Image of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary Voluntary Academy

Case Study:
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary Voluntary Academy

Almost all school staff have had to adapt to remote education throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

This has been no different a challenge for St Joseph’s Catholic Primary Voluntary Academy in Cleethorpes who, at the commencement of the second national lockdown, had an ambition to use the time as an opportunity to empower their workforce through high-quality CPD.

Headteacher, Emily McCullagh, explained how purchasing a school membership has really had a positive impact throughout the school.

A remote learning opportunity

Mrs McCullagh was keen to approach the current climate in a positive mindset and, by using our remote video update service, staff have been able to complete statutory training at a time which suits them.

She said: “At the start of the last lockdown we only had three children in school, and staff were on a rota – so what we wanted was meaningful CPD.

“I was taken through everything and I thought this is exactly what we need. It’s all in one place, I can see what people are doing, I can allocate things to them and it was tailored to people’s jobs as well.

“We’ve produced a document for staff if they’re working from home, with a list of courses to work through. So, they all know if they’re remote learning, that this is what they’ve got to do.”

Meeting safeguarding requirements

She went onto state just how impressive the wealth of webinars and courses available on The National College really is; adding that there’s then a reassurance of seeing the quantity of staff which have undertaken allocated CPD.

“Sometimes, I’ll be searching through and I’ll see something that I’ve not looked into yet, which is great, because I can then go and watch that webinar,” she explained.

“One of the things we were struggling to find was a course for the designated teaching of looked after children and, when we found one, it was such a relief, because it is a safeguarding requirement.

“So, just having it there and knowing that we’re going to meet the requirements and being able to check that the staff have done it, is great.”

Empowering staff knowledge

A key takeaway for the workforce has been that sense of empowerment she says, with the collective group feeling that they’ve undoubtably enhanced their knowledge base.

She revealed: “It’s been really positive and empowering for staff – they feel that they have a greater knowledge of things.

“Staff also have an impact sheet, so when they’ve completed any CPD they have to fill this in and tell us how they’re going to use the knowledge they’ve gained.”