Image of Brooklands School

Case Study:
Brooklands School

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

Annabel Ashwell, who is the Assistant Headteacher with a responsibility for quality of education at Brooklands, came across our own CPD offer via an individual course which she was undertaking, and was impressed by what she learned from it.

Inspired by the content, she set about rolling out The National College across the school and, since having a School Membership, the school have seen great results.

“It’s worked out as huge value for money”

With one subscription, members have access to all of our past and future webinars and courses, and Mrs Ashwell has been elated with the value which The National College has added to Brooklands’ CPD programme.

She said: “I started with The National College by doing one course – and I thought it was such a good course and such good value for money, that we joined on a School Membership.

“We’ve got huge value for money from it. Especially this year with Covid, with so many lockdowns and so much partial closure, teachers and learning assistants that have been working from home have been able to access high-quality training from The National College.

“It’s worked out as huge value for money, as people no longer have to leave school to access such high-quality training.”

CPD for all

From teachers to teaching assistants and governors to office staff, our training caters for all affiliated school staff – something Brooklands have witnessed first-hand.

“It’s the consistency which we like. We trust all of the people who provide the information on The National College, and people can access it from home, in their own time, which has worked brilliantly for our staff,” she explained.

“We have these pinch points where every single member of staff has to complete the training, but what’s really lovely is that people are sending me certificates on a daily basis.

“There’s something for absolutely everybody, in any stage of their career, on The National College, and that’s why it is so successful.”

A direct impact

Naturally, CPD is completed with an intention to improve standards and classroom outcomes. When asked this very question, Mrs Ashwell was emphatic in her response, and went on to point out just how much impact the training has had.

She revealed: “I do signpost courses for people. I use the watchlists quite a lot and, especially with new staff when they start, I send them to look on the watchlist – which gives them a list of things which we’d like them to complete.

“There’s so much on there, and there’s so much coming out all the time.

“With our heads of department’s curriculum planning, they all did The National College curriculum training before they then went away to plan their curriculum.

“It’s really lovely to see people trying out some of the techniques or strategies which they’ve learnt on The National College and seeing the impact on the pupils."