Switch course ▾
Session 4. CPD Plans, Records and Pupil Outcomes
Objective. Build an individual CPD plan and a school record that serve planning and fairness, combine teachers' goals into two or three school priorities, and link each priority to one pupil measure with a clear and modest claim.
A plan on paper changes nothing until a teacher does something different on Tuesday and a pupil does something different on Wednesday. This lesson goes beyond the key ideas: how to help teachers write goals that can really be tested, how to collect a small pupil measure that does not mislead you, and what to do when the numbers do not go the way you hoped. The aim is honest evidence, not impressive numbers.
Key ideas
The individual CPD plan: one page, one goal
- The plan starts from the growth goal agreed in the appraisal cycle (Session 3) and names: the competency from the framework, the group of pupils, the learning activity, the support and time, the evidence of use and a review date. It is a plan for changing practice, not a list of courses.
- Learning activities can be many: a peer visit, a small reading group, a lesson study with two colleagues, a cluster session, a course. The Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning give a common language for planning learning that improves practice; the EEF guidance on effective professional development stresses mechanisms such as goal setting and feedback. Use them as checks, as in 11.8 (Designing Professional Learning).
- Ministry-required courses or hours are one line in the plan, not the whole plan. Ask your district office what is required.
The school record: for planning and fairness, not for counting hours
- A good record is a simple table (paper is fine): teacher, goal, activity, date, what changed in practice, and what evidence exists. Hours alone prove only attendance. A record that shows practice change lets you see who is being helped and who is being missed.
- Use the record to ask equity questions: do rural or part-time teachers, single subject teachers, and teachers near retirement get the same chances? Decide who may read it and keep personal details private.
- Combine goals into themes. If 5 of 16 teachers chose goals about checking understanding, that is a school priority with a leader and shared time; a single odd goal can still be supported through a buddy or a cluster.
A chain from teacher goal to pupil work
- Write the chain for each school priority: what teachers will do differently; what pupils will then do differently; which pupil measure will show it. Example: teachers use exit tickets weekly; pupils explain their answers more; the share of Grade 5-6 pupils who can explain how they found an answer rises.
- Choose ONE measure per priority, collect it the same way at the start and later (same task, two markers, marked without names), and keep it small. Report changes in plain numbers with the group size: 41 of 120 pupils is about 34%, and one pupil is less than 1 point.
- Stay modest: many things affect pupils' work. Say 'this priority contributed' only when the practice evidence (Session 3) and the pupil measure move together, and never rank teachers by their pupils' scores.
Make the plan fit time, money and place
- Count protected hours first: for example a fixed 45 minutes each week for peer work, a monthly 90-minute staff session, two cluster days. Then fill them with the priorities. If an activity has no time, it is a wish.
- Cluster with neighbouring schools: shared sessions, an exchange of lesson visits and a joint measure. A 2022 Cambridge Partnership interview with the director of Uzbekistan's Agency for Presidential Educational Institutions mentions a planned professional development qualifications centre meant to give teachers a framework for continuous growth; check what national structures are available to you.
- Review once a term: what did we do, what changed in practice, what do pupils' work show, what do we stop? Close the loop so teachers see their goals were used.
The chain and the review
Goals that can be tested
A useful goal names a pupil group, a change in what pupils will do and a way to see it. 'Improve questioning' is not a goal. 'By June, my 5B pupils will give a reason for their answer in writing at least once a week, and I will check twelve notebooks each month' is. Help teachers choose ONE such goal and write it in their own words.
Match the goal to the stage. A first-year teacher may need a routine she can master in six weeks, such as a start-of-lesson question. A teacher at the Established stage may try something that changes how pupils think. A Leading teacher's goal may include helping two colleagues. Ask each one: 'What will tell you in March that this is working?' If they cannot answer, the goal is not yet ready.
Pupil measures that do not mislead
Keep the measure small and repeatable: one task of five items, given at the start and again after a term, marked without names by two teachers, on a sample of 30 to 60 pupils. Report the count and the group size, for example 18 of 45, and not only a percentage. In a class of 25, one pupil is four percentage points, so small shifts mean little.
