Staff Training

High quality CPD ensures staff are confident and our children receive a high quality learning experience.

As an Apple Distinguished School and Regional Training Centre for Apple (RTC) all staff have access to high quality digital training.
Friday mornings in school are identified as collaborative learning for all staff.

It is important that staff have quality time to learn and develop our learning and teaching in school alongside developing their own pedagogy.

As a Strategic Partner of Yarlside Teaching School all staff have access to high quality training at a reduced cost.
Dalton St Mary’s is an outward facing school and we strongly believe that school to school working has a positive impact upon the practice of all staff involved. Our school staff often visit other schools to observe good practice and staff from other schools regularly visit Dalton St Mary’s to observe good practice within our school.

Dalton St Mary’s is an active member of the Furness Primary Collaborative (FPC); a group of schools who work closely together to improve the learning experience for the children within our cluster.

Mrs L Woodburn (Headteacher) is Chair of this group, all Headteachers meet on a four weekly basis to discuss current issues affecting schools and to plan collaborative opportunities.

All staff from the cluster schools meet termly in year groups or subject leader groups to share good practice, discuss issues pertinent to their year groups/subjects and undertake moderations.

This school to school work ensures staff in small schools and single form entry schools do not feel isolated in their role.

All staff at Dalton St Mary’s have their own login details for the Cumbria County Council training website. Staff can login and browse training, a staff member then selects training and places the request in a ‘shopping basket’ which sends an alert to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). The SLT review requests and if the training is determined to be of benefit to the staff member/whole school/pupils in their care it is authorised.

This system encourages staff to be proactive in their own CPD.
Newly Qualified Teachers are supported through the systems above and also are registered on an NQT+ Programme which has been developed and is led by Yarlside Teaching School. Teachers in their second, third or fourth years of teaching are encouraged to register on the Recently Qualified Teachers (RQT) Programme.

This programme is intended to support retention of teachers at this point in their career and support them in developing a career pathway.

Teachers beyond their fourth year are encouraged to register on National Professional Qualification Programmes, where this is appropriate, this work is valued as Dalton St Mary’s recognises its responsibility as a school to encourage leaders of the future.