Building a great research question

Building a great research question

In developing a culture of research at Veritas MAT, I have been thinking about how we can best support our staff team in devising helpful, engaging and purposeful research questions.

When thinking of research in schools, the key to a purposeful research based enquiry is to lead the researcher to a helpful question for their research project. This process is one that can often be hampered by what Daniel Kahnaman would call 'fast thinking'. Jumping at the first question that springs to mind can often lead to difficulties in the research journey as the question may be too broad, overly vague, biased or just plain boring. The question needs to have purpose and the researcher needs to ensure the question leads them towards the desired outcome of their research. The researcher needs to have the end point, or at least a presumption of what the end point may look like, in view. If the researcher settles on the wrong question, there is a real danger that the research that is undertaken leads them to an end point that lacks purpose or relevance to their practice.

Gary Thomas 2017, in his book How To Do Your Research Project,  suggests there are four types of research questions and defines the as:

1.       What’s the situation?

2.       What’s going on here?

3.       What happens when?

4.       What is related to what?

These help the researcher to begin to define a purposeful question.

What’s the situation?

The first of Thomas’ questions asks the researcher to simply describe what they are observing.  This is a helpful starting point for a researcher’s first steps into research in schools. This may be seen in a teaching assistant asking the question, ‘what are the different strategies for supporting children with dyslexia?’. At first sight this is a helpful question to allow the teaching assistant who may be new to post explore the different strategies for supporting a pupil with dyslexia within the school. The question may, however require further clarification.  It is the skill of the coach to make sure the researcher a refines their question to ensure it aligns to the desired outcome of their research.

Taking this example, the coach needs to ask the researcher to be more specific about the first research question. The coach could ask, ‘is there a particular subject area that would be of interest to your research question’ or ‘is there a specific age group, gender, ability, level of deprivation you are interested in in order to make your research question more specific?’ The coach is trying, though these questions, to help the researcher to narrow their field of study in order to make their research both increasingly manageable and the outcome more impactful. With a narrower focus on this descriptive question, the researcher has greater chance in finding out something of interest that will impact positively on their practice and potentially the practice of others.

Thomas draws an analogy between this style of question and painting a picture. He states that the researcher should, through their research question and subsequent research, be able to paint a picture of what is happening through words.  As with any painting, however, it is provided through the lens of the artist, and this is also the case in research.  The researcher can put their own interpretation on the research, making it unique to their setting and their own interests.  This is not something to shy away from, but to embrace.  The researcher, provided they name their own perspective in this research and their own potential bias, can share their findings to a well constructed situation question freely.

What’s going on here?

The ‘what’s going on here?’ style of question asks the researcher to question deeper. Thomas suggests this is likened to shining a spotlight on a darkened area of understanding. The spotlight, metaphorically the research question, allows the researcher to shine light, or understanding, on a key part of their practice that is currently not fully understood. Thomas puts this well as he writes:

‘First, it means that you are expecting to see something that you couldn’t see before. Second, it implies also that you will be able to see because you are looking in a way that you weren’t able to previously. Third, it implies you are giving time and energy to looking hard 9i.e. shining the light) and using your own self – your intelligence and experience – to make sense of the subject under study.’  Thomas 2017

The researcher asks about an element of their practice, forming the question, ‘Why do children in my intervention group struggle to stay on task in maths lessons?’. This question poses a problem to the researcher who now needs to try to get into the heads of the children in this group.  An impossible task. However, the question then asks the researcher to be subjective in their research. Being subjective is sometimes seen as a weaker style of research compared to a more objective approach. Subjective research is perfectly valid as a research process, provided the researcher acknowledges this and states their potential bias or viewpoint.

  

What happens when?

This approach asks the researcher to ask about possibilities. This may be linked to a question that asks ‘what happens to pupil’s confidence when a teacher limits their praise?’. The question relies on the researcher making a hypothesis that something will happen as a result of an action. This action may be an existing element of practice or, more typically, when a new element of practice is introduced. In this case the shift from furnishing pupils with praise to a more limited offer of praise.

