According to the latest Teacher Development Trust report, CPD is facing a crisis of confidence in schools.

The report says that many teachers either don’t receive CPD that makes a real difference to their classroom practice or perceive that they don’t.

When so much time, money and energy is invested in something that isn’t seen to be having an impact, it’s bound to lead to frustration and disengagement.

What’s more, this finding isn’t new: it aligns with previous research from the Department for Education and Teacher Tapp, suggesting that little progress has been made in the CPD landscape in recent years, despite our best efforts.

Within our trust, we have made a commitment to tackle this challenge through what we call “quality improvement groups” (QIGs). These sit alongside the in-school CPD that all staff engage with throughout the year. So, how do they work?

What are quality improvement groups?

Each group includes representatives from across our schools, who volunteer to get involved. These may be senior or middle leaders, but more often are teachers or support staff.

The groups take an enquiry-led approach to areas of focus that are identified each year and are linked to trust priorities. These may be subject-based, or more wide-reaching, such as safeguarding or attendance.

Within these areas of focus, the group selects a small aspect of their work and considers how they can improve this further, through researching, sharing best practice and trying things out in their schools.

For example, because reading remains a major priority, several groups have explored how they can improve reading within their subject areas. Others have focused on how children eligible for the pupil premium can benefit from explicit vocabulary teaching or how retrieval practice can improve outcomes.

Some of these groups have been newly established over the past year to allow us to be responsive to emerging needs, while others have been running for four years.

Already the impact of these groups is being felt. Some have directly informed changes to our trust priorities, policies and CPD programmes:

• The Reading QIG helped to develop a trust-wide reading assessment policy that gives greater clarity about what is and is not working, and has helped to improve communication between schools.
   
• The Careers QIG is leading CPD for middle leaders on embedding high-quality careers education across subjects, working with the local careers hub to explore best practice.
   
• The SEND QIG provides regular training to ensure that all staff are up to date with effective strategies for pupils with additional needs and are able to respond to emerging needs.

At the end of each academic year, every group produces an impact report and presentation, to share their findings and help to shape the next steps for the trust and their schools.

What makes this approach different?

While similar models exist elsewhere, our QIGs are distinctive because they are run by staff, for staff. They have the full support of headteachers and the central school improvement team, who help to allocate time, often during the school day, by providing cover or allowing flexibility in how group members engage (for example, remotely).

Dates to meet and ways of working are set at the start of the year, which makes participation as easy as possible.

Using trust priorities to determine the areas of focus offers direction without constraining creativity. The groups are free to explore what matters most in their context.

Importantly, the stakes are deliberately low: discovering that something doesn’t work is valued just as much as finding a breakthrough. This creates the freedom to experiment, innovate and learn from both success and failure.

Three tips for getting started

Here are three things for leaders to consider if they are interested in adopting a similar approach:

• Identify your key priorities: focus on the areas that matter the most in your context, such as literacy, attendance or the pupil premium, and be clear about why they matter.
   
• Make collaboration easy: carve out time for groups to meet and shape their enquiry. Flexibility is key. Some of our QIGs use hybrid meetings or shared online workspaces to stay connected throughout the school year.
   
• Be open to all outcomes: listen, adapt and sustain support. Not every idea will lead to an instant improvement or radical change, but every enquiry contributes to deeper understanding and stronger collective practice.

Our staff surveys show that colleagues overwhelmingly value these opportunities to collaborate and think deeply about their practice. There is always more to do to ensure that this learning translates into daily classroom impact, but our quality improvement groups are helping us to take meaningful steps in the right direction.

Zoe Enser is the school improvement lead for a trust in the North West of England

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