Teachers have no statutory CPD hours target, but appraisal, pay progression and interview panels all ask for evidence. Here is what to keep and how.
There is no regulator handing teachers an annual hours target. That sounds like freedom until the appraisal meeting where you are asked what you have done to develop your practice this year, and the honest answer is "quite a lot, I just cannot remember most of it".
Why the record matters more than the hours
Appraisal in most schools runs on objectives and evidence. Pay progression decisions, particularly at threshold and upper pay range, lean on a demonstrable pattern of development and impact. Middle and senior leadership applications ask the same question in a different form. In each case the person deciding is not testing whether you learned anything - they are testing whether you can show it.
What counts as teacher CPD
Far more than INSET days:
- Courses, twilights, subject association training, exam board updates
- NPQs and accredited study
- Coaching and mentoring, given or received
- Lesson observation - watching colleagues counts as much as being watched
- Lesson study, department research groups and moderation work
- Examiner or marker work, which is exceptional subject CPD
- Professional reading: research summaries, subject books, EEF guidance
- Delivering training to colleagues
- Safeguarding, SEND and statutory updates
What to record for each entry
Keep it to four lines:
- Date and duration
- What it was and who provided it
- One sentence on what you took away
- One sentence on what changed in your classroom or your team
Line four is the one appraisers actually read. "Adopted cold-call routine from the session; hands-up dominance in Y10 dropped noticeably" is worth more than a certificate.
Keep it portable
School CPD platforms are useful while you are there. They are useless the day you leave, and they very rarely export in a form anyone else accepts. Teachers move schools, phases and sometimes sectors, and the development record built over five years should move with them. Keep your own copy, in your own account, regardless of what the school system holds.
Building the habit around the school year
Realistically, nobody logs CPD in the middle of a term-time week. Two habits work:
- Log it in the ten minutes immediately after the session, while you are still sitting there
- Do a fifteen-minute sweep at the end of each half term, working back through your calendar
The second is a fallback, not a plan, but it is far better than an annual reconstruction in June.
Getting ready for appraisal
Before your review meeting, filter your log to the appraisal year, export it, and pick three entries where you can show impact. That is your evidence. It takes about five minutes if the log exists, and an evening if it does not.
Keep your CPD in one place
A record only helps if it exists before you need it. Our free CPD tracker logs an activity in seconds, tallies your hours automatically, keeps your reflections with the entry, and exports a clean PDF whenever you need evidence. Free for life for individuals - and the record belongs to you, not your employer.
Frequently asked questions
- How many CPD hours do teachers in England need?
- There is no statutory annual CPD hours requirement for teachers in England. Schools set their own expectations through appraisal, and evidence of development is used in pay progression decisions.
- What should a teacher CPD record include?
- Date, duration, the activity and provider, what you learned, and the impact on your practice or pupils. The impact line is the one appraisers rely on.
- Does marking exams count as CPD?
- Yes. Examining and moderation give direct insight into standards and assessment criteria, and are among the strongest forms of subject CPD.
- Can I keep my CPD record if I change schools?
- Only if it is yours. School platforms rarely export usefully, so keep a personal log alongside anything your school requires.
Read this next
- CPD record for teachers: what to log and why it matters at appraisalThere 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.
- 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.
- How to write a CPD reflection - with three worked examplesA CPD reflection needs four things: what you did, what you learned, what you changed, and what is next. Here is the structure plus three worked examples.
Or skip the reading and start your free CPD log - free for life for individuals.
Add this to your CPD log
Sign in to save what you've read - we'll create a free CPD log for you.