The Ogden CPD journey

“We want to support, empower and celebrate teachers at every stage of their career. Retention of physics teachers is a significant challenge and we hope our partnership CPD will help nurture and support teachers, giving them the knowledge, confidence and resources to deliver inspiring practical physics from primary school onwards.”
Wendy Cox, Head of Education, The Ogden Trust

Ogden partnerships are underpinned by a comprehensive programme of CPD and support from Early Year Foundation Stage through to secondary school physics. The programme has been developed to help improve the teaching and learning of physics; empowering teachers so they can inspire their students to take physics further.

For partnerships that include primary and secondary schools, the CPD provision begins in Early Years Foundation Stage with a half-day Science Talk session. This programme has been devised to work with the youngest learners as they discover more about the world. The activities in Science Talk encourage children to be curious, observe the world, ask questions and begin to develop their own scientific ideas.

“One of the first things that really resonated was how the Science Talk session chimed so well with our focus as a group of schools on supporting children to develop a growth mindset, to collaborate, question and become resilient learners. The session showed how practical science fuels young children’s curiosity and how teachers can develop thinking and vocabulary through these activities. Teachers really enjoyed that they had opportunities to get practical!”
Jenny Smith
Partnership Co-ordinator, London Brixton Partnership

The Ogden Phizzi CPD programme is now well-established. The four-year cycle covers each of the main areas of the primary physics curriculum: Earth & space; light & sound; electricity; and forces. It addresses common misconceptions and provides a comprehensive teacher guide of 10 investigations for each area together with the resources needed to support pupils to develop their working scientifically skills. Ogden Phizzi CPD encourages and facilitates purposeful, practical science in the primary classroom. Over the four-year cycle, partnership schools receive resources to the value of more than £1,200.

The Phizzi CPD programme is further enhanced by Phizzi Forward in year five of a partnership. Phizzi Forward provides an opportunity for schools to consolidate and review how the Phizzi CPD is being implemented, how the resources are being used and how teaching and learning has improved. A further Phizzi Future programme is available for teachers wishing to develop their science subject leadership.

The extensive programme of primary CPD is helping to inspire young scientists and we want to ensure that this enthusiasm and knowledge is not lost at KS3 which is often taught by non-specialist teachers some of whom might have limited knowledge of what has already been covered in primary schools.

The Trust has now developed a KS3 Physics CPD programme to focus on the key physics concepts and pedagogical approaches, and to encourage collaboration amongst partnership schools. Termly-twilight CPD sessions are available for first year partnerships and cover the topics of forces, waves and electricity to ensure progression in KS3 physics. The sessions provide engaging and challenging classroom approaches, and each topic includes a supporting box of resources and books so that teachers can easily take the new ideas into the classroom.

“As an Ogden partnership I will be recommending that as many non-specialist teachers complete this course as possible.”

The Ogden Teacher Network provides further professional development experiences for teachers of physics at all levels, starting with early career support. Teaching Core Physics provides coaching and mentoring for newly/recently qualified teachers and covers the topics of Earth & space, light, sound, forces, energy and electricity. Developing Physics Specialism offers mentoring and support for teachers teaching physics for GCSE or A-level. The Teacher Network also offers transformational trips aimed at inspiring teachers, and funding and scholarships for subject knowledge courses, high-level extension courses and education research opportunities.

“I really enjoyed the sessions yesterday and I finished the call ‘buzzing’. It has been a long, hard half term full of difficulties and doubts. To have people acknowledge it is hard and to offer so much help is absolutely brilliant. It is good to see different ways to demonstrate concepts and to be given ways to tackle misconceptions.”
Participant on RQT/NQT coaching and mentoring, 2020/21

“We want to support, empower and celebrate teachers at every stage of their career,” says Wendy Cox, Head of Education. “Retention of physics teachers is a significant challenge and we hope our partnership CPD and Teacher Network will nurture and support teachers during their career, giving them the knowledge, confidence and resources to deliver inspiring practical physics from primary school onwards.”

You can download a comprehensive summary of our partnership CPD journey using this link.

Looking to form a school partnership in your area? Applications are now open for partnerships starting in September 2022. Deadline to apply 1 February 2022.

Visit our partnership pages to find out more and to make your application.

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