It must be the numbers.

I like counting down and now that Christmas and New year are over, I’m counting down to #ResearchSEND.

This morning there are twenty days to go.

We all know as teachers, that we go to a training session and we make notes on what we have heard and what we discussed and then we go home. This week I had the pleasure of listening to a session delivered by David Weston on Teacher Professional Development, he recognised that we all take notes (he has done it himself) and when we go home we put them into a box.

The box of shame.

The box we know we should do something about, but never do.

My box of shame, is more like my office of shame. I have more than boxes, I have piles and folders and shelves full of professional development materials, and I if I open one box, and then another, and another I will find it full of  course notes, my notes from the courses, pages printed from the internet, and sometimes, but not often, to do lists.

Do I remember the learning? Did I embed it into my practice? I’m going to say its unlikely, as I can barely remember the content.

There is no doubt that undertaking effective continuous professional development (CPD) as a teacher can be a challenge. Days are often set aside for professional development activities, through whole school INSET days, or attendance at conferences and courses to support classroom teaching roles, where instruction is given on the teaching strategies across the school, or a new data management system, or to update on statutory functions. All have to be done and all are completely valuable, but once these have been delivered it leaves little time for sustained professional development programmes.

The recent publication of the Standards for Teachers Professional Development (DFE 2016), is about to change that and will be instrumental in the CPD culture change with its expectations about professional development; namely, that teachers should:

• keep their knowledge and skills as teachers up-to-date and be self-critical;

• take responsibility for improving teaching through appropriate professional development, responding to advice and feedback from colleagues;

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how pupils learn and how this has an impact on teaching;

• have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas;

• reflect systematically on the effectiveness of lessons and approaches to teaching; and 

• know and understand how to assess the relevant subject and curriculum areas.

Our first #ResearchSEND  event  at the University of Wolverhampton on the 11th February is our reaction to the CPD standards for teachers. We recognise and acknowledge that the standards promote research as a way of providing effective professional development of teachers, creates a culture of scholarship and provides a structure for teachers to support one another, which all leads to effective teaching and positive outcomes for pupils.

 There are a growing number of research events across the county, but there is little input on research around the SEND agenda, for example at ResearchED in September 2016, there was one workshop which focused specifically on SEND research.

There is value in taking notice of research in SEND, because if we get it right for SEND pupils, we usually get it right for all the other pupils too.  (Anita Kerwin Nye talks about this in detail in her recent SchoolsWeek Interview)  

At our #ResearchSEND event we are focusing on the link between research and practise, and will be launching the hashtag #ChangeMonday and we would like this movement to start a range of SEND research programmes which will sustain and embed practice, through individual and collaborative activity.

To launch #ResearchSEND and #ChangeMonday will be joined by leaders in SEND and SEND Research, who will all be leading a workshop session.

• Rob Webster – UCL
• Bart Shaw – LMKCo
• John Reid – Oxford Brookes University
• Helen Curran – Bath Spa University
• Christopher Rossiter – Driver Youth Trust
• Paul Elliott – Special School Head Teacher & Registered Ofsted Inspector
• Jennifer Donovan & Roseanne Esposito – UCL
• Laine Pitcher Smith – Secondary Literacy Specialist
• Nancy Gedge – TES Columnist and Driver Youth Trust
• Marc Rowland – National Education Trust
• Margaret Mulholland – Swiss Cottage School
• Dr Joanna Vivash – UCL
• Professor Philip Garner – Nasen

Some sessions are running in parallel so we are looking at ways to record them.

I will be hosting a panel, which will feature,

• Professor Michelle Lowe
• Kerry Jordan Daus
• Dame Alison Peacock
• Sir Toby Salt.

All of the panel members have undertaken extensive research on education pedagogy and by using the #ResearchSEND  hashtag during the day, we will collect questions to ask them around a range of research topics including, integrating ongoing  research findings  into classroom practice, the challenges of being a teacher researcher and future thinking and development.

If you want to join us at our first event, and be part of a movement, that truly believes that we should undertake CPD which enables us to #ChangeMonday and promotes the best practice for SEND.

Please lease reserve you place through – education-central.org.uk/events

I look forward to meeting you.