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Our recently published report ‘Grow your own: Best practice for developing teaching talent in school trusts’ explores the ways trusts develop their teachers.

It is based on research with multi-academy trusts (MATs) across England and explores the concept of trusts â€˜growing their own’ teachers and future leaders through teacher training and professional development.

With teacher retention and staffing challenges in schools across the UK, it's key for MATs to consider new ways of finding and keeping staff members.

Effective teacher development:

• Drives recruitment by attracting candidates to a trust

• Supports retention by providing staff with a career pathway

• Improves teaching and classroom practice

But for trusts to reap these benefits, training must be delivered effectively. This blog uses key insights from our report to explore the methods of delivering teacher training and professional development that trusts find to be most effective.

The delivery methods preferred by trusts 

Our report explored teacher training such as initial teacher training (ITT) for trainee teachers and continued professional development (CPD) for in-post teachers.

We asked trusts for their preferred training and CPD delivery methods, and the top three methods they reported were:

• Hybrid: mix of online self-access content, virtual and in-person live sessions

• Hybrid: mix of online self-access content and in-person live sessions

• 100% in-person live sessions

As the data suggests, most trusts prefer a combination of in-person training and online content that can be accessed flexibly.

Providing self-access learning content access addresses the major challenge trusts face in providing professional development opportunities for in-post teachers: a lack of time.

Heavy teacher workloads mean there isn’t always time to engage with professional learning – providing teachers with the option to focus on learning at a time that suits them is better for both motivation and engagement.

Similarly, our report found that flexibility in delivery was key to ensuring learning was sustained and treated as ongoing, rather than as a one-off or a tick-box exercise.

Delivery and learning contexts 

It's important to recognise that teacher training and CPD are contextually different and therefore raise different challenges in professional learning. 

For example, trainee teachers do not face the same challenge as in-post teachers when it comes to finding time for learning – so it’s key to explore different ways of delivering professional development based on the learner’s context.

Our data reflects this – while the top three preferred delivery methods were the same for teacher training and CPD, we saw differences in other areas.

For example, none of our respondents preferred 100% online delivery for teacher training, whereas 16% said it was preferred for CPD. This highlights the importance of considering context when planning professional development delivery.

What successful trusts do

It can be difficult to balance professional learning with heavy workloads, especially for in-post teachers, which is why flexibility is so key. Here's what successful trusts told us about delivering professional development.

Enabling flexible access

One way to ensure access for all staff is by recording live training sessions so they can be accessed flexibly.

This means everyone can access learning regardless of scheduling or timetable clashes – and for busy teachers and school staff, being able to focus on learning at a convenient time has big rewards.

This provides staff the opportunity to engage with learning meaningfully, rather than simply ticking it off or reluctantly attending a session and wishing they could spend the time on something else.

While trainee teachers may not face the same level of challenge in finding time to engage with learning, flexible access is still relevant in creating an inclusive learning environment such as for trainees who are neurodivergent or have a disability.

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While flexibility is great for individual learning, it’s key to give staff dedicated time for collaboration. Collaboration at both the school and trust level was reported to be beneficial for professional development by enabling sharing of good practice and peer insight.

Scheduling this time, such as on an inset day, ensures it is protected and remains a priority, by making it clear to staff that for this scheduled time, shared learning should come before anything else.

This is especially important because effective collaboration depends on staff being available at the same time, which is often a challenge with heavy workloads, but being physically and mentally present is key for staff to engage in learning meaningfully.

Recognising informal and peer learning

What does learning look like in your trust? Often, professional development means attending a training session or course – but staff are learning all the time.

It’s important to recognise the impact of informal professional development, such as peer learning and professional reading. For in-post teachers, these are done flexibly and are often unplanned – but as trusts told us, they still provide valuable opportunities for development.

When it comes to initial teacher training, peer learning is even more important. Trainee teachers especially benefit from mentoring and collaborating with more experienced colleagues.

Some trusts facilitate peer learning through mentoring, which enables them to deliver collaborative learning in a more flexible way – sessions can be organised between pairs or small peer groups rather than requiring a large group to align schedules. 

The takeaway for trusts 

To sum up, trusts told us their best professional development is delivered: 

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• To respect teachers’ time 

• In a way that embeds learning into their everyday work 

Secure your trust’s future 

Our report examines best practice for professional development in trusts and how successful delivery supports trusts to grow their own futures. 

Download the report today for unique insights into teacher development in UK trusts, with real examples from trust leaders.  

Read the report