A virtual event jointly hosted by the NAHT and Discovery Education
Supporting the professional and personal development of your team
“The best part about being a teacher is that it matters. The hardest part about being a teacher is that it matters every day.”
Todd Whitaker
An on-demand, virtual event jointly hosted by NAHT and Discovery Education invites you to view professional development through a different lens, one that reveals not only the professional capital of your staff, but also their motivations, aspirations and their all-important well-being.
Never before have the well-being and motivation of teachers and school leaders been more deserving of consideration. On the receiving end of every traditional CPD course is a person, a real person acting as model learner for their students, required to display those positive attitudes and behaviours for learning every day, whilst at the same time teaching, marking and reporting on progress. It’s hard; and a standard CPD course can only provide so much for the deep-down-things that matter to us as committed educators.
Just as outstanding teaching considers the whole child, so effective professional development considers the whole teacher – and that requires more than pedagogical coaches developing our professional capital. It doesn’t matter how skilled you are if you lack agency in your job. Your students could be on track to meet national expectations and on the surface everything seems fine, whilst inside your motivation is waning, your self-confidence is shrinking and your inner voice is trying to persuade you that your colleagues are better at this than you are.
The often narrow criteria against which you are held accountable must not rub the shine off your characterful, charismatic teaching or steal your courage and prohibit you from taking risks. Your students deserve the boldest and best version of you, and your family does too.
The indicators of success in teaching extend far beyond the measurable data. Just as what a child shows she knows in a test is never an accurate measurement of her true learning ability, so a teacher’s performance includes myriad facets and capacities that are seldom revealed in a pupil-progress meeting but always cherished in a real classroom, full of real children.
This event celebrates the whole teacher. We present a series of highly engaging and motivational think-pieces on the deep-down-things that drive many educators in their daily work, and we consider the benefits of bringing professional and personal development together.
The NAHT have recently teamed up with Discovery Education to bring you a unique approach to professional development. Pathway is an online programme designed to empower teachers and leaders so they may flourish in their careers. It is a collaboration of many expert practitioners, leaders, authors and professors of education, all motivated by a similar aim: to support the whole teacher, professionally and personally.
High-profile speakers at this virtual event include Paul Whiteman (NAHT General Secretary), Ruth Davies (NAHT President), Marijke Miles (Headteacher and NAHT National Executive member) and Professor Tim O’Brien (UCL/IoE and renowned author and speaker in the field of wellbeing).
Our guests will be in conversation with Andrew Hammond, Senior Director of Learning at Discovery Education & Lead Author and Series Editor of the Pathway programme.
Each session will include questions and answers from the audience, and a short demonstration of the NAHT & Discovery Education Pathway programme, due to launch in schools this coming September.
Event sessions
The Whole Teacher (45mins)
NAHT General Secretary, Paul Whiteman, in conversation with Andrew Hammond, lead author and series editor of the NAHT Discovery Education Pathway Programme.
The whole teacher: supporting personal development as well as professional skills.
In this discussion, Paul will discuss with Andrew some of the challenges faced by school leaders today and the importance of enabling them to maintain confidence and agency, despite the noises around them. The value of supporting the ‘whole teacher will be considered and championed.
Teacher Well-being (45mins)
Andrew Hammond talks to well-being expert, Professor Tim O’Brien of UCL Institute of Education and MCL University Limerick
Teacher well-being: a fireside chat about well-being and how we can best support the well-being of teachers and leaders working in our schools today, followed by Q&A.
In this discussion, Andrew and Tim will consider the importance of understanding, researching and improving well-being for teachers and school leaders today. NAHT Discovery Education Pathway includes a highly engaging and interactive well-being programme, co-authored by Professor Tim O’Brien and Dr Dennis Guiney, which aims to deepen understanding of well-being, increase critical reflection and enable teachers to make positive changes.
Maintaining Motivation and Ambition (45mins)
Andrew Hammond talks to Marijke Miles, NAHT National Executive member, SEND Council Chair and experienced School Leader.
Maintaining motivation and ambition: a fireside chat about how to help teachers maintain their motivation and hold on to their ambitions with resilience and focus. The NAHT Discovery Education Pathway is designed to help school leaders and teachers identify their motivations and plan their career aspirations.
As a former school leader, Andrew talks with Marijke about the importance of identifying and supporting colleagues’ motivations and aspirations in school. It is often said that ‘it’s all about the children’, but if that’s true, the children deserve to have an adult in front of them who has self-worth, resilience and motivation to achieve their best self. How we invest in teachers’ personal development will ultimately determine the quality and longevity of their teaching career.
