THE An Daras Trust has a lot to celebrate after its original five Trust schools, in the Post area, each received the Visible Learning Plus Partner School Award.

The original Trust schools — North Pertherwin, St Catherines, St Stephens Community Academy, Werrington and Windmill Hill Academy — embarked on the professional development journey ‘Visible Learning’ back in August 2016 and have since received awards commending their commitment to forward-thinking long-term training programmes for staff.

The schools committed resources and time to the training over the last three years with the clear aim of supporting and developing teachers to be more effective.

The focus has been on enhancing learning opportunities within the classroom, actively involving pupils in the learning process and making the learning process more explicit to children. The training has drawn upon the worldwide research analysed by Professor John Hattie. It continues to provide on-going professional development for all teachers within the Trust.

The Trust and its schools have been recognised for the commitment and achievements delivered within the Visible Learning approach and the Trust was recently awarded the Visible Learning Plus Partner School Award for each of the original five settings and for the Trust overall. These are the first awards presented to any Cornish schools and the first national Trust award — a significant achievement. The An Daras Trust expressed its thanks to all school staff, the Visible Learning coaches and the Trust’s Visible Learning lead Deborah Saunders, for the long term commitment required to deliver Visible Learning at an operational level.

Wendy Delf, the external Visible Learning consultant leading the Trust training, said: “I am delighted that the An Daras Trust has been recognised by Osiris Educational and Corwin Press for their success in achieving Visible Learning Plus Partner School. The schools have invested time, energy and investment in providing all staff with quality professional development over the last three years, which has provided opportunities to challenge thinking, collaboration in learning across the Trust and now celebration on achieving their award.”

The presentation of the school and Trust awards was completed by Professor Hattie at the recent Visible Learning Conference at the Eden Project. Will Hermon, Trust lead, and Deborah were delighted to receive these awards on behalf of the An Daras staff. Wendy concluded: “Congratulations to you all and particularly to your pupils who are amazing learners.”

An Daras Trust was asked to present its case studies to other local schools and Trusts attending the Visible Learning Conference. The An Daras Trust welcomes other schools to visit and see the positive impact of this professional development journey. The An Daras Trust has been invited to present the impact of its work at the Visible Learning World Conference in London in 2020.