Chartered Teacher Status is about recognising teachers for their expertise in the classroom, rather than the leadership roles which tend to take them out of it. It's a 15 month CPD programme run by the Chartered College of Teaching, a professional body for teachers which exists to celebrate the achievements of teachers, provide support and to connect teachers across different subjects, sectors and settings.
For me, the Chartered Teacher programme is not only some of the most challenging CPD currently available, it is also hands down the most rewarding. It makes a permanent change to your thinking, from creating resources and planning lessons to writing schemes of work.
Here are my tips to help you succeed in gaining CTeach:
Be open to debate
You need to know how to inform yourself about a topic and develop an opinion about it. Twitter is a great training ground for this.
Be open to new ideas
Be willing to listen to new ideas and find ways to apply them to your own teaching.
Consider your context
Be ready to accept that ideas you’ve read about might not always work in your context. You’ll need to adapt.
Consider the impact
Be prepared to evaluate the impact of changes you make to your practice to see if they’re making a difference.
Time management
Plan out your deadlines. Make sure you know when the crunch points are, especially alongside your school calendar.
You’ll need to give it the hours it deserves. Becoming a Chartered Teacher won’t just happen during INSET days and school hours. Like a Masters degree, it will take extra time which you will need to commit to.
Research
Have an interest in both reading and undertaking research. You’ll need to be critical of what you read and think carefully about what it means for your teaching. It won’t be handed to you on a plate.
Don’t worry if your research isn’t showing what you thought it would! It's completely fine for your findings to differ – just make sure you acknowledge it in your write up.
Hard work
Don’t expect becoming a Chartered Teacher to suddenly change everything for you professionally. You’ll need to do the work.
New Chartered Teachers note that they feel more empowered, are better informed and more engaged with research. They identify feeling more confident in challenging themselves and the things they see/hear, and read more widely and frequently.
For more information and inspiration, follow @CharteredColl on Twitter and take a look at the hashtag #CTeach to see tweets from current and previous course participants.