Building confidence as a leader: listening to (and trusting) your inner voice (30mins)
Andrew Hammond in conversation with NAHT President, Ruth Davies
Experienced Headteacher and NAHT President, Ruth Davies, talks to Andrew about the importance of shutting off the ‘background noise’ for a moment, and finding your inner voice as a leader. Great value can be found, both professionally and personally, in harnessing one’s sense of ownership and saying, ‘I’ve got this.’
Ruth is passionate about enabling school leaders and teachers to maintain their agency and self-confidence so that they may flourish and enjoy the craft of teaching.
Pathway Uncovered (45mins)
Questions for Andrew Hammond (an exclusive session for NAHT Nat Exec)
Pathway Uncovered: A more detailed demonstration of the format and scope of NAHT Discovery Education Pathway, with plenty of opportunities for questions and answers.
If you would like further information about the Pathway programme please visit www.discoveryeducation.co.uk/NAHT
Speakers
Tim O’Brien
Tim O’Brien is Honorary Professor of Psychology and Human Development at UCL Institute of Education and a professor (part-time) at MIC University of Limerick. He co-wrote and led the Teacher Wellbeing Programme for The Chartered College of Teaching which ran in Government ‘Opportunity Areas’ across the UK. His research at UCL has involved working with schools on two 10 month whole-school programmes to support wellbeing and learning. Tim is a member of the DfE Expert Advisory Group on Teacher and Leader Wellbeing. His concerns include the normalisation of hyperaccountability and its impact on teacher and leader wellbeing. As a teacher, Tim worked in mainstream and special education: SLD/PMLD and an all age SEMH school, which he led from special measures to outstanding.
Marijike Miles
Marijke Miles has over 20 years’ experience in Special Education, 14 of which as a Headteacher. Across her career she has worked in; residential and day, maintained and non-maintained, single sex (both boys and girls) and co-ed, primary and secondary, and across both mainstream and a various designations of special schools.
A passion for SEMH practice was supported by the Master’s programme in Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties at the University of Birmingham, building on a first degree in music with Psychology. Since 2010 she has been a tutor for the University of Winchester, facilitating the NPQH and NPQSL programmes as well as a regular mentor and coach for new and aspiring Headteachers and also serves on the Executive of the Hampshire Special Heads Conference
Marijke was elected to the NAHT’s National Executive in 2013, last year becoming the Chair of the NAHT’s national sector council for SEND, and sits on the National Forum for Neuroscience in Special Education.
Andrew Hammond
Andrew Hammond served in schools for over 20 years, as Classteacher, Head of Department, Deputy Headteacher and Headteacher in both independent and maintained sector schools. A prolific author, Andrew and has written numerous titles for a range of educational publishers. He has a BA QTS from Bath and an MA from King’s College London. He is currently studying for an Ed.D at Buckingham, researching the power of culture to deliver character traits and attitudes in schools. He is interested in how schools turn values-based platitudes into practice and how we best support pupils’ personal and cultural development by supporting the personal development of their teachers.
Andrew joined Discovery Education in September 2019 as Senior Director of Learning. He designed the Pathway Programme and is series editor for its content. He is passionate about supporting the whole teacher.
Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman took over as General Secretary of NAHT in September 2017. NAHT represents the majority of school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Paul leads all of NAHT’s campaigns to improve schools for everyone, including the campaigns to increase funding for schools and to lift the per cent public sector pay cap.
Prior to taking over as general secretary, Paul was NAHT’s director of representation and advice, a post he held for five years. The representation and advice team includes regional officers, organisers, the advice team and the legal team, helping to promote NAHT’s voice across the country while providing highly-regarded assistance and protection to members when needed.
Before joining NAHT, Paul spent a decade as a national official at the FDA, the union for civil servants. He has a first-class grasp of education issues as well as many years’ experience in the wider trade union movement.
Ruth Davies
Ruth Davies is headteacher of Waunarlwydd Primary school, a medium sized school located on the beautiful Gower Peninsular.
Ruth read English at University Coll of Wales, Swansea before undertaking a PGCE in Cardiff.
She taught in in two separate schools before moving onto advisory work (literacy) with the local authority’s School Improvement Team. Her heart was always back in the classroom though and so after four years Ruth moved back into school as a deputy headteacher. A headteacher since 2004, Ruth has supported schools across the region through further briefer periods of secondment, and as a trained Estyn Peer Inspector has worked with schools across Wales.
Ruth passionately believes in the role of the public sector in general has to play in advancing the interests of children and their families, and in the role of education in particular.
If you would like further information about the Pathway programme or to register your interest please visit: www.discoveryeducation.co.uk/naht