The ‘what happens when?’ question can be helpful in the researcher developing an element of their own practice and being able to use the research to validate their rationale behind the practice. In this example, the researcher asking about the impact of praise on confidence in their pupils leads to some further considerations. Firstly, would the research question involve a limited group of pupils? Would the pupil group be those that are currently confident, or target those who are less confident? Would the research group be limited to a particular subject, time of day, period in the school year? The coach needs to unpack all these possibilities with the e researcher in order to make sure the research question is refined and the research that leads from it is helpful to their practice.

Another example of the what happens when question was posed by a member of my early years team. The researcher asked, ‘What happens to the levels of concentration for my group of autistic children when adults walk through the room?’. The context of this question was rooted in the early years classroom being used as a walk through room when the hall was in use. With three autistic children in the class, the researcher wanted to research the impact of these perceived distractions on the children. This question was helpful in forming a basis to this research project but came with further questions for the coach. The coach asked:

§  Why is this an important field of research for you?

§  How do you hope this will impact on your practice?

§  How do you hope this will impact on the pupils?
§  What assumptions are you making here?
§  Can you refine your question to make sure you really target what you are trying to find out?
§  Can you spot any bias in your research question?

The ‘what happens when?’ question therefore tries to define whether one particular factor causes a reaction, or as Thomas puts it ‘does this cause that’ or ‘does x cause y?’. This can be a really helpful question style for staff introducing new initiatives in school and a well-constructed research question can unpack the impact of the new initiative. 

An interesting, but challenging, research question was raised by a member of the teaching team in our school as they asked ‘does research in school impact positively on practice?’. When I first read this question, I felt this teacher was questioning the whole approach to research informed practice in our school and trust. At first sight, this question appeared subversive and one that was set to challenge the approach to research across our entire staff body.  I considered the personal bias this member of the team was bringing to their research and that they possibly hoped to devalue research informed practice. I then, with Kahnaman’s slow thinking, stepped back from my initial reaction and recognised that I was bringing my own bias to this reaction. I had let my bias, in this case what Kahnaman would call the ‘halo effect’, cloud my openness to the light that research can cast on your own practice. I had allowed my passion and excitement for the impact of research informed practice to block the possibility that research itself could suggest that research did not impact positively on the organisation. I mention this only to alert the issue that bias is not only rooted in the researcher, but also in the coach and needs to be recognised and named where it arises. 

I am , however, more than relieved to state that the outcome of the research question by this teacher led to a fascinating study on the impact of research.  The research highlighted the affirming power of research on the individual and the organisation. The research also highlighted the importance of recognising the workload research places on some members of the team and through this being exposed through a well-crafted research question, our approach to supporting staff in understanding research methodology and providing time to all staff to undertake research days was introduced.

What is related to what?

This style of question asks the researcher to consider how two or more factors interact to cause an outcome. This may be embedded in a question like the one used by a member of staff who asked ‘How does attendance, deprivation and special educational needs affect the outcomes in phonics for year 1 pupils?’. This question leads the researcher to consider the connectedness of differing factors on their research.  It leads the researcher to pose questions about the links between differing factors to help them draw an answer from this connectedness to find a new level of understanding.

As with the previous three forms of questions, the ‘what is related to what?’ question is open to cognitive bias. The researcher inevitably brings an assumption to this question. In the example above, the researcher may have made the assumption that attendance, deprivation and special educational needs have an adverse effect on outcomes in phonics for year 1 pupils. The research may therefore lead to the study of a group of pupils whose attainment in phonics may be limited by another factor beyond the study, such as lack of verbal engagement in the family home in the formative years. It is once again the role of the coach to carefully unpack these potential assumptions and biases through skilful questioning in order to define a helpful research question.

