Each year the Julian Teaching School highlights recommended CPD outside of our core offer of the ECT programme, appropriate body services and NPQs. We work with Norfolk County Council and other members of our steering group to identify school CPD needs; we then seek to work with local organisations to quality assure their CPD that meets local need.

Before we recommend any CPD to schools, we audit its design for the programme against the evidence base, offering feedback to the programme lead until we are happy that standards are high. We then sample delivery of CPD once programmes are underway, as well as surveying participants to ascertain their views on quality, usefulness and impact.

In 2023-24, we are delighted to recommend the following programmes from VNET:

Evaluating the Impact of your Curriculum

The impact of the curriculum lies in whether students have learnt the things you’ve taught them. How do you know whether pupils know what you think they know?

When inspectors evaluate the impact of the education provided by the school, their focus will primarily be on what pupils have learned. Having a well-structured, well-taught curriculum will lead to good results because those results will reflect what pupils have learned.

It is important to remember that the word ‘impact’ is threefold:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the way in which the curriculum is designed.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the way in which the curriculum is taught.
• To evaluate the pace of pupil progress, pupil outcomes, and provide readiness for the next stage in their education.

This project is intended for primary and secondary headteachers, senior and subject leaders who want to ensure that all pupils benefit from a good quality of education and optimise their learning and outcomes.

Our work with our project schools is infused with evidence-informed practice and research from cognitive science, in order to offer schools, the architecture for excellence.

Securing success in KS2 Writing 

There is growing evidence that pupils’ writing in KS2 has been most significantly affected by Covid-19, with lower attainment than previous cohorts across all subjects. Arguably the most significant challenge has been identified in children’s writing. These issues have been particularly apparent for lower Key Stage 2 children, whose entire experience of EYFS and Key Stage 1 was severely disrupted.

Evidence tells us that high-quality teaching is the most important factor in improving attainment outcomes, so schools must focus on developing teaching practices over a sustained period to drive meaningful change in their setting and track impact. Similarly, English outcomes are vital for the whole school and individual pupil success, and essential skills such as reading can unlock access to the entire school curriculum.

This targeted year-long programme is designed to make a significant impact on the gaps in learning created by the pandemic and attempting to ensure that pupils are securely ready for the challenges of the Key Stage 2 writing curriculum.

 You can click on the links to find out more, or download the flyers below.