Growing Great Teachers

‘Growing Great Teachers’ is Bridgwater and Taunton College Trust’s professional growth policy that puts improving and maintaining the highest quality of teaching at the very heart of the process so that Every Child Achieves. It focuses on genuinely continuous professional development. 

The BTC Trust has removed traditional ‘performance management’ and replaced it with ‘professional growth’, a different perspective and direction designed to challenge thinking, promote deep reflection, collaboration and change for the better.   

Effective professional development is a core part of securing effective teaching. It requires a desire and willingness to continually improve with a shared commitment for teachers to support one another to develop so that our students benefit from the highest quality teaching. We cannot achieve this level of professional learning alone. 'Growing Great Teachers' is a process that requires a commitment from all teachers to improve in a specific area of their practice. In turn, leaders in our schools support and make space for individual professional learning. Professional growth is ‘done by’ not ‘done to’ our teachers. 

We have a sense of belief and pride that we can be the very best, driven by a sense of moral purpose and a desire to continuously improve. We regard professional development as a key driver not only of staff development, but also of recruitment, retention, wellbeing, and school improvement. There can be no improvement without the teacher.