IRIS Connect, PD

Discover adaptive instructional coaching, reflection and collaboration, powered by video and AI.

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

@Teacherjosh51 Checkout Josh's Blog: https://t.co/sJvVhIYXj2

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

💬 "Good teaching for SEND is good teaching for all."

That line from Josh Hamblin (@Teacherjosh51) sums up his blog on the foundations that make a classroom work for every learner.

Josh, who joined us for The SEND Funding Briefing last week, sets out six foundations, the Tier 1 Basics:

🔵 Be Intentional
Everybody needs to know their role, why they are doing it and how they will make it happen in order to thrive.

🔵 Communication
Communication is the key for students to be able to learn effectively. They need to a means to communicate in order to access learning and they need to be listened to.

🔵 Be Prepared
Fail to prepare, then prepare to fail! Classrooms are busy and fast paced – therefore you need to be organised to get to what you need in a timely manner. If you don’t, you run the risk of losing student engagement.

🔵 Plan for Pinch Points
There are certain times of the day that without careful planning can become challenging. You will be able to identify these and put proactive plans in place.

🔵 Be Clear & Confident
This is about having shared ownership and understanding of the process and plans that are in place. It doesn’t always work out as we expect on a given day and that is ok. Sometimes the process takes a long time, but eventually, you will reap the rewards.

🔵 Be Overtly Positive
We ‘set the weather’ for our classrooms and the more positive we can be the better. The way we present ourselves has a huge impact on the relationships we form with students. Rewarding the positives, rather than sanctioning, is a powerful way to build relationships and improve engagement.

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

🙌 Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for The SEND Funding Briefing.

Gary Aubin (SENDMattersUK), with Emma Rossiter and Josh Hamblin from Silverwood School, unpacked what the SEND reform means for schools: the Inclusive Mainstream Fund, the national training programme, and the Inclusion Strategy due by 31 December 2026.

Missed it, or want to revisit the detail?

Read it here → https://t.co/KqxLRD0z37
#SEND #SchoolLeadership #SENCO #InclusiveEducation

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

"The process is developmental, never judgemental."

That idea sits at the heart of what @northcamacademy has built. They scrapped the traditional lesson observation and paired every member of staff with a coaching buddy, acting as both coach and coachee. No hierarchy. No one feeling judged.

The result? 94% of staff find coaching enjoyable, 97% find it useful, and adaptive teaching is now visibly stronger across the school.

Watch the full story. 🎥
#AdaptiveTeaching #InstructionalCoaching #TeacherCPD #SchoolLeadership

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

💙 Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday for the Inclusion in Practice webinar.

A big thank you to Gary Aubin (@SENDMattersUK), as well as Josh Hamblin (@Teacherjosh51) and Emma Rossiter from @SilverwoodSch for giving up their time to bring some much-needed clarity to the IMF and what it means for your school.

Missed it? Watch back on YouTube: https://t.co/4UG279LwKY

If you'd like to discuss how IRIS Connect can support your fund allocation, we'd love to hear from you: https://t.co/RhZ0nObBZN

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

💥 We've had over 400 sign ups 💥

Last chance to get clarity on the Inclusive Mainstream Fund and your Inclusion Strategy deadline.

Your IMF allocation is arriving this month. By 31st December, every mainstream school must publish an Inclusion Strategy. The decisions about how to use that funding need to happen before summer and for many schools, the picture is still murky.

Gary Aubin with Josh Hamblin and Emma Rossiter from Silverwood School will break down exactly what the IMF covers, what your Inclusion Strategy must contain, and the questions every school leader should be answering before the end of term.

📣 Tomorrow. 4pm.

Register and we'll send you the recording if you can't make it live.

🔗 https://t.co/LBi1scWBMQ

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

📄A new peer-reviewed study published this month found something worth sharing.

When teachers watched a video of a lesson, reflected on it independently, then discussed it with colleagues — their thinking changed significantly.

Collaborative discussion produced richer, more application-based thinking than individual reflection alone. The researchers call this collaborative noticing.

Their conclusion: structuring independent reflection before collaborative discussion produces the deepest professional learning.

Reflect alone. Then discuss together.

That's the sequence IRIS Connect Pathways are built around — and now there's a new piece of peer-reviewed research that explains exactly why it works.

https://t.co/QMqM82WNjR

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

We recently spent the day at North Cambridge Academy, and what a day it was. 😃

What struck us most was the staff. From early career teachers to senior leaders and support staff, everyone we spoke to was so open, so generous with their time, and so genuinely excited about developing their own practice. That kind of culture is rare, and it does not happen by accident.

A huge thank you to every member of the NCA team who stepped away from a busy day to talk to us, share their experience, and let us into their classrooms. And a special thank you to SJ Eastwood for organising it all and making us feel so welcome.

It was a fantastic day, and a brilliant reminder of why this work matters.

We are thrilled to now share their full story.

Read the North Cambridge Academy case study here 👇
https://t.co/cxMGSpU7Ya

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

Also check out the post interview Q&A with Dr Chris Baker, SJ Eastwood and Andy Newell: https://t.co/lBnrc9RWJ5

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

🎥 Missed our event "Autonomy vs. Accountability: Ending the CPD Tug of War"? SJ Eastwood's full interview is now live on YouTube.

How do you hold teachers to high standards while giving them real autonomy over their development? At North Cambridge Academy, SJ and the team found a way to do both: scrapping lesson observations, launching whole-school coaching cycles, and having leaders go first.

