There is no single national CPD requirement for teachers in England, but appraisals, pay progression and Ofsted all expect evidence of development. Here is what a good CPD record looks like.
Unlike nurses or HCPC registrants, teachers in England do not have a statutory CPD hours target. There is no regulator telling you to log 35 hours. And yet, when appraisal season arrives, or when you are going for a pay progression point or a new role, the question is always the same: what have you done to develop your practice?
A well-kept CPD record answers that question in seconds instead of an evening spent searching your inbox.
What counts as CPD for teachers
More than you think. CPD is not just courses and INSET days. It includes:
- Formal training - courses, twilight sessions, INSET, exam board updates, NPQs
- In-school development - coaching, mentoring, team teaching, lesson study
- Observations - both being observed and observing colleagues
- Subject reading - books, research summaries, examiners' reports
- Moderation and standardisation work
- Leading training for others - if you delivered the session, you learned from it too
- Conferences, webinars and professional networks
- Exam marking - genuinely excellent subject CPD that teachers routinely forget to count
What to record for each activity
Keep it simple. For each entry, note:
- Date and duration
- What the activity was and who provided it
- What you took from it - one or two sentences is enough
- Impact on your practice or your pupils - this is the line appraisers care about most
That last point is the difference between a list of courses attended and evidence of professional growth. "Attended a session on retrieval practice" is a record. "Introduced daily low-stakes quizzing in year 10, and end-of-unit recall scores improved" is development.
Linking your record to the teachers' standards
Some schools ask you to map CPD to the teachers' standards or to your appraisal objectives. Even if yours does not, it is a useful habit. It shows coverage - you might find you have logged lots of subject knowledge but nothing on behaviour or SEND, which tells you where to focus next.
Do not let your record live on a school system
Here is the uncomfortable bit: if your CPD log lives in your school's MIS, HR system or shared drive, you lose access when you change jobs. Years of development evidence, gone. Keep your own copy somewhere that belongs to you.
Our free CPD tracker is built for that. Log an activity in seconds, watch your hours tally up, and export a clean PDF for appraisal, interview or your own records. It is free for life for individuals - and it moves with you, not your employer.
Read this next
- Teacher CPD records: what to keep and why performance review needs itTeachers have no statutory CPD hours target, but appraisal, pay progression and interview panels all ask for evidence. Here is what to keep and how.
- Who owns your CPD record when you leave a job?Your registration is personal, but the platform holding your training history usually is not. Here is who owns what, and how to make sure your record leaves with you.
- What counts as CPD hours (and what doesn't)A plain list of what you can legitimately claim as CPD, what you cannot, and how to work out the hours when the activity does not come with a certificate.
Or skip the reading and start your free CPD log - free for life for individuals.
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