The Teacher Development Fund’s Cohort Learning Programme brings together teachers, artist practitioners and school leaders across projects to share their progress and challenges. TDF Associate Greg Klerkx tells us how this programme helps nurture a thriving community of practice.
As a facilitator and arts educator, I’ve been fortunate to be involved with PHF’s Teacher Development Fund (TDF) since its days as a pilot programme in 2016. The need for the core work supported by the Fund – connecting teachers with high-quality, arts-led professional development and learning – was clear from the start as teachers sought new ways to address educational inequity in all its forms.
What emerged just as clearly in those early days was a strong desire for connection across TDF projects – not only to share progress and challenges – but through this sharing to acknowledge that the TDF ‘way of working’ is unique, and powerful. The Cohort Learning Programme brings together active TDF grantees on a regular basis. The programme was established in 2018 to support this desire for connection, and over the course of four grant rounds, it extends across all four UK nations. What’s emerged is a wide-ranging yet closely linked community of practice.
Like many communities of practice, the TDF community, both on the arts and education sides, has developed a language of practice that links colleagues across geography and demography.
The TDF community is bound together by a commitment to inquiry-based learning, effective models of CPDL, meaningful involvement of school leaders, co-learning between educators and artist practitioners, and embedded reflection.
Cohort Learning Days have balanced expert presentations with focused planning time for individual projects and discussions between projects, with the latter activity being particularly valued. “It gives you impetus to drive your own project forward,” said one participant about cross-project connecting. Another said, “It’s especially important for everyone to appreciate each other’s perspectives, to hear about the learning that’s taken place, and to have time to ensure that our projects have legacy and sustainability.”
The ideas and practice that bind the TDF community may not always find immediate traction in the broader educational landscape. What’s the point of a whole school singing project when there’s so much academic catch-up needed following the Covid-19 pandemic? How can a school justify regular drama-based learning activities when there are SATs to prep for? The answers aren’t necessarily simple but having a community of practice – one that can draw upon a wide range of experience and evidence – creates a kind of strength-in-numbers approach where answers can be, and have been, found.
As the TDF programme has evolved, input from TDF ‘alumni’ – teachers, senior leaders, and practitioners from completed grant rounds – has been especially powerful in supporting newer grantees with top tips for troubleshooting challenges and building on successes. More recently, it’s been exciting to see TDF grantees reach out to each other beyond the Cohort Learning Programme to continue the sharing that programme days encourage.
In these waning days of the pandemic, teachers are keener than ever for new ideas and perspectives to help them rebuild student learning and, critically, student wellbeing. The TDF has demonstrated the significant role that the arts can have in this process, which in turn has helped participating artist practitioners and organisations rethink and reimagine their own work. Communities of practice are resources not only in the usual ‘toolkit’ sense – ideas, activities, case studies – but as shared pools of confidence, which teachers and artist practitioners need every bit as much as the children they work with.
The White Horse Federation, a Multi-Academy Trust of 32 schools, joined forces with Prime Theatre to improve pupils’ literacy through drama and performance poetry. Dr Nicholas Capstick OBE, the Trust’s CEO, and Mark Powell, Prime Theatre’s Artistic Director, share the challenges they faced as they launched their joint TDF programme, the ways they’ve adapted delivery amidst Covid-19 and their plans for the future.
Teachers and artist practitioners involved in A Child’s Eye View reflect on their learning journey and the Teacher Development Fund’s impact on their practice.
