Staff Wellbeing

At the Sutton Academy, we recognise that staff well-being is essential to student achievement and whole academy performance. We are therefore fully committed to ensuring that staff well-being is central to our core objectives.

We prioritise creating a culture where staff are able to focus on carrying out the requirements of their role. We do this by implementing strong systems for managing student behaviour, which are adhered to consistently by all staff within the academy.

We have implemented a strong CPD offer at the academy, which ensures all staff feel trusted and invested in. At the core of the offer, lies an instructional coaching model, as evidence suggests instructional coaching is by far the most effective way to support teachers in being their best. In addition, there are an array of internal and external opportunities for staff to develop.

At the academy we believe ‘feedback is a gift’ and actively seek out opportunities to gather staff voice. From our regular stakeholder feedback surveys, to annual one-to-one meetings with the Principal, we are always open to hearing staff views about how we can continue to improve.

We recognise that teaching can be a challenging but rewarding profession at times. To support all our staff, we are always looking for ways to drive down unnecessary workload and consider work life balance. In recent years, we have refined our systems for marking, data entry, and reporting to ensure that teachers are spending time on high impact strategies that matter. We have also written an ‘Email Etiquette’ policy, introduced a Golden Ticket Scheme and Length of Service awards.

Staff Development

Staff continued professional development is a key driver for us at The Sutton Academy. We strongly believe that a highly skilled workforce supports improved student outcomes.

We offer a comprehensive CPD package when staff join our academy underpinned by the EEF and the most up to date evidence base. Our core approach to staff development is based on instructional coaching, we don’t believe in judging teaching with formal lesson observations but rather focus on developing staff collaboratively. All staff receive 1-1 bespoke coaching throughout the academic year by a trained teaching and learning coach from within the academy; we believe in zooming in on micro aspects of pedagogy to bring about sustained longer term changes to teaching practice. Alongside our instructional coaching offer staff will receive continuous CPD throughout the year on curriculum planning, subject knowledge enhancement and pedagogy knowledge enhancement. We recognise that staff will have career ambitions and we offer a range of internal bespoke CPD pathways to meet their needs as well as external opportunities such as the National Professional Qualifications or Masters accredited courses.