The hypothesis and null-hypothesis

‘Hypothesis – an idea or explanation of something that is based on a few known facts but that has not yet been proved to be true or correct. ‘ (Oxford, 2020)

Research questions can sometimes test out a hypothesis. Thomas refers to the hypothesis as the fifth style of question a researcher could choose.  The hypothesis presents a difficult choice of research question as it often makes an assumption of truth based on limited facts and reading. An example of the hypothesis is used in current school inspection framework in England where the lead inspector will consider the evidence gathered during the first day of a two day inspection and formulate an hypothesis to test out on the second day. An example hypothesis may be related to the leadership seen in three subjects seen where in each subject seen during the first day of the inspection a particular group of pupils appear to perform differently when compared to their peers. The following hypothesis is therefore formed by the inspector, ‘In a wide range of subjects, disadvantaged pupils make stronger progress compared with their peers as a result of the additional support they receive.’. This hypothesis, as a research tool, has difficulties. One key difficulty is that the hypothesis makes a presumption based on limited knowledge, this has the potential to put the metaphorical blinkers on the researcher. In setting sights on a hypothesis, there is a tendency for the researcher to endeavour, sometimes at all costs, to prove their hypothesis right. This creates a strength of bias that can lead to a foregone conclusion, limiting the validity of the research itself. While the hypothesis style approach to forming a research question is a valid process, the researcher must be cautious that they are not charging into a research project that is restricted by their bias.

As an undergraduate scientist in the early 1990s, I was introduced to the concept of the null-hypothesis. The null-hypothesis flips the bias created by the hypothesis on its head by inverting the research focus to try to disprove the researcher’s hypothesis or idea. As an example, if a researcher was trying to prove the hypothesis above that ‘in a wide range of subjects, disadvantaged pupils make stronger progress compared with their peers as a result of the additional support they receive.’ The null hypothesis would turn this on its head. The null-hypothesis in this instance would read ‘in a wide range of subjects, disadvantaged pupils make less strong progress compared with their peers as a result of the additional support they receive.’ Or alternatively taking the additional support as the variable here we could consider the following null-hypothesis of ‘additional support for disadvantaged pupils has no effect on the progress made when compared to their peers in a wide range of subjects.’ By flipping the hypothesis, the researcher is encouraged to disprove their own hypothesis, and therefore be increasingly open to challenging their own cognitive bias.

To ask or not to ask, that is the question...

In formulating a research question, the researcher must therefore think carefully about what style of question will best suit their research. The coach plays a vital role in helping the researcher to refine their research question to ensure it is purposeful, manageable and relevant to the researcher. The research question is, however, still in its infancy. The question is open to growth as there is still much more that the researcher will find out. As the researcher moves through step three in the research cycle and reviews what is known about the issue, the question has a chance to grow. In addition to this, the researcher’s own understanding and awareness of their bias and the bias of others in their organisation will heighten. These factors will help the research question grow and mature into a meaningful question upon which the research enquiry can rest.

All the best in formulating your own research question.

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

Here is a rendition of the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. Have a listen and then have a go at some of the suggested activities below.

Now let's have some fun with this....

• Play the video again and pause at any of the nonsense words and define them
• Can you draw the Jabberwocky's eye
• Draw and label a jubjub bird ( be imaginative)
• Draw our hero with his vorpal sword.
• What did our hero think about as he rested by the Tumtum tree? Write an inner dialogue as his thoughts.
• Describe the battle with the Jabberwocky - use adventurous language to really set the scene.
• Challenge yourself to learn this poem by heart (it will stay with you forever)
• Change the first and last verse using nonsense words
• Write your own nonsense poem about whatever you like.(perhaps your teacher or your mum)

Gallery Lessons

Gallery Lessons

The most helpful CPD is often through sharing practice within our own school or network of schools. As senior leaders in schools, we often direct our teachers to observe the practice of established colleagues in order to enhance their own disciplinary or pedagogical knowledge. In observing practice, something is sometimes lost in translation as the observer doesn't readily spot the subtleties of the practice they are watching.

What is a gallery lesson?

