Senior Leadership: Improving the Quality of T & L and Assessment

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This new course is designed for all senior leaders, curriculum leaders, leaders of teaching and learning who are looking to enhance and improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment to raise attainment.

The practical, hands-on course will focus on key ways to ensure excellence in teachers’ planning, to respond to the different needs of students, that appropriate challenge is set for the more able students, and in particular students understand their learning process, how they learn, and how they can improve their learning, and that there is consistency of progress across the curriculum for all students.

Emphasis will also be on attaining and maintaining whole school consistency in assessment standards, ensuring a culture of high expectations is embedded into whole school achievement, data tracking, progress tracking.

BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

• Gain strategies to ensure your curriculum continues to be ambitious, broad and balanced, and continues to tackle social justice issues
• Explore ways of supporting subject leaders to develop and audit effective disciplinary curricula
• Examine evidence-based approaches to improving pedagogy including ways of converting cognitive science into classroom practice
• Learn ways of supporting pedagogical developments through effective teacher CPD
• Explore ways of improving the quality of teaching through effective quality assurance
• Examine the central tenets of an effective whole-school assessment policy
• Understand ways of sense-checking assessment practices for their purpose, process and validity and of ensuring teacher marking and feedback are meaningful, manageable and motivating
• Examine ways of using the curriculum as a means of meaningful assessment

PROGRAMME

Supporting curriculum developments and audit

Effective teaching, learning and assessment are founded on curriculum quality. This opening session will bring delegates up-to-date with the principles of effective curriculum development and audit. It will help delegates to review their existing whole-school and subject-specific curriculums and ensure they have selected ambitious end points and provide a broad and balanced offer which tackles social justice issues.

Improving the quality of teaching and learning

Teaching is now an evidence-based profession. This session will examine what the latest evidence says about effective approaches to teaching and explore ways of balancing the evidence with what delegates know works in their context. Delegates will be helped to write a vision for teaching and learning in their schools and to use this to drive forwards improvement in the quality of teaching.

Developing effective systems of quality assurance and professional development

One way to drive improvements in teaching and teacher quality is through effective systems of quality assurance and by providing teachers with high quality, relevant, sustained, and evaluated CPD. This session will provide delegates with practical suggestions for making a success of QA and CPD in their schools and will draw a clear link between this and TLA.

Lunch

Making assessment meaningful and manageable

This session will look at ways of making assessment practices meaningful, manageable and motivating, improving the impact of teachers’ marking and feedback, and embedding formative assessment strategies into classroom teaching. The session will explore ways of striking the right balance between whole-school/MAT consistency and subject autonomy. It will also explore ways of sense-checking assessments for their purpose, process and validity, ensuring data is reliable and can be used to improve pupil progress and outcomes.

Using performance management to support teachers and tackle underperformance

Effective systems of performance management help teachers identify areas of developments and support staff to improve. However, sometimes, given time and support, some teachers do not improve and thus firm steps need to be taken to tackle underperformance. This session will explore ways of developing effective systems of PM and also examine strategies for holding difficult conversations.