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The best schools are excellent at developing their staff and are highly effective in using continuing professional development as a way to help bring about improved standards at their school, according to a report published today by Ofsted.

The report ‘Good professional development in schools’, sets out the progress schools are making with regards to the ongoing training of teachers and other staff. Inspectors visited two nursery schools, 13 primary schools, 24 secondary schools and one special school, where previous inspections had indicated that practice in professional development was good or outstanding.

The teachers and support staff in these schools benefit from high quality training and support, which is chosen to meet their schools’ and their own needs. The best schools are flexible with time, resources and expertise when planning professional development.

A further strength identified was the focus by schools on developing all staff, both the teaching staff and non-teaching staff. This investment in training had a very positive impact on the recruitment and retention of all staff.

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert said:

“It is important for schools to provide teachers and other staff with continuing professional development. This not only benefits the staff, but also the children and young people who experience improved teaching.

“Professional development is most effective in schools that understand and realise its potential for raising standards. The most successful schools plan for ongoing improvements, then monitor and evaluate their progress so that they can tackle any weaknesses.”

There are four key questions that good leaders ask themselves about the quality of professional development at their school. These concern the extent to which professional development is integrated with school improvement; how well the school provides policies and frameworks for its staff to secure consistency and quality in their work; how well the expertise of staff is used; and how effectively the school monitors and evaluates its professional development.

The report shows that many good schools use their latest Ofsted inspection report to identify priorities for improvement.

However schools still need to tackle three remaining challenges.

The first is the lack of training in subjects other than mathematics and English, especially in primary schools. The concern over teachers’ lack of specialist training was also identified in a previous Ofsted report, ‘The logical chain: continuing professional development in effective schools’ and there has been limited improvement since then. This most recent report shows that schools do not give the training of teachers in subjects other than maths and English a high priority.

Even when good external courses are available, schools have been slow to take up places. The Training and Development Agency for Schools should support schools in achieving this by disseminating the range of subject-specific continuing professional development that is available.

The second is how well schools monitor and evaluate the ongoing training of teachers. This is another area that was identified in the last report Ofsted published on continuing professional development in schools. The third is that weak evaluation fails to give enough attention to the value for money training provides despite the significant amount of time and money invested. Local Authorities and School Improvement Partners (SIPs) can help less successful schools to plan well-targeted professional development by improving leaders’ skills in self-evaluation.

Notes to Editors:

The report ‘Good professional development in schools’ can be found on the Ofsted website www.ofsted.gov.uk  The report ‘The logical chain: continuing professional development in effective schools’ can also be found on the Ofsted website www.ofsted.gov.uk
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.
Media can contact the Ofsted Press Office through 020 7421 6899 or via Ofsted's enquiry line 0300 1231231 between 8.30am - 6.30pm Monday - Friday. Out of these hours, during evenings and weekends, the duty press officer can be reached on 07919 057359