The TDT Network is a community of schools dedicated to developing and striving towards world-class, evidence-informed professional learning and for the past 10 years this flagship event has offered a rare opportunity for like-minded CPD leaders to come together to collect new ideas and collaborate strategically about teacher development.
For the team, this is also one of our favourite events of the year. Though we host several fantastic shorter events across the year on specific themes (including Performance Management and CPD providers), this extended conference and its collectively-driven content offers something different. First and foremost, this is a platform for member schools to showcase their work and commitment to CPD leadership and programme development on a national scale. It gives us a chance to bring together all the insights schools and course participants have been developing on CPD strengths and needs since September and create a space for collective reflection on the year past to refine plans for the year ahead.
We’re delighted that with the expansion of the TDT Network to include not only members and associates, but delivery partners, facilitators and participants of our brand new NPQ suite, this year’s TDT Network Annual Conference will bring even more opportunity for networking and contextualising of plans.
This year’s conference celebrates 10 years of TDT and will once again take place virtually over Zoom conferencing. We were delighted that so many colleagues were able to join us in 2021 in this way and look forward to seeing this again to mark this wonderful milestone. For those attending this year, here’s what you can expect:
1. Common themes, findings and goals
Every year the TDT Network team reviews findings from across our work with schools, through Diagnostic Review analysis, training session feedback, and ongoing coaching conversations, to pinpoint common areas of focus and tailor conference content to these. This year’s conference includes a review of the current CPD landscape, workshops on collaboration, evaluation, middle leadership and research use, and time to consider enablers and barriers to effective implementation of your plans. Throughout the day we will reference key research and evidence, and invite members of our network to present their approaches, challenges and successes in these areas.
2. Customise your day
Workshops are an integral part of every TDT Network Annual Conference. This year, we have developed a programme which caters to different roles and starting points on each theme. Senior and Middle Leaders are invited to join presentations from school colleagues on their approaches and choose the sessions which are most appropriate for them. For example, on collaboration, is your school exploring how to enable critical challenge and readiness for formal reflective collaboration models among staff, or are you at the stage where you want to refine your model to ensure close recognition of the evaluation of impact? All workshop sessions include an introduction to supporting research from TDT colleagues and time for audience Q&A giving you the opportunity to enhance network connections and share practice while engaging critically with the evidence base.
3. Contextualise plans
This conference aims to challenge thinking and support the development of CPD plans, utilising network critical friends. In doing this it is important to maintain that not all approaches will be appropriate for all contexts, so implementation readiness is kept at the forefront of our discussions. Speakers and examples are drawn from a range of school settings, including across phases and all Diagnostic Review award levels. There is time protected in the afternoon for sense-making and reflecting on implementation guidance relating to your context to ensure you have the space to consider next steps and seek further support.
4. Network and reflection
We invite all delegates to join the day as active participants in discussions, open to learning and utilising this opportunity to engage with the TDT Network community. Experts working in schools, the sector, and across the TDT central team will be present throughout the day in breakout rooms and panel discussions to maximise opportunities for school connections, and time will be protected in every session for Q&A in addition to built in time to share your own CPD plans with colleagues.
5. It comes highly recommended!
If that’s not enough to convince you, then don’t just take it from us. We encourage our delegates to live-tweet their #TDTConf experiences – take a look at @TeacherDevTrust.
We look forward to seeing you this year! Find out more and book now