West Midlands CPD Partnership
West Midlands CPD Partnership
The West Midlands CPD Partnership aims to establish a collaborative and supportive community of Leaders of Professional Learning for schools, offering a dedicated space for reflection and discussion on how to best support schools across the region to engage with high-quality professional learning leading to sustainable school improvement.
Objectives
Our objectives are geared towards empowering these leaders to be effective catalysts for positive change within their educational communities. We aim to:
Foster an Open and Collaborative Network: Establish a supportive community where leaders can freely exchange ideas, share experiences confidentially and collaboratively influence the professional learning landscape across the region and beyond.
Navigate and Innovate: Share knowledge and form links which enable leaders to more effectively navigate the ever-evolving professional learning landscape, facilitating discussions, and offering a safe space for collaborative exploration of new and innovative approaches.
Stimulate Discussion and Challenge Thinking: Provide stimulating, informed and thought-provoking inputs which may challenge thinking and spark discussion concerning the often complex landscape of professional learning in education.
Support Leadership Development: Offer free support for leaders of professional learning, stimulating discussions and providing on opportunity for reflection so as to enhance their capabilities in leading impactful professional learning activities across their networks.
Cultivating High-Quality Teaching and Learning: Provide an opportunity for leaders to reflect on regional and local needs and develop a shared commitment to positively influence teaching and learning through effective professional learning experiences.
The West Midlands CPD Partnership is committed to empowering leaders of professional learning to play a pivotal role in advancing professional learning for schools and ultimately contributing to the sustained improvement of schools across the region and beyond.
Meetings
Termly Meetings: The partnership will hold termly meetings to discuss and address key issues related to professional learning.
Meetings Accessible Online: All meetings will be accessible online, allowing participants to join remotely for increased flexibility and inclusivity.
Annual Face-to-Face Meeting: Commitment to meet face-to-face at least once a year, with remote access provided, and locations to be rotated to accommodate all members.
Please find the dates below for the 24/25 academic year.
Autumn 2024
- Date: Monday 14th October 2024
- Time: 1:00-3:00pm
- Location: TBA
- Focus: Apprenticeships
- Downloads: agenda/documents
Spring 2025
- Date: Thursday 13th February 2025
- Time: 1:00-3:00pm
- Proposed focus: Artificial Intelligence
Summer 2025
- Date: Thursday 22nd May 2025
- Time: 1:00-3:00pm
- Focus: TBA
Our Team
Helen Martin, Co-Chair
Helen Martin is CEO of the Gateway Alliance, an organisation dedicated to the support of more than 500 schools throughout the Midlands region, primarily through leading a broad range of professional development networks for primary schools. She chairs the West Midlands CPD Partnership, a network of education leaders from schools, local authorities and universities, to collaborate, support each other and share practice.
Before joining Gateway, Helen led the West Midlands Regional Centre for the Training and Development Agency, supporting the 14 Authorities across the region to engage with the government’s workforce development and remodelling agenda.
Helen’s career to date has concentrated on professional learning and development, across both the private and public sectors, but her recent focus has been working in and with schools. She champions the power of networking, firmly believing that her involvement in various professional networks has not only enriched her career with numerous opportunities but has also provided personal growth through the support and challenge offered by like-minded individuals.
Vicki Evans, Co-Chair
Vicki has 30 years plus of experience in Education, having initially trained as a primary teacher before progressing into Primary leadership. It was during her time as a primary leader that Vicki first became interested in professional learning. She is currently both a Workforce Development Partner for Forward Education Trust, a group of special schools in North-East Birmingham, and also runs her own Leadership Development Consultancy Business. Vicki is an experienced leadership development facilitator and leadership coach, specialising in the educational and Children’s Services sectors. She researches, designs, develops and delivers a wide range of learning for leaders at a variety of levels. Vicki believes passionately in the importance of professional learning and sees it as key to enabling successful outcomes for children.
Vicki has spent time as a Local Authority senior officer and had responsibility for assistant head and deputy headteacher leadership development. She also lead the Training and development Agencies reform agenda for the LA, creating professional learning opportunities for all members of the school workforce, including conferences, workshops, leadership learning walks and coaching. She has extensive experience of working in the primary, secondary and special sectors.
Vicki is an experienced NPQ facilitator, delivering sessions for specialist and leadership NPQs for various providers both regionally and nationally. She has also written and delivered leadership programmes across the Black Country to support succession planning work, particularly aimed at supporting colleagues into headship. Vicki also supports mentors of ECTs and ITTs, most recently developing an incremental ‘drop ins’ approach which is having a significant impact.
Vicki has written articles for CPD update and engaged in developing resources and tools for colleagues leading CPD in schools across the West Midlands. She is co-chair of the West Midlands CPD partnership and a Leadership Mentor for University of Birmingham and a leadership development associate for University of Worcester.
Convening Committee Members:
- Lisa Bradbury, Worcestershire Children First
- Linda Devlin, University of Wolverhampton/IPDA
- Vicki Evans, Independent/MAT Professional Development Lead
- Jo Goodman, EEF
- Helen Martin, Gateway Alliance
- Clare Oberman, Golden Thread Teaching School Hub
- Rebecca Raybould, Independent/CUREE
- Pauline Smith, Independent/IPDA
- Nikki Arkinstall, Staffordshire Research School/Little Sutton English Hub
Contact us
If you would like to get in touch please contact Helen Martin.
