader/headship)
The National Professional Qualifications (NPQ) are a group of three courses for staff in education settings at all levels who want to develop their knowledge, skills, and confidence to lead successfully.
These NPQ courses offer participants the opportunity to:
- Gain the knowledge, skills and leadership behaviours they need to succeed
- Move ahead in their careers, through gaining a DfE-recognised qualification in leadership.
All courses are designed by education practitioners and educational psychologists to provide current, innovative and practice-focused training that will give school leaders the insight and tools they need to become highly effective leaders. Real Training are the acknowledged experts in masters-level online professional development.
The NPQLT (leading Teaching) is a qualification that is aimed at teachers who lead, or aspire to lead, teaching in a subject, year group, key stage or phase. Responsibilities may include managing a team of teachers and supporting effective teaching across a school.
The NPQLT (leading Teacher Development) is aimed at teachers who lead, or aspire to lead, the development of other teachers in their school. This programme equips staff with the knowledge and understanding required to develop teachers across a school, enabling them to have a whole school impact.
The NPQLT (leading Behaviour and Culture) is aimed at teachers who have, or are aspiring to have, responsibilities for leading behaviour and/or supporting pupil wellbeing in their school. This programme is designed to support participants to improve knowledge and understanding of establishing good behaviour on a whole school level and the creation of a culture of high expectations ensuring learning is maintained across the school.
The NPQLT (leading literacy) Leading literacy teaching is complex. This programme is designed to support literacy leaders in developing and leading a team of teachers, and is focused on supporting effective teaching of literacy across the school.
The NPQSL (senior leader) is a dynamic development programme for experienced middle leaders potentially one year away from senior leadership and newly appointed senior leaders with whole school responsibilities. This programme is designed to support participants to improve existing knowledge, skills and experience and develop capacity to work efficiently across an organisation.
The National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) is the first-choice qualification for anyone aspiring to become a Headteacher or Principal. The Aspiring Leaders approach to the programme prepares you to lead a school confidently and effectively, in a system where Schools and Academies are fully responsible for self-improvement and delivering high-quality outcomes for students. This programme offers a unique opportunity to learn from some of the best school leaders in the country and observe what makes different schools ‘outstanding’. The programme is very practical and all face-to face training sessions are facilitated by outstanding school leaders in their own schools and academies.