When visiting Singapore on a research trip last year, I discovered an education system that was keen to use the expertise of its own teachers to develop practice in schools. The Singaporean Ministry of Education invests in the development of teachers' own disciplinary knowledge, the knowledge of subject content, and pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of how to teach subject knowledge to pupils. Pedagogical and disciplinary knowledge has also formed an important part of the current Ofsted Education Inspection Framework. Singaporean schools develop this as part of their culture is through the use of gallery classrooms.  A gallery classroom is provided in each primary school involving a standard classroom with a mirrored room at the back of the classroom where teachers and teaching assistants can stand and watch the lesson.

Singaporean primary school leaders encourage teachers to enter an 'expert teacher' pathway. If assigned as an expert teacher, the teacher remains in the classroom, and is charged with providing training and development opportunities for their colleagues. The expert teachers within the school will book out lesson times in the gallery lesson and staff in the school can book a time to watch. This creates an interest and conversation around both disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge amongst staff. 

How can we apply this principle to our classrooms?

I also had the privilege of visiting a school in London who had used technology to allow teachers to have narrated observations.  In this practice, an expert teacher would narrate an observation of a lesson to teachers watching a lesson. Narrated lessons are used to good effect in the ITT world where student teachers observe a lesson with their mentor narrating and pointing out elements of practice seen.

Using the experience of narrated observations and gallery lessons, I purchased a set of tour guide receivers. This allowed me to provide a group of teachers with a receiver to hear a narrated lesson visit. The benefit of this system is that I could now take a number of teachers into a lesson at the same time and in so doing, allow the teachers to have a shared experience.

Making a gallery lesson work in the UK

My first gallery lesson was with my senior team at Warden House Primary School. We recognised that as a team, a strong knowledge of the early years foundation stage framework was essential for both the role a team leaders and subject leaders. The headteacher, deputy, SENCo and four team leaders joined me for a visit to the early years. The purpose of the gallery lesson was to help the senior leaders understand the structure and purpose of child-initiated play. We donned our radio receivers and entered the early years.

On entering the early years classroom, the school leaders saw sixty Reception children busy learning. My initial request to the seven leaders was to focus on one pupil and watch every interaction, choice, conversation with peers, engagement with adults over the next 15 minutes. The leaders now had a focus to their observations; they could see the learning through the lens of the child rather than darting between sixty children and several activities.

After a couple of minutes, I then started to direct further focus questions to the leaders. Is your child playing with or alongside others? Are they responding to questions or leading questions? Is your child selecting activities that linked to their prior learning, if so, how are they developing their knowledge, skills, and understanding? How are they applying phonic knowledge to their play? These questions helped the leaders to see with greater clarity how the curriculum intent was being embedded through the implementation of the activities.

I then started to read out statements from Development Matters to ask the leaders to consider where their child sat in their development. This helped the leaders to define whether their child was likely to be at the appropriate stage of development.  

Seeing subjects through the lens of the early years is something that primary subject leaders without early years experience find a challenge.  I asked our leaders to consider a wider picture of where they could see their subject being explored through play.  I read out statements from development matters that related to knowledge and understanding of the world and asked the geography, history and science subject leaders to consider this lens in their observation of the children.

After our time in class, we then re-grouped for a professional debrief. This involved the leaders discussing their observations with one another.  We considered key learning relating to our roles as senior leaders and as subject-specific leaders. We unpacked systemic issues that leaders picked up on that exemplified practice that needed sharing with the wider group of subject leaders. 

What next?

The school leaders affirmed that this gallery lesson was deeply helpful in them understanding learning in the early years.  The combination of narrated observation and professional discussion helped the leaders understand early years practice and apply this new learning to their roles and responsibilities.  It also acted to bind the school leaders together and the early years lead to be seen as a professional with strong disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge.

Our next step is to now trial gallery learning as a deep dive, sharing the journey of gathering evidence on the quality of education for subjects.  Using the gallery lesson approach to support leaders at every level, including governors, to strengthen their understanding of the deep dive methodology and knowledge of the quality of provision in our schools.

Journal Club

                                 Journal Club

Journal Club

Journal Club is a research forum for teachers by teachers.  Each session of Journal Club will focus on articles taken from Chartered College of Teaching’s themed journal ‘Impact’.  Participants of Journal Club will engage in a professional discussion relating to the research in the journal and consider examples of practice that exemplify the research.  Participants may decide to develop practice relating to the research and help in providing the Chartered College of Teaching with practice that exemplifies the very best in our profession.

