We know that great teaching makes a real difference to children’s lives. To achieve this, every teacher needs access to great professional development. Our conference aims to bring the education community together to explore great teaching and how we can foster it through professional development that really works.

Trust leaders, school leaders, middle leaders, coaches, ECT mentors and teachers. We're open to everyone whether or not your school is currently part of the Steplab community.

Whether you’re a teacher, coach, school or trust leader, the Steplab conference aims to inspire and challenge, as well as sharing the evidence on how to achieve effective PD & coaching. Choose from sessions about what makes great teaching, how to achieve effective coaching, how to lead a high impact PD programme, as well as overcoming the challenges of PD implementation & leadership. We'll also look to the future of teaching and professional development in schools.

Tap here to book your tickets. If you’re a Steplab subscriber not only do you get early access but you’ll also benefit from our exclusive early bird discount if you book before 1st September. See below for details.

The day is organised around four strands:

1. Expert teaching

2. High impact professional development

3. How to become an effective coach

4. Great implementation & leadership.

You can choose to stay with one strand throughout the day or mix and match, depending on your interests. The day will begin with a keynote from Lucy Crehan author of the brilliant Cleverlands, and will include lots of opportunity to network and collaborate. You’ll also be the first to see an exclusive preview of our documentary 'Great Teaching, Explained' that we’ve been working hard on for the past 18 months and which captures, deconstructs and analyses teaching at some of the highest performing schools in the country.

Plus, join us for our panel discussion exploring the question 'How can we recruit, train and keep great teachers?' with education leaders and PD experts Hilary Spencer, CEO of Ambition Institute, Kat Howard, Executive Director of School Improvement at Windsor Academy Trust, Sufian Sadiq, Director of Teaching School at Chiltern Learning Trust, and Reuben Moore, Executive Director at the National Institute of Teaching, and hosted by Sam Freedman, best-selling author of Failed State: Why nothing works and how we fix it.

Sessions in this strand focus on great teaching, what it looks like, how it works, and how to achieve it in your classroom.

This series of sessions explores the theory and practice of high impact teaching. Sessions will include analysis of newly captured footage of some of the UKs most effective teachers and work with the audience to collaboratively examine what makes highly effective teaching and how can we achieve it in every classroom.

Who are these sessions for?

• Teachers wanting to get ‘under the hood’ of great teaching
• Coaches wanting to learn more about effective teaching techniques and how to deconstruct and model them
• Leaders looking at their school or trust’s teaching and learning approach

Sessions are led by Peps Mccrea and Claire Hill, who'll be joined by many of the brilliant teachers and leaders we captured on film. (Speakers to be announced soon!)

Sessions in this strand are for coaches and leaders who want to explore the mechanisms of effective professional development.

This strand explores how to create professional development that really works. We dig into expert instructional coaching, desconstructing great coaching conversations so that you can see the strategies underpinning responsive coaching. We also take a look at other effective forms of PD, such as group rehearsal and co-planning, as well as exploring how to create the conditions for great PD.

Who are these sessions for?

• Teachers and leaders who want to develop their understanding of the key ingredients for high quality professional development
• Leaders who want to learn more about running great group PD
• Leaders and coaches who want to explore the nuances of expert coaching conversations

Sessions in this strand are led by Josh Goodrich, Harry Fletcher-Wood, Rachel Sewell, Sam Sims and Jon Gilbert.

If you care about becoming a more effective instructional coaching, this strand contains a comphrensive look at how to coach well. You can dip in and out throughout the day depending on your specific interests, or stay for every session for a complete course in how to coach.

In these sessions we’ll explain and exemplify the components of great coaching, from diagnosis, to modelling and rehearsal, and everything in between.

Who are these sessions for?

• Coaches who want to experience all or part of our full, intensive coaching course on how to be a great coach
• Leaders who want to learn how to deliver highly effective training for their coaches

Sessions in this strand are led by Rachel Ball, Rachel Sewell, Ollie Lovell and Ania Townsend.

This strand focuses on brilliant school and trust leaders who are implementing high quality professional development and seeing excellent results.

These sessions explore lessons learned about how to lead professional development in different contexts and at different scales. Sessions will focus on how effective models of PD have improved teaching, increased TA expertise, improved student results, and made a real difference to staff wellbeing and retention, across a variety of contexts.

Who are these sessions for?

• For leaders who want practical support and models of implementation at secondary, primary or across a trust
• For leaders who want to explore how to build a coaching programme focused on their school priorities
• For leaders who want to implement high quality PD for everyone in their school, including TAs, pastoral and support staff

Sessions in this strand are led by highly skilled and knowledgeable school and trust leaders who have first hand experience of improving schools through great PD. Our brilliant guest speakers include Maria Craster, Assisitant Principal at One Degree Academy, Elliot Hahn, TA Coach at Manchester Community Primary Academy, Siobhan Meredith, Executive Director of Education at the Ted Wragg Trust, Cat Rushton, Director of Institute at Academy Transformation Trust, Emma Starkey, Head of Inclusion at Star Academies, and Anya Thomas and Sarah Dickinson from Woodham Academy, with more speakers to be announced soon.

Friday 17th January 2025

Glazier’s Hall 9 Montague Close, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DD

Tap here to purchase tickets.

Exclusive early access and early bird discount

£120 for Steplab subscribers who book before 1st September

From September 1st

£150 per ticket for Steplab subscribers

£180 per ticket for non-subscribers

Plus, for every 5 tickets purchased across a school or trust, we’ll add an extra ticket for free. A great opportunity to train your coaches and leaders in one go! Contact [email protected] for bulk orders.

All tickets include lunch, refreshments and exclusive Steplab merch. Plus, ticket buyers will be placed in a raffle to win copies of Josh Goodrich’s new book Responsive Coaching.

We’d love to see you there!

Our full timetable will be released soon