Train the Trainer: Build Your School's Capacity to Lead Professional Development
Your school has experts. What you might not have is people who know how to turn that expertise into effective professional learning.
Most schools face the same challenge: staff with strong content knowledge but no training in how to design or facilitate professional development. Or you lose key staff or leaders and need to build again.
So internal PD either doesn't happen, or it happens poorly, and nothing really changes. You might invest in sending staff to external events, only to find the learning never quite makes it back to school or out of their individual classroom or it doesn’t fit.
What We Do
We work with your school to build internal capacity for professional development by teaching your people how to design and deliver professional learning that works for your school and context.
Who This Is For
Schools who need to develop:
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PD Coordinators - building a program from scratch or coordinating multiple needs competing for priority and investment
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Subject Leaders - who have expertise but need to develop adult learning facilitation skills
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Department Heads - tasked with leading team learning
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Leadership Teams - who need to understand what effective PD looks like and their part in supporting it
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Anyone - your school has asked to "run professional development" without the tools to do it well
How It Works
This is bespoke work designed specifically for your school and your people.
Step 1:
Understanding Your Context
We start with a conversation to understand:
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Who will be leading professional development at your school
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What challenges you're facing
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What capacity you're trying to build
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What success looks like for you
Step 2:
Training Your Trainers
We work directly with your designated staff (on-site or online) to develop their skills in:
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Designing learning sessions using adult learning principles
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Deciding what to include and what not to include
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Facilitating engaging workshops (not death-by-PowerPoint)
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Creating space for meaningful discussion and reflection
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Planning for implementation and follow-through
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Adapting approaches to fit your school's culture and context
Step 3:
Implementation Support
After the training, we provide follow-up to help your trainers:
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Design their first internal PD sessions
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Navigate challenges as they emerge
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Reflect on and refine their approach based on what's working
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Build confidence in their facilitation
What Makes This Different
We teach skills, not scripts:
Your trainers learn principles they can adapt to any situation, not templates they must rigidly follow. There are non-negotiables (adult learning principles, clear intended impact, implementation planning), but there are also variables your trainers control based on your school's unique context.
We focus on your reality:
What works at one school might not work at yours. We help your trainers figure out what will actually work for your staff, your culture, and your constraints.
We don't disappear after the training:
The real work starts when your trainers go to design and deliver their first session. That's why we offer follow-up support, because knowing the theory and actually doing it are two different things.
Why This Matters
Schools that build internal PD capacity:
Stop depending entirely on expensive external providers
Create more relevant, timely professional learning
Build leadership capability within their staff
Develop a sustainable approach to teacher growth
Actually see professional development lead to change
What It Costs
Because this is bespoke work tailored to your school's needs, costs vary based on:
How many people you're developing
Whether training happens on-site or online
The level of follow-up support you need
Your timeline and scheduling constraints
Getting Started
Not sure if this is what you need?
Let's have a conversation. We can help you figure out whether Train the Trainer makes sense for your school right now, or whether you need something different first.
Reach out to discuss your specific situation and what success would look like for you.
Claire Peet at claire@pdacademia.com
Design Your Own Workshop
Your school is different; different people, different systems, different needs. While some needs can be filled by curriculum providers, others cannot. Think about applications of AI, child safeguarding, middle management development, strategic planning, and others where your entire team or a portion of your team need the same team-building, shared experience. Now you can design your own workshop with expert facilitators.
Claire Peet can help you design a meaningful growth session. claire@pdacademia.com
