Cambridgeshire & Peterborough teaching school hub, one of 87 hubs designated by the Department for Education (DfE) to offer high-quality training and professional development to support teachers and leaders at every stage of their career, is celebrating its first anniversary
Since its launch in September 2021, around 1,130 staff in approximately 200 schools across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have engaged with the hub, primarily through teacher development programmes Initial Teacher Training (ITT), Early Career Framework (ECF), National Professional Qualifications (NPQ) and wider Continuous Professional Development (CPD). The hub has met and exceeded targets set by the DfE for its first year, and expects to double the number of leaders and teachers supported in the 2022-23 school year.
“Our children deserve high-quality education, and to achieve that they should attend schools with high-quality teachers and leaders in all phases,” said hub lead Lynne Birch. “In our first year we have created what we believe is a centre of excellence in the region, working collaboratively locally and nationally through strong, supportive partnerships which promote and value fairness, equality, inclusion and diversity. Existing relationships with schools, multi-academy trusts, other Teaching School Hubs and the Teaching School Hubs Council have been critical to our progress. This extends to our delivery partners – lead providers, curriculum hubs and research schools – who have been fantastic.”
Starting the 2021-22 school year with a core team of three, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough teaching school hub has ended the year with a near doubling of staff, and is investing further in engagement as it seeks to support those schools it is not currently working with.
“Operational excellence – and a simple underlying mission to ‘deliver what is useful to people” – has been at the heart of everything we have delivered and achieved to date,” Lynne explained. “A key feature of our work has been adaptability and personalisation. We have sought and responded to feedback from participants and schools, especially with ECF localisation and key stage groupings for face-to-face sessions. This has also been a growing feature of our ECF and NPQ facilitator training. We have local education experts delivering locally (and sharing their own experiences with participants), with national experts supporting executive leadership level professional qualifications.”
Specific achievements in the hub’s first year of operation include:
ECF: supporting 380 Early Career Teachers (ECTs)/380 mentors against a target of 200 ECTs/132 mentors, including 162 schools and 47 programme facilitators.
NPQs: supporting 237 recruits against a target of 231, spanning 13 cohorts, and collaborating with partner hubs in the eastern region.
CPD: supporting 74 participants against a target of 65, becoming a Chartered College of Teaching Learning Partner, and facilitating a unique network of curriculum hubs to ensure a coherent and high-quality professional development offer for schools.
In a DfE survey of Headteachers 100% agreed they would recommend working with Cambridgeshire & Peterborough teaching school hub; 100% of respondents thought the training delivered by the hub was likely to have had an impact on pupil outcomes; and 100% said the training they received from the hub was of high quality. 92.3% were satisfied with their overall experience of working with the hub.
From last month, the hub is offering two new NPQs in Early Years Leadership and Leading Literacy, bringing the number of NPQs being delivered to nine. A new strategic board, chaired by Stephen Munday CBE, will be convened from October with full responsibility for the hub’s direction. The board is fully representative of the communities the hub serves, and its specialisms in areas such as early years and SEND.
Lynne added: “Overall, we have sought to make the changes to how new teachers are supported, and leaders developed, as easy as possible for schools. We do not have a single ‘cold spot’ across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough where we are not operating, but we want to deepen our relationships further. We expect every teacher, school leader and wider school staff to have the best professional development they can.”
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