How We Support Our Staff
ITT
The Oak Trust has always recognised its responsibility in developing high-quality professionals.
As a result, we have strong partnerships, working with a range of well-established Initial Teacher Training (ITT) partners, to develop trainee teachers and build highly skilled teachers of the future.
We offer:
• Experienced and professional mentoring
• Dedicated and protected time for planning and reflection
• Scheduled meetings with mentors
• Bespoke Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
• Cross-Trust CPD
• Additional support for those colleagues teaching outside of their specialism
• Culture of sharing good practice
ECT
Joining the Oak Trust as an Early Career Teacher (ECT) is an exciting first step in your teaching career. We fully support your experience with the aim of making those first 2 years a happy, productive and satisfying experience.
All ECTs:
• Are supported by a highly professional and experienced Induction Tutor
• Are provided with an experienced mentor in their subject
• Have weekly scheduled and protected mentor meetings
• Have an additional and personalised CPD programme
• Benefit from reduced timetables in their first two years of teaching
Experienced Staff
Experienced teachers working across the Oak Trust have a wealth of opportunities to progress their careers and further develop their learning, including:
• To be part of a reflective and supportive culture where colleagues are valued, open to new ideas and ways of doing things, and show a strong commitment to regular and ongoing CPD
• Collaborative and staff-driven CPD that has a tangible impact on learning
• Opportunities, training and support for leaders and aspiring leaders to flourish
• Continued investment in the development of pedagogical experts, based on the most current educational research including involvement in nationally recognised programmes and networks
• Opportunities to contribute to in-school and cross-Trust working parties
• Opportunities to shadow Senior and Middle Leaders
• Opportunities to join the Oak Trust Talent Team
Middle Leaders
As an Oak Trust middle leader you can expect to be supported to set a strong vision and direction for your teams and lead high-quality teaching and learning or pastoral work, so that the needs of all our pupils are met and their school experience enables them to be school ready, work ready and life ready. You can expect:
• Middle and aspiring senior leadership training programmes, including the full range of National
Professional Qualifications (NPQs)
• Excellent subject networks across the Trust and region
• Strong strategic planning frameworks
• Opportunities to lead and work with talented and committed staff
• Robust, supportive line management with a collaborative approach to quality assurance
• Regular internal leadership training, delivered in collaboration with other leaders
• Career progression opportunities across the Trust
• Opportunities to shadow Senior Leaders across the Trust
• Opportunities to join the Oak Trust Talent Team
Senior Leaders
As an Oak Trust senior leader you can expect to be supported to create innovative, strategic direction for your schools, promote a positive work environment, manage change and inspire colleagues to make a difference to the lives of our young people. You can expect:
• Senior leadership training programmes, including National Professional Qualifications (NPQs); NPQSL, NPQH and NPQEL
• Excellent senior leadership networks across the Trust and region
• Opportunities to work as part of the Schools Partnership Programme (SPP)
• To contribute to and shape excellent strategic planning frameworks
• Opportunities to lead and work with talented and committed staff
• Robust and supportive line management
• Career progression opportunities across the Trust
• Opportunities to shadow Senior Leaders across the Trust, as well as the Trust Executive Team
• Opportunities to join the Oak Trust Talent Team
HLTAs & TAs
The Oak Trust is a highly inclusive organisation that prides itself on its inclusive and diverse approach to both its staff and pupils. We have pupils with a range of needs across the Trust and our HLTAs and TAs play a valuable and integral role in supporting teaching, learning and wellbeing. They support young people with a variety of special educational needs, whilst ensuring their social, emotional development, both inside and outside of the classroom. TAs can expect:
• High-quality training opportunities across the Oak Trust including:
o areas of specific interest within SEND
o subject specific knowledge across all areas of the national curriculum
o mental health and wellbeing for both staff and pupils
• Cross-Trust CPD
• Opportunities to work within a dedicated Inclusion Team
• Community partnership development
• Opportunities to work alongside one of the very few Additional Resource Provisions in the local area
Support Team
All our support staff team members have the opportunity to learn new skills, grow their knowledge and realise their potential. We offer access to continued professional development centred around current roles and responsibilities, whilst also being mindful of future aspirations as part of our ongoing work around succession planning. Training and development takes place via mentors and line managers in each school, and we also ensure support staff can access relevant external training pertinent to their role via several routes. Many of our colleagues have, or are currently undertaking, the following external development and professional training opportunities:
• Apprenticeships
o Accountancy ACCA L7 Professional Qualification
o Business Administration
o Site Management
• Professional qualifications
o Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
o Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH)
o Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
o Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) diplomas
o Microsoft 365 Security Administration
• Degree programmes
o Part time degree courses
o Foundation degrees
We proactively identify opportunities for professional development to ensure colleagues are equipped to embrace future challenges and to promote improvement in working practices.
Why Professional Growth Matters
Great teachers make a difference. Research indicates that the impact of the most effective teachers is the biggest factor in improving pupil outcomes and the overall quality of education they receive. Dylan Wiliam suggests, “It doesn’t matter very much which school you go to, but it matters very much which classrooms in that school you are in. And it is not class size that makes the difference, nor is it the presence or absence of setting by ability – these have only marginal effects. The only thing that really matters is the quality of the teacher.”
So, if we want to see great outcomes for all pupils, we need to develop all of our teachers and we need each and every one of them to believe that this is possible.
Professional Growth at the Oak Trust
The Professional Growth Programme has been revolutionised across the trust to ensure all staff have regular opportunities to work collaboratively. The programme is evidence informed and linked to individual whole school priorities. It underpins and effectively supports all whole school continuous improvement. It supports the professional development of all staff, from those just beginning their journey with us an ITT or ECT, to those who have been working with us for many years. It is also designed to help support grow leadership capacity. Staff voice is very positive and tells us that the programme effectively engages them in meaningful professional development, which enables them to deliver more effective lessons. The Professional Growth Programme is personalised to the staff and school context. It promotes a reflective and supportive culture with greater staff autonomy. The programme is evidence-based and designed to develop mastery of pedagogical themes which promote metacognition. Staff development is supported by a low stakes approach to observation which encourages risk free self and peer analysis and therefore more open dialogue to inform improvement. Several staff have successfully completed National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) and we have more staff starting a wide range of the new and updated NPQs this academic year.
Teaching and Learning; The Golden Thread
The Golden Thread of Teaching and Learning is how we take everything that we learn within the Professional Growth Programme and put it into practise in our curriculums, our Schemes of Learning, in our planning and in our classrooms so that our students get the best possible experience. It permeates everything that we do, as we work on our pedagogical targets throughout the year. It features in every professional conversation we hold. We offer opportunities to across the Oak Trust from the moment a new colleague joins our family with our New Staff induction to be part of this journey. ECTs across the trust are able to work together to share best practice at intervals throughout their first two years. Staff within the same subject specialisms have the opportunity to work together to reflect on the journey within their own school. All staff come together to share the powerful practice developing within their own contexts across the trust. Learning is an ongoing process and having time to reflect on and discuss new learning is crucial.