Professional Learning Design and Review
Professional learning works best when it is sustained, relevant and connected to the real work of teachers and education staff. This is increasingly important in the current improvement landscape. Ofsted’s renewed inspection framework places emphasis on coherent professional learning, purposeful collaboration, collective expertise and evidence-informed practice, while the DfE’s RISE programme highlights the importance of effective practice, peer-to-peer support and shared improvement across schools.
Too often, professional development becomes a series of separate sessions rather than a coherent approach to improving practice, confidence and professional culture. Schools, colleges and education partnerships need professional learning that is purposeful, evidence-informed and rooted in context.
When professional learning is well designed, staff are more likely to engage with it, apply it to their work and see it as part of their professional growth rather than an additional demand.
ACR Education supports leaders to review, design and strengthen professional learning so that it builds confidence, improves practice and supports long-term improvement.
Designing Professional Learning that Builds Confidence
What this work focuses on
How ACR Education can support you
How ACR Education can support you
This work helps leaders understand whether their current professional learning offer is coherent, relevant and making a meaningful difference to staff practice and confidence.
- It is particularly useful for organisations that are experiencing:
- CPD that feels fragmented, generic or disconnected from staff needs
- Professional learning that does not translate clearly into changes in practice
- Staff who find it difficult to see the relevance of professional development
- Coaching, mentoring or feedback structures that need greater clarity or consistency
- Limited time for collaboration, reflection or subject-specific professional learning
- Variation in professional learning quality across teams, sites or phases
- A need to align professional learning with improvement priorities without increasing workload
- Leaders who want to build a more sustainable professional learning culture
How ACR Education can support you
How ACR Education can support you
How ACR Education can support you
ACR Education can work with leaders to review existing professional learning and design approaches that better support staff confidence, practice and organisational improvement.
Support may include:
- Reviewing the current professional learning offer and identifying strengths, gaps and duplication
- Gathering staff voice to understand how professional learning is experienced
- Supporting leaders to align professional learning with improvement priorities
- Designing professional learning models that are sustained, relevant and context-specific
- Developing communities of practice around shared priorities
- Strengthening approaches to coaching, mentoring, feedback and collaborative reflection
- Supporting subject, phase or vocational teams to develop professional learning that meets their needs
- Helping leaders reduce unnecessary CPD activity and focus on what is most likely to make a difference
- Creating practical structures that support implementation, reflection and follow-up
Possible actions and outcomes
How ACR Education can support you
Possible actions and outcomes
Depending on the needs of the organisation, this work may lead to:
- A professional learning review
- A staff voice summary identifying how professional learning is currently experienced
- A map of existing CPD, coaching, mentoring and collaborative learning structures
- Recommendations for strengthening the coherence and impact of professional learning
- A professional learning strategy or action plan
- Development of communities of practice linked to key priorities
- Support for middle and senior leaders in leading professional learning
- Practical tools for planning, reflection, feedback and implementation
- A clearer model for professional learning that supports confidence, practice and retention