Continuing professional development (CPD)
In progressing through their careers, all teachers benefit from numerous opportunities for continuing professional development - training and support that serve to increase your skills, knowledge and understanding.
Some of these opportunities, such as development planning, in-service education and training days and in-school coaching and mentoring, are experienced by all teachers; but the full extent of the CPD activities you undertake will depend on your own particular development needs and preferences, as well as on how they change over time.
For instance, you may take responsibility for a 'whole-school' project, allowing you to enhance your skills and experience while making a contribution to your school's development priorities. This could mean anything from exploring new ways of raising achievement in a particular subject or from a particular age group, to investigating how best to use technology in the classroom, to establishing closer links with the community or to taking responsibility for your school's website.
You may choose to take advantage of the wide range of funding and opportunities available to complete training courses in specialist skills and knowledge relating to the delivery of your subject or another aspect of schooling - eg special educational needs.
Or you may take the chance to attend conferences and events that will allow you to meet and learn from other teachers and schools, adding their knowledge and experience to your own.
It may also be possible for you to pursue further study at postgraduate level. Master's courses - eg Master of Arts (MA), Master of Science (MSc) and Master of Education (MEd) - combine teaching and research-based project work to help you build on your previous qualifications, experience and training and achieve a more advanced level of knowledge and understanding.
Advanced skills teacher (AST)
ASTs are teachers who have reached standards of excellence in their profession. They work as classroom teachers for 80 per cent of their time but also work to raise standards of teaching and learning more generally - for example, by spending a day a week on projects spanning a number of schools or working to enhance the skills of teachers in their own and other schools.
