The importance of CPD on staff wellbeing
Training and goal setting can help people to become more organised and better at planning, which in teaching means staff become more efficient and have more time to focus on their students.
Staff who don’t receive effective training or targets risk their skills becoming stagnant and losing motivation. This doesn’t just impact individual staff members, it can create risks for an entire school; staff may be more prone to making mistakes, which can ultimately result in an unsafe work environment and increased expenses.
A lack of professional development is also intrinsically linked to staff retention – a lack of training and development leads to low morale among staff, which in turn results in staff turnover.
Pupil attainment
In February 2020, Harry Fletcher-Wood and James Zuccollo published a report entitled The effects of high-quality professional development on teachers and students, which suggests that staff CPD is more effective on pupil outcomes than interventions, performance related pay or lengthening of the school day.
We all want the best outcomes for all our pupils. Developing teachers to be the best they can be is imperative for pupil progress and we need to keep those teachers in front of children, especially the most vulnerable*. Having a highly effective teacher in front of a class is the most effective way of improving pupil progress**.
Career development
The Tes Wellbeing Survey revealed that 43 per cent of staff said there aren’t opportunities for them to develop in their current position***.
In the same survey, staff also highlighted a lack of constructive feedback to help them develop as professionals. Less than a fifth of those surveyed said they have opportunities to explore how well they’re doing at work, and more than half of respondents said that they didn’t.
These issues are also having a knock-on effect on how staff are feeling about their careers in general.
The value of a whole-school CPD programme
Ensuring your school has a CPD programme in place that is accessible to all is crucial for staff development and retention. In running a successful programme, it communicates a clear message: you understand their goals, care about their futures, and want to see them grow and progress at your school.
Tes Wellbeing Report 2022
We surveyed more than 4,300 school staff across the globe about their professional lives, from workload to relationships and resilience. Explore the results to see how school staff are coping with challenging times.
Discover how we can help your school with safeguarding and duty of care training
Give your whole school community unlimited access to a wide range of flexible, online courses in safeguarding and duty of care, and evidence training with Tes Safeguarding, powered by EduCare. It enables staff, volunteers and governors to expand and strengthen their knowledge in safeguarding, compliance, health and safety, and wellbeing, for one annual price.
For more details on safeguarding and duty of care training and how it can support your school click here.
* Attracting and Retaining Teachers, OECD, Observer, Schwartz et al, 2007.
** The Production of Human Capital in Developed Countries: Evidence from 196 randomised field experiments. Fryer, 2016.
*** Tes Wellbeing Report 2022.