The Chartered College of Teaching 

The Chartered College of Teaching opened in January 2017 as the new professional body for the teaching profession. Membership is voluntary and provides access to research, events, a wide community of educators, and high-quality professional learning.

Perhaps most importantly is that The Chartered College of Teaching provides the chance to make a difference for our profession.

Further information about joining the Chartered College of Teaching here.

Do I need to be a member of the Chartered College of Teaching to attend Journal Club?

Participants in Journal Club do not need to be members of the Chartered College of Teaching; although membership does provide access to a repository of research journals and resources.  Our first Journal Club also had a range of teachers from the primary phase, university lecturers, school leaders, a trust CEO and a Trust Business Manager.  This diverse group meant the discussion was varied and engaging.

When is the next Journal Club taking place?

Due to COvid-19 we have no further journal clubs planned.  Watch this space for more information.

Previous Journal Clubs:

9 October 2019 4:00- 5:00pm at Warden House Primary School, Deal.

13 November 2019 4:00-5:30pm at Pilgrims' Way Primary School, Canterbury

24 March 2020 4:00-5:30pm at Brenzett CE Primary School, Brenzett.

You may also like to sign up for our #BrewEdCanterbury event on Saturday 28 March 2020 from 12:00-5:00. (Postponed until after lockdown measures)

What was the focus of our first Journal Club?

Our first Journal Club met in November 2018.  The first edition of the Chartered College of Teaching’s journal ‘Impact’ had a focus on evidence-informed practice.  This formed the focus to the inaugural meeting of our Journal Club; delegates pre-read of the article on page 11 of the journal by Louise Stoll from the Department of Learning and Leadership, UCL Institute of Education in London entitled 'Five challenges in moving towards evidence-informed practice". This article gave a springboard to our discussions at Journal Club.  The delegates, teachers from a range of primary schools and Canterbury Christ Church University, shared their thoughts on the article and spoke about evidence-informed practices in their own settings.  The vision of the Journal Club is to bring theory to life and engage in evidence-informed practice in our own settings.  

What is the focus of our next Journal Club?

We will be using Journal articles from the Arts in Education edition of Impact journal, creativity and cultural education. In particular the article written by Peter Gregory ‘Valuing Arts in Education’ as the springboard to our discussions. This session will also consider the place of the arts in our school curriculum and touch on the new Ofsted framework in relation to the arts. Hope to see you there.

Here is the article we will be discussing:

Strengthening Trusts through peer review

Strengthening trusts through peer review

In a time where our country appears to be looking in on itself, it is ever more important that school leaders remain outward facing.  Seeking challenge and support from those beyond our own organisation is both energising and affirming.  As a headteacher, I was involved in a range of collaborations across schools, supported by local networks, teaching schools and trusts.  As a CEO of a MAT, there seems to be fewer examples of collaboration across trusts.  This blog shares the emerging stories from collaborative work from the newly formed Kent Multi Academy Trust Alliance and outlines six steps to success for ensuring trust peer reviews have a positive impact on your organisation.

1. Devise your self review document

I devised a trust self review system based on the DfE MAT Development Programme . Each key question was unpacked in the document and given a RAG rating to allow a quick assessment of relative strengths and weaknesses to be evaluated in our cross trust peer review conversations. The image below shows an example of one question and how evidence is succinctly recorded for each trust.

We decided to run the trust peer review with three trusts, this provided challenge for each CEO while making the conversation focussed enough to be helpful. The CEOs decided to meet three times across the year to review the three key elements of self review:

1. School improvement and developing people
2. Governance and risk assessment 
3. Finance and school resource management

The first meeting in the autumn term involved trust CEOs.  The second meeting in the spring term involved trust CEOs accompanied by their Chair of trustees.  The third meeting in the summer term involved trust CEOs and their Trust Business Managers. We also gave an open invitation to other trust CEOs and trustees to attend and observe our reviews to build capacity for future review groups to meet across the Kent MAT Alliance.

