EiT | Professional Learning at the John Wallis Academy

Professional learning at the John Wallis Academy aims to strike the balance between building and maintaining whole-school alignment and developing excellent teachers through bespoke training.

This is achieved through our three levels of professional learning:

• School

• Team

• Individual

Teacher time is precious. It is important that this time is not wasted pursuing educational fads. All professional learning at the John Wallis Academy must aim to improve learning for our pupils; it must therefore be rooted in well-evidenced educational theory and research

If a strategy or technique does not have strong supporting evidence, it will feature in our professional learning.

This is achieved through adhering to our Principles of Learning.

Effective teaching is more than just instruction. Whilst developing a teacher's didactics is important, didactics alone is not enough. Professional Learning at the John Wallis Academy aims to target all areas of a teachers practice, to be improve their leverage on pupil learning.

This is achieved through focusing on the three key types of teacher knowledge:

• Knowledge of didactics

• Knowledge of Pupils

• Knowledge of Subject & Curriculum

This is achieved through ensuring all teachers engage in deliberate practice in their instructional coaching sessions.

This is achieved through our dedicated Team-Level Development Cycles.

Professional learning has great potential; but it also comes with costs. We know that teachers engage in professional development activities whilst balancing multiple and, at times, competing commitments and time pressures. The need is clear, therefore, for professional learning to be well-designed, selected, and implemented so that the investment is justified.

This is achieved through providing all teachers with an additional 5 hours of self-led learning time per fortnight, and ensuring the Professional Learning calendar takes account of key commitments such as open and parents evenings.