Page 84 - SEN116 January-February 2022

Professional development
Why is effective professional support
and development important?
Alex Grady discusses the need for appropriate Professional Development programming for teacher retention and optimising learning outcomes for SEND pupils.
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Now, more than ever, the importance of a school workforce that is effective and motivated cannot be overestimated; the expectation to ‘close the gaps’ and ‘recover’ from the pandemic, lockdowns and
school closures is high, and the burden of achieving that for our children and young people will mainly fall on schools. This is one of the key reasons why professional support and its leadership in schools is crucial.
Professional development (PD) opportunities which are carefully designed, with a strong focus on pupil outcomes, have a significant impact on the achievement of children and young people (Teacher Development Trust: Developing Great Teaching, 2015). This includes children and young people who have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND), for whom the highest quality of teaching is essential to meet their potential, and achieve successful outcomes both in school and in adult life.
To stay on top of this, we need to retain the teachers we have, in addition to recruiting more (over 20% of new teachers leave within their first two years and 33% within five years). The
“20% of new teachers leave within their first two years”
National Foundation for Educational Research (NfER) and the Teacher Development Trust (TDT) published research in 2020 which found that the area with the greatest potential to increase job satisfaction and retention is autonomy over PD goals.
The number of pupils attending special schools is rising (134,176 pupils in state-funded special schools in 2020-21 compared to 105,363 in 2015-16), leading to a shortage of places. In response, the government has announced the creation of an additional 30,000 places as part of a £2.6billion pot for SEND
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