2. Make time to encourage a genuine dialogue

Our first trust review meeting was held in the autumn term. It became evident very early on that we had not built enough time to meet and discuss each question in depth for our trusts.  We therefore adapted our practice to provide an initial self-review prior to the meeting to allow colleagues to consider key challenge questions.  This helped keep our discussions focussed and purposeful.  We met for half a day and from each review meeting, we devised shared action that had arisen from any common areas in the self review. 

The discussions helped us as CEOs see our trust through the eyes of another trust executive, allowing us to hold our assumptions lightly as our evaluation was challenged for clarity by our colleagues.

3. Involve trustees

Our second session looked at governance and risk management.  We invited our chairs of trustees to this review session.  This proved powerful as trustees meet and challenged one another.  A common dialogue was formed across trusts to discuss the strengths and relative weaknesses and key documents were offered and shared across trusts to help develop each trust. Outcomes from this review also led to trustees visiting one another's trust board meetings to see how differing trusts structured these meetings. Unpacking the often shrouded approaches to governance across our trusts. This helped trustees think more carefully about their own structures including their trust schemes of delegation to strengthen systems of governance decision making within their trust.

4. Involve Trust Business Managers

Our third trust peer review meeting in the summer term looked at finance and school resource management.  We invited our trust business managers to this discussion after working with them in our trusts to produce an initial review statement using the trust self review tool. I found the discussion of the self review with my trust business manager helpful in deepening my own understanding of the business functions of the trust and this in turn helped me ask increasingly challenging questions of my colleagues during our review meeting. As with the previous reviews, action was shared at this meeting that then fed directly into the work both within each trust and across the ten trusts in the Kent MAT Alliance. In addition, my trust business manager took relevant action to the Kent MAT Alliance trust business managers group for further discussion. 

5. Commit to action

While the trust self review discussions were really helpful, the decision to write a shared action plan ensured the CEOs committed to action.  This agreed action challenged the CEOs to ensure action was followed through. 

In our first cycle of this review, we learnt that our action planning needs refining, as we formed some unrealistic targets that were difficult to follow attain in the timescale given. We will ensure in the future that the targets for action are both manageable and purposeful.

6. Share what works

Our next step is to share our work and to support the work of the second group of three trusts engaging in trust peer review.  We cannot work in silos in education and with our vision of being 'better together' we are happy to share what works and what hasn't worked with our trust peer review.  Knowing the educational landscape is a bumpy place that shifts beneath our feet, we need to remain nimble and take confident steps in order to navigate the winding path ahead. With the introduction of Ofsted Summary Evaluations of trusts with us and the accountability measures for trusts continuing to gain momentum; it is in our interests to ensure we remain outward facing and seek challenge for our work from beyond our trust. This model of trust self review has proved helpful in clarifying our journey as a trust while developing meaningful opportunities to share our own successful practice and being guided by that of colleagues.

If you are interested in finding out more about our work as a collaboration of trusts or trust self review then contact me here.

Collaboration across trusts

Better together - collaboration across trusts

In a time where our country appears to be looking in on itself, it is ever more important that school leaders remain outward facing.  Looking for challenge and support from those beyond our own organisation is both energising and affirming.  As a headteacher, I was involved in a range of collaborations across schools, supported by local networks, teaching schools and trusts.  As a CEO of a MAT, there seems to be fewer examples of collaboration across trusts.  This blog shares the emerging stories from collaborative work from the newly formed Kent Multi Academy Trust Alliance.

The Kent MAT Alliance was formed in 2018 with nine academy trusts and a teaching school alliance.  The group was formed to develop opportunities for the CEOs to network and support one another.  Being a leader in any organisation can be a lonely place and it was the vision of the group to form relationships that would nurture support for one another and our trusts. Here are a three steps we have made in the past six months since forming the Kent MAT Alliance.

