Evidence-informed practice, CPLD and research
Evidence Informed Practice
We are an evidence-informed organisation, making use of educational research and understanding of what works in our context, to agree our approach to teaching and learning and take leadership decisions.
Our strategy should be to make the best choices we can from the best evidence available, to try it out, with an open mind, and see if it works. If it does, we can keep doing it; if not, we will learn from that experience and try something else”. (Prof Rob Coe, )
Teaching & Learning
Our evidence-informed approach supports consistency in teaching and learning across the school. We make use of Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction and Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve as well as using EEF best practice in Oracy and Retrieval to inform our Teaching and Learning cycle.
Coaching
All staff are entitled to a coach. We use the model of instructional coaching, focussed on staff working on a specific step - usually aligned to a school improvement priority.
Oracy
We recognise the impact that Oracy can have on extended writing or numeracy. Oracy, as research tells us, helps facilitate deeper learning - with enhanced comprehension a benefit of structured discussion. We are working on using full sentence answers at all times, asking students to 'turn and talk' prior to completing independent work, and choral response this year.
Reading
Our approach to reading has been well designed through exploration of research into how children learn to read, become fluent readers, and enjoy reading for pleasure over time.
All children experience teacher-led, modelled fluent reading at morning registration, accessing many quality texts across their time with us in this way. Tier 2/3 vocabulary development is shared across all subjects, and we prioritise disciplinary literacy across the curriculum.
Our Reading Lead, Miss Cox, works with our librarian Ms Andrews to promote reading for pleasure.
Mental Health
Our 4 full time mental health practitioners who are employed in The Grove in school deliver a tiered approach to evidence-informed interventions to our students that need it most.
CPLD (Continuing Professional Learning and Development)
Our CPLD programme is comprised of the following:
1. Statutory training - For example around safeguarding, health and safety best practice, and government initiatives like PREVENT extremism.
2. Coaching - We offer all staff coaching, and the chance to grow by being a coach themselves.
3. Self-directed CPLD - We have a Trust wide CPLD offer, covering various topics from Excel and analysing data, to 'Stepping up to middle leadership'. In addition we fund personalised training for staff, such as becoming accredited Careers Leaders, or Safeguarding leads, or Senior Mental Health Leads.
4. Faculty meetings - During departmental meetings, teacher share best practice and are afforded chances to engage with subject specific research.
5. National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) - We have many staff undertaking fully-funded National Professional Qualifications at Middle Leader, Senior Leader, Headteacher and Headteacher levels.
6. INSETs and Twilights - We come together as a teaching staff to engage with key themes we want to work: our recent September INSET featured sessions on tackling misogyny, contextual safeguarding for our locality, as well as best practice in developing students reading and oracy.
7. ECTs - Our early careers teachers follow an extra model of conferences at a regional level, online training through Steplab, and in-house CPLD themed around the Teaching and Learning cycle at Orchard. They also receive termly observations from our ECT lead, Tom Fisher, who has been featured on SecEd podcasts and contributed articles to SecEd on ECT training. In addition, they have their statutory weekly or fortnightly mentor meeting as well as their reports.
