Image of Burton Borough School

Case Study:
Burton Borough School

Burton Borough School have been able to roll out award-winning, remote video CPD to the whole school workforce, thanks to School Membership with The National College.

Daniel Boden, Vice Principal, spoke with us to explain how our individualised approach to CPD has benefited the school.   

The importance of CPD

Burton Borough School place a huge focus on ensuring that they deliver high-quality and informative CPD to their staff.

Daniel explained: "We have 1200 students on roll at Burton Borough School."

"We pride ourselves on being a research-driven school."

"We place a large focus on CPD. We have mandatory CPD that must be completed each year, but I wanted to provide staff with the opportunity to add as much CPD as they could." he continued.

"It's important to focus on CPD so that students get the best experience possible on a daily basis."

Daniel said: "We use The National College to support all CPD within the school."

"I've made all of my middle leaders administrators on the platform."

He continued: "If we can give all of our middle leaders the tools that they need to be successful, they can internally develop their staff to be the best that they can be."

"They have administrative rights, and they assign CPD to all staff members."

He revealed: "Any areas of strength can be celebrated, and we use The National College to support any areas of development."

Bespoke CPD for all staff

When assessing their CPD needs, Burton Borough School wanted to offer all staff the opportunity to access training which was relevant to their respective roles.

Daniel said: "I needed to find something that they could use to allocate personalised CPD to their staff at a variety of different levels."

"I didn't want something that was a one size fits all model."

"I think that we have all sat through CPD before, where we are thinking 'this doesn't apply or isn't relevant to me'."

"It was really that personalised approach that I wanted, for every staff member in the school."

Choosing The National College

Daniel highlighted the benefits of our state-of-the-art online learning hub and revealed how this has enabled him to allocate CPD to all stakeholders.

He said: "Two main things stood out to me about The National College."

"The fact that the user groups went from my support staff in the school, all the way through to the governance level." he continued.

He stated: "It's one platform, where I could allocate CPD to every stakeholder within my organisation."

Guidance and policy updates are frequent and, at The National College, we respond in a timely manner, through expert-led webinars and courses.

Daniel highlighted: "Also, the fact that you have this constant update of new CPD, on a monthly basis."

"It ensures that we are up to date with the most current research and knowledge."

"All of the bespoke CPD is fantastic."

"We appreciate the up-to-date webinars, the terminology and the real in depth, thorough CPD that can be allocated to our staff members." he affirmed.

Excellent feedback from all stakeholders

Burton Borough School have seen a strong staff uptake since joining, and Daniel is proud of how the workforce has approached the wealth of training available.

He revealed: "On the whole, our staff have taken to the platform incredibly well."

"I know that our middle leaders are incredibly supportive of The National College."

He said: "It gives them the autonomy to identify key areas of CPD."

"As a school, we've bought into The National College as our CPD provider."