Professional Development Programme for Advanced Practitioners: 2020 – 2021

#APConnect Exciting News!

The team at touchconsulting Ltd is delighted to announce that we will be hosting #APConnect Year 3 on behalf of the Education and Training Foundation. We know for many of you the Summer break is nearly here, so we wanted to give you an opportunity to register your interest in one of the upcoming programme pathways. We will be in touch as soon as we are live for bookings and add booking links below as they go live.

So what’s new?

We are offering the following pathways, differentiated for new and experienced practitioners operating in Advanced Practitioner (AP)-type roles. So here goes:

If you are an experienced AP we are confident one, if not all, of the new ‘Advanced Practice’ modules will catch your eye! All three are blended modules: pre-reading + quiz , face-to-face session and follow up webinar; due to start in October 2020. If we have to go online with all three modules – we will! We are busy working up blended and online design and content over Summer.

M1: Using Thinking Environments – Advanced Practice ***Book here***

For those APs who have some experience of practising the Thinking Environment, first introduced on day one of ETF’s  ‘Developing APs‘ 3-day CPD, this is a must. Designed and delivered by Lou Mycroft and Bryony Croft, this blended module will focus on practising the facilitation of applications such as thinking pairs, dialogue, timed talk, thinking rounds and time to think councils – with lots of opportunities to practise, practise, practise!

M2: Using Developmental Observations – Advanced Practice ***Book here***

For APs keen to re-examine observations through formative, and not performative, lens – this is a must. This module will be designed and delivered by Professor Matt O’Leary and Joanne Miles exploring expansive and practical ways of using observations developmentally. There will be a big focus on developing the coaching beliefs, behaviours and skills underpinning such an approach.

M3: Leading AP Teams – Advance Practice ***Book here***

For managers leading AP-type teams this is a must. This module will focus on how to create and sustain the conditions for AP teams to thrive; exploring your vision, resources and skills investment in APs. It will be delivered by Joanne Miles with a key note from Professor Matt O’Leary.

An organisation – looking to develop your AP team?

Last year, we piloted the 3-day ‘Developing APs’ course in-house for organisations keen to develop their AP teams. This worked really well with new AP teams. It enabled APs to get to know each other, to develop a shared understanding and confidence in the role, and helped managers align the role with their organisation’s vision within a developmental verses a deficit model. The three days also provide valuable space and time for teams to meaningful scope collaborative quality improvement projects. This year we are refreshing the 3-day programme and have introduced wrap around mentoring support for managers to ensure everyone involved gets maximum value. Managers will undertake detailed self-assessment on how they implement the AP-type role, drawing on the Manager Guide which forms part of the popular AP Toolkit.

If you want to access this limited resource do register your interest and we’ll be back in touch as soon as bookings are open.

 

Communities of Practice (CoP) ***Applications now Closed***

This year we continue our innovative blended programme with collaboration and quality improvement at its heart. We have 100 places available across the CoP pathway.

Constellation B (Foundation – action learning set and small-scale QI project)

• 50 places for APs who haven’t been involved in the Education and Training Foundation’s #APConnect programme previously. This is a 6-month blended programme. APs will work with an action learning set of 4 other peers to progress their small-scale quality improvement project, meeting regularly online and undertake online learning modules. Read more here.

Constellation C (B/CPD Graduates – collaborating and amplifying QI projects)

• 25-30 places for those APs who have participated in previous years. Maybe you were on CoP Constellation B or a CPD graduate or have been involved in one of the collaborative projects? This strand enables APs to continue their AP journey with their peers and the #APConnect team. APs work collaboratively to amplify their QI projects, utilising social media and running an AP-led conference.

Constellation C+ (C Graduates – national agents of change)

• 20-25 places for C graduates who will be supported to work as national agents of change. They can access funds to organise and run regional AP-type networks and will be supported by our Writing Team to craft and ‘publish’ their stories.

 

Maths and English Ideas Rooms

This year, the DfE are keen APs support the development of maths/English as they work with staff in their AP-type role. All CoP applicants will be invited to state how they intend to support this in their applications as they outline ideas of their small-scale QI projects. We have also expanded our team and we have four APs who will be running maths and English Ideas Rooms (an application of the Thinking Environment) starting September 2020. Develop your maths/English idea and offer your generative attention to enhance the thinking of others.

 

What else?

Equality-Mentoring

We are delighted to partner with BAMEed and Dr Laura (Mole) Chapman, author of The Language of Respect, to provide mentoring support for up to 15 APs from BAMEed communities and/or declaring a disability to ensure APs we are supporting are representative of the wider student population, across the breadth of the further education and training sector.

Advanced Teacher Status

We are also working closely with the Education and Training SET team to ensure pathways, particularity CoP, align with the Advanced Teacher Status on a very practical level. So for APs thinking about ATS, what you do on the AP programme will generate evidence towards your ATS portfolio. With subsidies currently available this is an option worth exploring.

National Conference

And finally we are delighted to be hosting our national AP Conference on Friday 26 March 2021. Do pop the date in the diary. This will be a face-to-face event (fingers crossed) but we will go online if we need to. Read more around our 2019 and 2020 conferences here.

 

In the meantime…

Do follow the refreshed twitter handle @touchconsulting and #APConnect for updates and as always, if you have any queries about any of the programme pathways, please contact Joss Kang joss@touchconsulting.net