1. Set out your terms of engagement

We started by engaging an education consultant to coordinate the set up of the alliance.  The consultant brought a wealth of knowledge to the table and helped draw together a group of like minded CEOs and a teaching school alliance.  We met together and formed our terms of reference.  This helped us bond as a group and understand our collective vision for the alliance. This led to the production of a logo and vision statement 'better together' that reflects our alliance's belief that together we are stronger.

2. Make things happen

We set out to put on meaningful events for us as CEOs and for our teams across schools.

With the support of Queenborough Teaching School Alliance, our NQTs and post NQTs have met across our trusts to supplement the NQT training offered, building relationships and strengthening teaching for our fledgling teachers.  

Three CEOs have met to trial a trust self review system based on the DfE MAT Development Programme . This has led to three in depth reviews with CEOs and trustees offering rigorous challenge for one another across trusts.  The outcome of the self review discussions led the CEOs to build a shared action plan to strengthen practice within their own trust. Being prepared for deeper external challenge has led to a strengthening of our own systems, building confidence for future inspections, Regional School Commissioner reviews and the potential of Ofsted summary evaluations of trusts.

We have set up a trust business manager group.  TBMs meet and discuss opportunities for shared procurement, opportunities to share key management information systems and engage in professional discussions about business, finance and HR.

We have offered out training events for headteachers and governors on IDSR analysis.  Utilising the knowledge base of our own system leaders across the alliance to make the training bespoke and purposeful.

3. Share what works

Our next step is to share our work.  We cannot work in silos in education and with our vision of being 'better together' we are happy to share what works and what hasn't worked with our alliance.  Knowing the educational landscape is a bumpy place that shifts beneath our feet, we need to remain nimble and take confident steps in order to navigate the winding path ahead. 

I would love to hear from you about how you have developed collaborative work across trusts.

Chartered College of Teaching Events

Canterbury Christ Church University Chartered College of Teaching Hub

The Canterbury Christ Church University Chartered College of Teaching hub supports teachers in East Kent.  The hub provides a range of events and networks that help teachers and school leaders across the region to connect and grow.  

The committee members include:

• Graham Chisnell - Veritas Multi Academy Trust
• Kerry Jordan-Daus - Canterbury Christ Church University
• Louisa Horner - CATs Canterbury
• Peter Gregory - Canterbury Christ Church University
• Tamzin Wood - TIMU Academy Trust

Forthcoming Events

• 5 March 2020 Teach Meet 4:30pm CATs Canterbury Confident exam preparation
• 24 March Critical Friends peer support group for anyone undertaking a research project
• 24 March 4:00-5:30pm at Brenzett CE Primary School, Brenzett. Book in here
• #BrewEdCanterbury event on Saturday 28 March 2020 from 12:00-5:00. Book in here
• 30 April 2020 - Journal Club - Bobbing Village School 4pm - 5:30pm
• 21 May 2020 Lead Meet 4:30pm -6:30pm CATs |Canterbury
• 2 July 2020  Journal Club - Bobbing Village School 4pm - 5:30p

For further details about joining the Chartered College of Teaching click here.

To connect with the Canterbury Christ Church University Chartered College of Teaching hub click here to email Graham.

Past events:

7 March 2019  5:30 - 7:30pm Teach meet hosted by CATs Canterbury

30 March 2019 Irresistible Curriculum Conference hosted by Canterbury Christ Church University

30 April 2019 Journal Club 5:30-7:30 hosted by CATs Canterbury

16 May 2019  Lead meet hosted by CATs in Canterbury 5:30-7:30pm

2 July 2019 Teach Meet Canterbury #TMCanterbury  hosted by Pilgrims' Way Primary School in Canterbury

8 October 2019 Journal Club hosted by CATs Canterbury

9 October 2019 Journal Club hosted by Warden House Primary School, Deal

12 November Teach Meet hosted by CATs Canterbury 

13 November Journal Club hosted by Pilgrims' Way Primary School, Canterbury 

23 January - Journal Club - Bobbing Village School 4pm - 5:30pm.

30 January 2020 Journal Club 5:00pm-6:30 CATs Canterbury