At ATT, we understand that investing in the development of our people is a crucial to our mission to transform the lives of our learners through quality education. It’s hugely important to us that our colleagues have access to the training and development opportunities they need to succeed in their roles and progress in their careers.

Professional development at ATT is led by our ATT Institute, a small team of dedicated and expert colleagues working to develop an innovative, inclusive and impactful CPD offer for all our colleagues. ATTI drives continuous improvement through a continuously evolving PD strategy that prioritises evidence-informed approaches and empowers leaders to embed effective PD mechanisms in their contexts.

Supporting Transformational Education:

Our Pedagogical Principles

The development of our Pedagogical Principles has transformed our Trust-wide approach to pedagogy; evidence-informed classroom practice is now aligned across our academies and embedded into our PD processes through PD Curriculum Plans.

These principles ensure a shared language and consistent aspirations for learners’ experiences. They were developed collaboratively by Principals and PD Leads within our Communities, ensuring alignment with the most effective practice across our Trust.

Innovative Offer

We strive to provide an innovative professional development programme with a range of courses, workshops, webinars and other learning to get involved in. As well as engaging with accredited courses, like National Professional Qualifications, our colleagues can access short courses that help our staff learn or refresh the fundamentals of their role, like our  EEC Essentials series. Our Communities facilitate collaboration across all our academies, ensuring that those working directly in different areas of provision can contribute to strategic development and share their knowledge Trust-wide.

We work with expert partners like Ambition Institute ad Steplab to ensure our PD offer is at the forefront of research and knowledge in the education sector.

“The Trust has supported the school well… Its training programmes enable staff, including teachers new to the profession, to develop their skills rapidly and grow in professional confidence”

-Ofsted on Jubilee Academy, September 2024

Inclusive Opportunities

We believe that PD is for everyone, no matter their role or level. To help staff understand which opportunities might be useful for them, we use four groupings that describe how colleagues across our Trust contribute to our mission in different ways. With this system, we can ensure that we not only have excellent training for teachers and leaders, but also offer valuable learning for support staff, student-facing and otherwise.

Series like our EEC Essentials and HR Passport are designed to support colleagues who are not teaching, but nonetheless play vital roles in enabling and supporting the education that is delivered across our Trust every day.

“ATT have created a culture which ensures that we feel valued and trusted in the specific roles we carry out. The training and communication provided to us in our facilitator roles provides sufficient support and challenge, ensuring that we are delivering a high quality offer”

Susan Samra, ECF Facilitator

Impactful PD

Our professional development programme is designed to be impactful not only on an individual scale, but also for our academies and their learners. Every ATT academy has developed a localised PD Curriculum Plan, which helps leaders identify areas for staff development and achieve impactful progress through evidence-informed PD mechanisms.

Developing the skills and knowledge of our colleagues allows them to provide and contribute to the highest quality of education for all our students. We’re proud to receive incredible feedback from our course participants and from external organisations. Last year, we were the winners of the Staff Development Award at the 2025 MAT Excellence Awards!

“Trust leaders provide a bespoke range of professional development for staff…. As a result of this support, the school has established a stable team whose members feel valued and respected.”

-Ofsted on The Hathaway Academy, June 2024

Institute Team Structure

Our ATT Institute is led by Director Cat Rushton with the support of Deputy Director Katie Pattinson. Our Professional Learning Lead James Abley manages the delivery of accredited courses including our Initial Teacher Training, Early Career Teachers programme and National Professional Qualifications; facilitation of these courses is enabled by our ATTI Fellows. ATT Institute’s work is also supported by the expert knowledge of Abi Joachim, our SEND Specialist, and Viv John, HR Business Partner.