About the network

The Connect network brings continuing professional development (CPD) coordinators, advisers and leaders together to share, stimulate and support good practice in leading
professional learning.

Connect provides access to news, research and resources on support for teacher learning.

In December 2003, we launched Connect to provide support to CPD co-ordinators in schools. By leading teacher development, this group can make a crucial impact on pupil learning and school improvement. As the importance of CPD leaders grows, so does Connect, which looks into how the CPD leader can promote effective learning communities among schools, clusters, local authorities and regions.

What do you get?

• Latest information, news, research and resources
• Invitations to events connecting you with leading and similar minded practitioners
• Opportunities to participate in projects connecting you with research and evidence and national policy debates
• Case studies and practical solutions from members direct to your inbox

Examples of our work

CPD in special settings

Teachers from special schools, hospital schools and pupil referral units are some of the Connect members that have come together to explore how teachers’ learning
can be developed within institutions and contexts outside the mainstream. This project enabled innovatory work by school and local authority leaders to be shared and developed.

Personalising CPD

The CPD environment is changing and just as personalisation is important for pupils, so is creating collaborative development opportunities for teachers appropriate to their needs. Within this project Connect is working with schools and local authorities to explore how different teachers’ needs can be met in different contexts. We are looking at the new performance management regulations and professional standards and at the latest research into effective CPD.

CPD/LEA partnership project

We worked with hundreds of teachers and senior managers in 30 local authorities across the country. The aim was to enable teachers to engage actively in local policy-making, produce models of entitlement to CPD, and develop the role of the CPD co-ordinator. The project led to transformational work in schools and local authorities, and has influenced our subsequent advice to government on how teachers’ CPD needs to be resourced and structured.