KEEP it real: making professional development stick in 16-19 settings

Exeter College has 14 faculties, a sixth form of over 8,000 students and a team of inspiring and experienced Advanced Teaching Practitioners (ATPs) who provide support and lead on PD within faculties and across the college.

One thing we have found helpful within the guidance is the KEEP framework:

• Knowledge – clarity on what’s being learned and why
• Engagement – motivation, relevance, and shared purpose
• Execution – modelling, rehearsal, feedback, and adaptation
• Practice – ongoing support to build habits, not one-offs

Making PD targeted and useful for all can be particularly tricky in a large FE college where faculties might experience significant differences in course structures, students and the challenges they face.

Knowledge: Each year, we set one whole-college pedagogical focus that is informed by learning walks, our observation cycle, and staff feedback. This year, it is helping students to “think harder” (Coe et al., 2014) through metacognitive (EEF, 2025) and other pedagogical strategies. Faculties then shape this in ways that fit their learners and curriculum, with the Head of Faculty and faculty ATP gathering together inputs from staff. This brings coherence without homogeneity.

Engagement: Rather than compliance-based PD, staff work within faculties in mixed-experience trios. These trios choose specific strategies to trial, linked to the college and faculty focus but relevant to their reality.

Execution: We have three trios observation cycles within the academic year and, for each one, colleagues observe the learning in the classes of their trio partners as they try out their new in-class strategy. These are low-stakes settings which reduces anxiety and builds confidence, especially for early career teachers.

Practice: Our observation cycles are bookended by PD days, giving trios protected time to plan timings and test out ideas from the faculty Advanced Teaching Practitioner, and then reflect on their trios experiences and refine their practice. Outputs are shared within faculty discussions, on postcards on a faculty staffroom feedback board and curated on our Teaching & Learning Hub. This builds habits, community and a steady spread of effective practice, not fads. It is important that this process is separate from our performance management cycle: the aim is growth, not judgement.

Coherence matters. Time matters. Relationships matter. And while professional development delivery will always be complex in a large FE college, designing for behaviour change (not just knowledge transfer) is already improving confidence, collaboration and student thinking.

• Choose one college-wide pedagogical aim and support faculties to translate it.

• Use trios for supportive, shared practice, with time on PD days to plan and reflect.
• Schedule PD cycles, not single events.
• Keep PD separate from performance management to protect trust.
• Complete the KEEP Reflection and Planning Tool (EEF, 2025).