Image of Ryefield Primary School

Case Study:
Ryefield Primary School

Keen to not let the coronavirus pandemic impact upon their staff development capabilities, Ryefield Primary School opted to join The National College in order to roll out a continuous stream of remote CPD.

The Uxbridge-based school have been able to ensure that measures put in place to protect staff haven’t been impacted upon, thanks to our entirely remote video update service.

Colin Tucker, who is Headteacher at Ryefield, expressed his elation at the results which have been yielded from The National College.

Undertaking remote CPD

Of course, a huge plus point of having a remote CPD capability is that all staff can log on and complete statutory training in a safe, controlled space.

This has been integral in the eyes of Mr Tucker, especially given the lengths that the school have gone to in order to safeguard their entire workforce.

Speaking about existing safeguarding measures, Mr Tucker said: “It’s allowed us to maintain safeguarding control of what had been put in place at the school, without compromising the infection control measures, that you have to have in place to minimise the spread of the virus.

“Staff have found it easy incorporating it in their own release time or for us to find a space in the school to facilitate it.”

Positive staff initiative

The school have seen an encouraging approach from staff to the training, which is available on our platform, with many taking it upon themselves to pursue areas of personal interest.

“Normally I would pay for one or two people to go on a particular course. Because the training isn’t really ringfenced, we’ve found that staff have taken their own initiative and followed their own professional development pathways,” he explained.

“An example of that would be that a lot of the staff would normally just get the level 2 in safeguarding training, but now they can sit down and watch level 3. They’re then coming out of that and the level of background knowledge is much different.

“With staff being able to pursue an area of interest, it’s great, because it will only benefit us, having staff which are highly trained in current issues.

“There are resources there that can allow them to follow their own intellectual curiosity and upskill their understanding of approaches and requirements.”

Support for all staff

Forward steps continue to be taken too, with Mr Tucker revealing he’s been delighted at the vast range of video CPD that exists, meaning that all staff members can get up to speed.

Mr Tucker revealed: “We’ve made a big impact in supporting our site team and cleaners with getting them up to speed with their requirements on health & safety and asbestos control.

“We’ve allowed them to access that off site. It has enabled us to undergo some quite rigorous internal assurance and come out with very good feedback.