Growing great people is one of our key strategic anchors.  We know that to be successful in our mission to transform lives, strengthen communities and make the world a better place we must grow and develop our great people and support them to achieve their aspirations.

Our Ted Wragg Institute provides a professional development curriculum for every individual in our Trust regardless of job role.

To see the range of training and development we offer throughout the year, take a look at our Ted Wragg Institute brochure above. 

Every year in the week after Autumn half term we have a week dedicated to staff development. This year over 1300 teachers and co-professionals took part in a range of professional development including #tEdFest - the Ted Wragg Trust's very own Festival of Learning. 

#tEdfest is a celebration of everything that makes our Trust special: the brilliant in every corner of our schools and share services, the belonging we foster in our communities and the commitment we share to transforming lives through excellence education.

You can view our recap from our 2025 event below:

We are incredibly proud to share we have been shortlisted for a MAT Excellence Award for staff development. This recognition reflects our commitment to growing great people through exceptional, inclusive and ambitious professional development - all underpinned by the Ted Wragg Institute, which brings together our Trust-wide approach to learning, talent development and leadership.

We’re excited to be delivering a new Foundation Degree for those working with children in Devon, in partnership with the Centre for the Children’s Workforce and the University of East London. 

The two year Foundation Degree is designed for those already working with children who want to develop their expertise, gain qualifications, and progress in their careers without leaving their jobs or their communities. 

Open to those who do not already hold a degree, the programme will allow you to gain Level 4 and 5 qualifications, strengthen your expertise as well as pave the way for a full degree and open doors to graduate roles across multiple sectors. 

We recognise that for many, going away to university is a barrier to getting a degree and we don’t think they should miss out. The degree will allow you to: 

• Earn while you learn 
• Study flexibly with weekly sessions 
• Stay in your community and current job role 
• Open doors to graduate roles 

Our development cohorts are an important part of our professional development offer.  Our cohorts are defined groups of learners participating in a programme of study within a defined time frame, many in partnership with external organisations. Our 2024-2025 cohorts include:

• Becoming an excellent middle/subject leader in Primary schools
• Teach First Careers Leaders programme
• Early Career teachers (years 1 and 2)
• Early Career Teacher mentors
• Future SENDCos
• NPQs in SENDCo, Leading Behaviour and Culture, Leading Literacy, Leading Teaching, Senior Leadership and Headship
• New Headteachers
• Current Headteachers

All employees are encouraged to develop their own career pathway in collaboration with the Ted Wragg Institute. 

We are extremely proud of our bespoke instructional coaching programme which puts the development of teaching staff at the heart of school improvement.  

Our coaching programme is provided fortnightly for all teachers across our family of schools.  This one-to-one coaching is a CPD programme tailored to each teacher’s individual needs.  It is designed for development, not evaluation, with the aim of developing excellence in all our teacher’s practice.  Taking small steps helps teachers to deliver high quality classroom pedagogy.  The emphasis on small, gradual improvements is what makes coaching so effective; turning previous action steps in to habits.

At our Trust we believe that great leadership:

We know that the key to our success is growing and nurturing our own talented individuals and supporting them throughout their leadership journey.   Our Ted Wragg Institute offers a variety of course designed to support our leaders including Trust-led NPQs and four annual leadership masterclasses.

With over 50 networks, these are a key part of how we grow great people.  All our networks are designed to bring people together with a shared sense of purpose to inform, consult and develop colleagues in a collaborative environment.

Our active and vibrant networks include curriculum leads (primary and secondary), attendance, data, business and operations, DSL, DDSL, ECT, Literacy, raising standards, strengthening communities and senior mental health leads.

We are passionate about supporting our employees to develop and actively support a wide range of apprenticeships for both new and current employees.

We are delighted to be working with Exeter College to co-deliver our very own Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant apprenticeship to 10 individuals across our schools, see video below.