How to Stop Wasting Your PD Budget

You know that feeling when you leave a brilliant PD session completely fired up, only to find yourself back to square one a month later? Well, today we're gonna talk about why your professional development isn't sticking and what you can actually do about it. Hey, everyone, I'm Shane Leaning. Welcome to Education Leaders The Chat, topping the leadership podcast for school leaders just like you.

As an organizational coach, I've helped thousands of leaders worldwide lead with greater confidence, make better decisions, and create winning teams. And on this show, we explore the strategies that are gonna help you achieve your goals and transform your leadership practice. This episode is supported by the Teacher Development Trust and the International Curriculum Association. Stay tuned to learn more.

Okay, so I've just spent a week working pretty intensively with the school, and it's really got me thinking about something I see happening over and over again in schools that I work with and those that I hear about online. I'm calling it One Hit Wonder PD, or maybe you can call it Drive By PD. And before you switch off thinking that I'm just about to have a go at external consultants and trainers, I am absolutely not. This episode is not about those rubbish training sessions or irrelevant content that makes everyone roll their eyes.

Look, I know about those. We all know about those. But today I'm actually talking about the opposite. I'm talking about those brilliant PD days where you bring someone in and they're really genuinely fantastic.

Interactive, they're engaging, they're full of great ideas. The staff leave feeling pretty inspired, maybe, energized. And you're thinking, wow, that was money well spent. The team absolutely love it.

But here's what happens next. Monday morning arrives the next week and Miss Sarah, well, she's got a challenge in parent meeting and Mr. Tom over there, he's dealing with a behavior issue that's been escalated. And Miss Emma remembers that she's got assessments to mark and lesson plans to write.

In other words, real school life kicks in and slowly, week by week, all those brilliant insights from that PD day, they just fade away. And maybe by half term, if you asked your staff what they'd actually learn, they'd probably say, oh yeah, yeah, it was really good. But if you pushed them on what actually changed their practice, crickets. Does that sound familiar to you?

Now, I've got empathy for why this happens. You're busy, you know professional development matters, most leaders do. So you book someone credible, you tick the box and then you move on to the hundreds of other things on your plate. But there's a bit of an uncomfortable truth I'm gonna share with you now.

And that's that most of the responsibility for making PD stick in your school lies with you, the leader. You can look at the Education Endowment Foundation's brilliant work on this. Now, they identified 14 mechanisms for effective professional development. I'm gonna link to their summary in the show notes.

It's all free, you can go check it out. And yes, some of that is about building knowledge through those PD days. But look at the rest, motivation, goal setting, rehearsal, both inside and outside the classroom, repetition, feedback. These things are things that can only happen through practice, real sustained and supported practice over time.

Today's episode is supported by the Teacher Development Trust. TDT's Associate Qualification in CPD Leadership is so perfect for international school leaders. It's fully accredited and it's delivered online over 10 months. In it, you'll create an actual CPD, that's Continuing Professional Development Strategy for your school based on research that shows well-planned PD improves pupil outcomes and teacher attention.

And I actually did this program myself. And hands down, it's some of the best professional development I've ever done. So much so that I am delighted to be co-delivering this special Asia cohort, which starts in November. If you wanna learn more, go to tdtrust.org

or click the link in the show notes. This episode is supported by the International Curriculum Association. Now I've been working with the ICA for quite a few years, but they've been around for 30 years and they've been around championing quality, unlocking potential and improving learning in international schools right around the world. I really, really love that at their core is a model for improving learning.

And this model is focused on the learning experience and they have tons of great curriculum materials, PD resources and even an accreditation pathway for schools just like yours. So if you're interested and I really do recommend you check them out, head over to internationalcurriculum.com. So here's my challenge to you.

Just a short episode this year, I want you to focus on one thing, just one. If you're gonna bring in external support, fantastic, but let's make it count this year. First, do the groundwork. Don't let that consultant walk in cold.

Now, when I worked with that school I'm talking about last week, I spent a whole week auditing their provision alongside their team before we even planned the training. I know that school well now pretty well. And when I go back to deliver the workshops, they're gonna be targeted, they're gonna be relevant and practical because I understand their context and their community has given me that information. We also agreed on a goal together.

Secondly, plan the follow-up before the training even happens. Book in coaching sessions over the next six months if you can with that trainer. If budget might not stretch, then you've got to own this. Schedule regular check-ins with your team.

Create opportunities to practice it. You might set up peer support networks, but the important thing is you plan it into your calendar now, not just as an asset of thought. And this is the really crucial bit. You can't do this if you're juggling five, 10, 15 different initiatives.

That is like trying to learn to juggle with 15 balls when you can barely manage three. And I can't, by the way, manage even three juggling balls. You need to choose your one focus. Get your team aligned around that one focus and go deep.

Think about it like this. Would you rather have your staff vaguely remember 10 different sessions or would you rather see genuine transformation in your school in one key area that actually impacts student outcomes and you could see a change in practice? I know which one I choose. That keynote that has inspired your team, it doesn't just have to be a memory and that's often what it is.

With proper planning, with sustained support, it can be a spark that really supercharges the practice in your school. I have seen this, but it only happens if you're prepared to do some of the hard work that comes after that applause dies down. So that's my challenge to you. Pick one focus this year.

Go deep, make it stick. And please, please, please let me know how it goes. I would love to hear your stories. Education Leaders is hosted by me, Shane Leaning.

Big thanks to my show editor, Pete McGill and for the original music by Guillermo Silva. And thank you so, so much for tuning in today. We don't speak before, as ever. I'll see you here next week.

If you want to learn more about the brilliant work of the Teacher Development Trust and the International Curriculum Association, you can find them using the links in the show notes.