One year on:
✅ 94% of staff found it enjoyable
✅ 97% found it useful
✅ Measurable gains in adaptive teaching across the school

Watch SJ's full interview 👇
https://t.co/GXA9WlA0b6

#InstructionalCoaching #TeacherDevelopment #SchoolLeadership

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

🎙️ Today's the day.

Autonomy vs. Accountability: Ending the CPD Tug of War is live at 4pm.

Dr Chris Baker frames the challenge. SJ Eastwood from North Cambridge Academy shares what it actually looks like to make this shift in a real school.

If you're joining us tonight — see you there. 💙

If you haven't registered yet, there's still time.

Can't make it? Sign up anyway and receive the recording.

🔗 https://t.co/eqzzxfdbTu

#CPD #TeacherDevelopment #ProfessionalLearning #SchoolLeadership

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

One week to go.
Most schools feel the same tension with CPD. Tighten it too far and teachers end up following instructions rather than growing. Loosen it and professional development becomes disconnected, hard to track, and difficult to build on.

The schools getting this right are not choosing a side. They are building a CPD model shaped around their own vision, their own frameworks, and their own definition of what good looks like in the classroom.
That is exactly what we are exploring in our free online session, Autonomy vs. Accountability: Ending the CPD Tug of War.

Dr Chris Baker is joined by SJ Eastwood, Assistant Principal at North Cambridge Academy (Meridian Trust), who will share how their school made this shift: what changed for staff and leadership, and what it looks like day to day.

📅 Tuesday 9 June, 4:00 to 5:00pm BST
💻 Free, online via Zoom

Reserve your place: https://t.co/7aRXdhINoR

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

💥 We are delighted to announce that SJ Eastwood from North Cambridge Academy will be joining Dr Chris Baker on 9th June.

SJ will be sharing how North Cambridge Academy built a CPD model entirely around their own vision of great teaching. Their own language. Their own frameworks. Their own definition of what good looks like in the classroom.

The result: a model that holds the balance between autonomy and accountability — and staff who are actually excited about developing their practice, rather than treating CPD as a chore.

That kind of specificity is rare. We think it will be worth your time.

🎟️ Reserve your place: https://t.co/vkFNLkZrnh

#CPD #SchoolLeadership #TeacherDevelopment #ProfessionalLearning

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

520 pupils. Four campuses. Six specialist curriculum pathways.

For Silverwood School, one of England's largest SEND schools, professional development at that scale meant endless diary negotiations, disrupted classrooms, and observations that felt more like inspection than support.

@Teacherjosh51 rebuilt the model from scratch. Teacher choice sits at the centre: who observes you, what you want to work on, and when. A custom IRIS Connect Pathway embeds the school's codified framework so every member of staff moves through the same structured development cycle, whether they're on campus one or campus four.

Video sharing replaced physical visits, which matters greatly in a SEND setting where an unfamiliar face can cause genuine dysregulation for pupils.

The Challenge Partners Review 2026 noted it directly. And the principles work just as well in mainstream.

Read the full case study: https://t.co/z26EGuz4E7

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

🛑 Every mainstream school must publish an Inclusion Strategy by 31st December🛑

The decisions about how to use your IMF allocation need to be made before summer.

In 60 minutes, you'll have a clear picture of what the IMF covers, what the Inclusion Strategy must contain, and the decisions to take before the end of term.

📅 Join us on Wednesday 24th June 2026 online, for free.

🎤 Gary Aubin (Director, SENDMattersUK) on the funding and the strategy

🎤 Silverwood School on what good inclusion actually looks like in mainstream settings

+ Live Q&A

👉 Reserve your place: https://t.co/CB0oXNCir0

🔁 Tag your SENCO or SEND lead who needs to see this.

#SEND #SchoolLeadership #Inclusion

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

Most schools implement a PD platform and ask staff to adapt to it.

The Charles Dickens School (@tcdskent) in Kent did the opposite.

Working with IRIS Connect, Deputy Headteacher Kristy Harrison built a bespoke coaching Pathway around the school's own priorities, language, and CPD model. Coaching prompts written in their words. WalkThrus aligned to each term's teaching focus. A shared structure that actually reflected how the school works.

Want to know more? Read our new case study: https://t.co/5CSU89qUYb

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

What if PD that focuses on technique alone doesn't actually give teachers the tools they need to succeed in the classroom? @IRIS_Founder raised that question at CPD Exchange 2026, and explored what it really takes to bridge theory and practice. Watch now: https://t.co/YRklmn1s10

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

The CPD tug of war: push for consistency and you get compliance. Give too much freedom and you lose sight of progress.

Dr Chris Baker on how schools are finding a way through:

https://t.co/GD5CuDw0Uc
#CPD #TeacherDevelopment #SchoolLeadership

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

That's a wrap on #CPDExchange2026. 🙌

Thought leadership from @IRIS_Founder , three school leader sessions, and our first ever CPD Design Lab.

Everything was recorded. Comment below and we'll send them your way once ready.

#ProfessionalLearning

[IRIS Connect, PD @IRIS_Connect]

Three groups at #CPDExchange2026 just built a complete CPD pathway in 90 minutes.

AI-supported reflection built in. Content created in the room. Presenting them now. 📋

This is what happens when you give practitioners the tools.

#CPDDesignLab