CPD middle-level leaders’ course in leading...

Aims:

This Building Learning Foundations (BLF) course is designed to develop your knowledge, skills and attitudes in order to promote school leadership for learning. This course is part of the Continuous Professional Development for primary section Responsables. It can also be adjusted to help other school middle-level leaders including Director of Studies (or deputy head teacher), School-Based Mentors, School Subject Leaders etc.

Duration:

The course will last for four months, or seventeen weeks, and is designed to be mainly a self-study course. The total time needed to undertake the course, over the four months, is 100 hours. The course is connected to the Continuous Professional Development certified course in leading learning for Head teachers. Participants will receive regular support from their Head Teachers.

Course process:

During the course you will:

• Receive an initial briefing from your Head Teacher
• Receive some support from your Head Teacher.
• Receive a smart phone to access your self-study material
• Undertake tasks also found in this self-study material
• Receive coaching from your Head Teacher
• Work with other school middle-level leaders
• Practice and Develop their own skills in the following of 
• supporting planning and implementations;
• listening; observing and giving feedback
• working with and leading others
• recording key points from observations and meetings; 
• prepare a portfolio of work and engage in a professional conversation.

Outputs:

At the end of this course, you will develop the following skills:

1. Demonstrate an effective working relationship with your Head Teacher.
2. Build effective relationships with other middle-level leaders to strengthen leadership for learning across the school.
3. Collaborate with others (Head Teacher, other School Middle Level Leaders and teachers) to develop approaches that emphasise teamwork and commitment, leading to improvement of learning in the school.
4. Model and guide leadership for learning through own practice and work with others.
5. Work with others to support and challenge thinking and practice to ensure continuous school development.
6. Give appropriate and specific feedback to colleagues.
7. Collaborate with others to identify priorities and plan to address them through systematic action and reflection.
8. Demonstrate the value and use of data in planning, monitoring and evaluation of impact of learning.
9. Model and guide the use of systematic and useful record keeping ensuring that key decisions are captured for later reflection and action.
10. Promote the maintenance and development of communities of practices in the school that focus on learning outcomes.

Keeping a ‘learning diary’ and updating your portfolio

Throughout the course, you are asked to keep a ‘learning diary’ in your record key things you have learnt, important events and their reactions to you. The learning diary is a private document that you do not have to show anyone. However, the learning diary can be used when you are preparing your portfolio.

Use of learning diary: Click on the start new or edit today's entry to make an entry to each unit and save your changes, Then use the toolbar if you want to add something to your learning diary or if you want to retrieve it and save it on your desktop. 

Assessment of the course:

The assessment of your achievement will be led by your head teacher and the local leader of learning in your sector. Your success will be measured through the professional conversation with a leader of learning, content in your learning diary and evidence in your portfolio.  

Success at the end of this course will be defined as your ability to perform an extended range of leadership for learning tasks, in cooperation with other middle-level leaders and your Head Teacher, that lead to improvements in learning and teaching at the school level.

 A certificate of successful completion of this course will be awarded to you after undertaking all the units, exercises and learning tasks and after you can show evidence of your development using a portfolio made up of this self-study and other documentation (such as agreements, minutes, progress reports, teaching timetable, coaching and meeting records, and so on).

 In addition, you will have a professional conversation with the Local Leader of Learning of your sector. During this professional conversation you will explain what you have done over the four months of the course, what you have learnt, how you have developed, and how this has benefitted teaching and learning in your school. Evidence should be filed in your portfolio. Your Head teacher will guide you on how to build an effective portfolio.

Course structure:

Advice to you:

1. This course is designed to help you do your job better, as a school middle-level school leader, and to improve the leadership of learning in your school. It will extend your skills and improve your work. Do not be frightened by the course, you should find it interesting and exciting. It is not an additional work, rather a part of lifelong learning.
2. Try to do a little of the course work each day. Much of it can be done as you undertake your usual tasks. If you aim to spend one hour a day on the course work and activities, you will not feel too pressured.
3. Talk to other middle-level leader colleagues, such as School Subject Leaders, Director of Studies, School Based Mentor or experienced teachers, about the course. Ask them to help if you need some assistance – such as understanding the meaning of a new word or undertaking a learning task. By assisting with your learning, they will also learn.
4. Try to meet or speak with your colleagues from other schools who are also doing the course in order to share experiences and support each other.
5. If your Head Teacher is absent when a coaching session is due, keep on with the course and do the coaching session later.