Some professional learning support will be planned systematically by leaders to ensure alignment with local and national policy priorities and coherence across phases, departments and/or areas of learning. Individuals also have a professional learning journey in mind, though this does not exclude informal professional learning which may be ad hoc and opportunistic but extremely motivational and effective (Cordingley et al. 2020).
Leaders give high priority to the development of coherent and realistic professional learning plans, which create regular opportunities, follow-up, consolidation and support activities which together, form a coherent whole (Roy et al, 2021).
Some professional learning needs a longer-term focus (at least two terms or a year) to allow learning to become embedded in practice and sufficient time for improvements in pupils’ experience to become apparent. This is taken into consideration when evaluating the impact of professional learning support (Jones, 2021).
We asked leaders from schools across Wales to tell us how they are Leading Professional Learning, using each of the eight hallmarks of well-led professional learning as a reference point. The resulting Case Studies offer an insight into a diverse range of effective approaches to Leading Professional Learning that we hope will bring the hallmarks to life and inspire fresh, strategic thinking for other leaders in Wales. We want you to Be Inspired.
If your school or cluster has an example of practice that could be included in the Leading Professional Learning resource – under one (or more) of the eight ‘hallmarks’ of well-led professional learning, we want to hear from you.