3 ways to implement and utilise video for CPD

3 ways to implement and utilise video for CPD

What makes a great lesson? How do teachers ensure rapid progress? What can I do better?

These are some of the questions that are either posed to teachers or they ask themselves on a regular basis.

So how can a school implement and utilise video for CPD to support improvements in teaching?

1. Build a team

First create a team of outstanding teachers who will openly share their practice. We called them the Critical Difference Team, sounding a little like Jack Bauer and CTU, but the team loved it. They were the first to be exposed to IRIS Connect and filmed lessons to share with others. If you are a school leader with responsibility for staff development and planning inset days these clips are a god send in demonstrating how strategies can be implemented in your school with your pupils.

2. Create an IRIS Connect Support Plan

Secondly, we built IRIS Connect into our support plan model for staff who need to move their teaching on. I suppose the key here is that it’s not ‘another observation’. Staff can film as many lessons or snap shots as they like; the important element is reflection. They then share the videos with their mentor; not to grade or judge but to ask… is this better? How can I improve it? What are my next steps? At first the idea of a video camera can seem strange, but they have control and thus ownership of the support they then seek.

After reading an article by The Secret Teacher on support plans and observations I felt very strongly that IRIS Connect offered the opportunity to empower staff and give them ownership of the journey. Obviously further observations do follow but those that have happened since implementation display a pattern: those teachers who use IRIS Connect more often improve far more rapidly than those who limit themselves to the minimum we set.

3. Film training sessions

Spread the impact of small session work in one quick step. This is also ideal for staff that are absent, part-time or on maternity leave, giving them access to materials at a time that suits them.

We are almost 1.5 terms into our implementation; our usage now includes LSAs and staff who have opted in. We still have a long way to go on our journey, but we have started opening doors and raising the relevant questions for staff to reflect on current practice.

Written by Chloe Burke. Assistant Headteacher at The Deanery Church of England High School and Sixth Form College

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