The ‘brave new world’ of CPD for everyone working in schools

NAHT Pathway in conjunction with Discovery Education

by Stuart Beck

On 11 June, NAHT, in conjunction with Discovery Education, held a series of webinars to introduce the innovative Pathway CPD programme available to all schools from September 2020. Time is precious and there’s so much to do at the moment so I registered and thought I would dip in and out throughout the webinar. Within the first few minutes of the opening session with Paul Whiteman, NAHT General Secretary, Ruth Davies, current NAHT President, and Andrew Hammond, I was hooked and stayed right the way through to the end, about 5 hours or so later, after hearing from Marijke Miles and Professor Tim O’Brien.

This programme focuses on motivation and empowerment (in fact it has spawned a new acronym of CPE – Continuous Professional Empowerment) leading to improved well-being and professional confidence through the three steps of: orientation (where am I at and where do I want to be); navigation (what I need to do to get to my destination); and, reflection (now that I have reached my destination, what can I learn from my journey and what’s next?). In an educational landscape of overwhelming accountability and workload, this is a refreshing and reaffirming approach to professional and personal development. Through online learning, the delivery format is tailored to those with insufficient time and funding to travel to distant locations to get what they need and is apposite for the post-COVID era – its concept and mode of delivery were devised many months ago and yet it reflects what we have now become used to and are more than ready to embrace. The modules available are many and various and there is something for all with some amazing and inspiring course tutors, such as Tim and Marijke. The beauty of it is that everything is conducted online and you can access it whenever you have the opportunity to do so. The cost per individual per annum is about the same as one day’s attendance at a commercial course once course fees, travel and supply costs are built in. So, it is value-for-money for such a personalised offer – the cost gets even cheaper if a school purchases a group licence. All participants also have free access to the huge bank of advice documents provided by a well-respected and industry-leading team of specialists at NAHT headquarters for the duration of the licence.

NAHT Pathway in conjunction with Discovery Education represents ‘the brave new world’ of CPD for education professionals and I recommend it to you.


Stuart Beck

Consultant Senior Leader

Sacred Heart of Mary Girls’ School, Upminster

Here’s an extended preview of Discovery Education Pathway

 

If you would like further information about the Pathway programme please visit www.discoveryeducation.co.uk/NAHT