Plan for a disappointing result. If the measure does not rise, first check whether the practice actually happened (your observation and record), then whether the task fits the goal, and only then whether the approach needs changing. Teachers who fear that a low number will be used against them will stop reporting honestly, so say beforehand that the numbers are for the team's learning and never for ranking individuals.
Examples from the classroom
From 16 goals to two priorities
Scene. In a school in Khiva, Deputy Head Malika collects one-line goals from 16 teachers and cuts them into themes on the table of the staff room. Five are about checking understanding and five about pupils explaining. She does not ignore the other six: two Grade 1 teachers get a joint session with a neighbouring school, and the informatics teacher is asked to run a 20-minute clinic on quiz tools. All 16 receive a reply within a week saying where their goal sits.
Insight. Grouping goals creates priorities; replying to every teacher keeps everyone inside the system.
A small pupil measure
Scene. Two Grade 5 teachers in Fergana want to see whether pupils explain better. They write a five-item task with a 0-1-2 marking guide: 0 no reason, 1 a partial reason, 2 a clear reason. In September, 60 pupils do it; names are replaced by numbers and the two teachers mark each other's classes. In December the same task is repeated. The average moves from 3.1 to 4.4 out of 10, and they write 'a rise, with the same markers who knew the aim, so we hold it cautiously'.
Insight. The same task, anonymous cross-marking and a cautious sentence give a usable measure from simple tools.
Who is missing from the record?
Scene. When Jasur, a methodist in Samarkand region, adds an equity column to the record, he finds that two Grade 1 teachers and a village teacher three years from retirement have had no development activity since September. None had asked. He arranges a shared session of three schools on early reading, and gives the village teacher a visit slot with a nearby colleague. In the review he asks each of the three, 'What was useful, and what would you change?'
Insight. A record that is read with equity in mind finds the quiet teachers the loud requests would miss.
Common pitfalls
- Letting teachers write five goals each, so that none of them gets attention.
- Collecting a pupil measure once and calling it a result, without a baseline.
- Reporting percentages without the group size, so that three pupils look like a trend.
- Comparing teachers by their pupils' scores, which stops honest sharing.
From 16 Goals to Two Priorities and a Pupil Measure
- Open the Kit: 16 anonymous teacher goals from a SAMPLE school. Alone (6 min): read them and put a theme word next to each.
- Trios (12 min): cluster the goals into themes and count them. Choose two school priorities. Decide what to do about goals that fit none (a buddy, a cluster, a polite no).
- Trios (15 min): for each priority write the chain (teacher action, pupil action, pupil measure), the protected time it will use, the leader and the first activity. Fill the school plan grid.
- Trios (10 min): small numbers check. A baseline of 41 of 120 pupils becomes 58 of 120 after a term. Write one honest sentence for the staff and one sentence about what you cannot claim.
- Part B, record critique (25 min): in pairs, read the sample record that lists only hours (course name, hours). Redesign it as a half-page table that shows goal, activity, change in practice, evidence and who has been missed. Test it on three imaginary teachers: a rural teacher, a Grade 1 teacher, a teacher with 3 years to retirement.
- Alone (17 min): write your leadership task from the Kit and the first line of your CPD record.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which goals did your trio set aside, and how did you make sure those teachers still felt heard?
- What is the weakest link in your chain from teacher action to pupil measure?
- What would a record that only lists hours hide from you as a leader?
Reflect
- Which of your own professional goals this year has a visible effect on pupils' work?
- Which pupil data in your school could serve as an honest, small baseline?
- Who might be missing from your school's CPD opportunities without anyone noticing?
Try it tomorrow
- Ask three teachers to rewrite their goal so that it names a pupil group, what pupils will do and how they will see it.
- Design a five-item pupil task for one priority and write the 0-1-2 marking guide on half a page.
- Add an equity column to your record and list one teacher who has had no opportunity this term.
Further reading and links
Plan from teachers' goals to two or three school priorities, record practice change not only hours, and make a modest claim with one pupil measure.