Professional Growth

At Dixons, we are one trust; we work and grow together. 

Our approach to professional growth is driven by our commitment to fuelling our motivation through self-determination.   We are committed to leveraging mastery, autonomy and a shared purpose to shape our organisational culture, our academies, our teams and our professional development. 

Regular coaching 

There is nothing more important to us than developing future leaders and value creators who make a difference to the lives of the young people in our care.  

We jettisoned appraisal at Dixons in favour of regular conversations about performance as an organic part of our work – focusing on fuelling mastery and performance with coaching and problem solving for the future rather than evaluating the past.    

At Dixons, there is a culture of feedback that is impact rather than output driven with a maximum emphasis on staff motivation and self-reflection. 

Staff are intrinsically motivated to always get better because of their commitment to our shared mission.   Feedback is regular with an emphasis on clarity; all staff receive personalised coaching at least every four weeks. 

Decoupling performance and pay 

For some time, pay progression at Dixons has been automatic and not specifically linked to performance.  Performance pay has a negligible effect on teacher performance, if any. We also know that the repeated use of external motivators, such as pay, will suppress intrinsic motivation in the long run - negating our commitment to self-determination. 

Find out more about our Professional Growth principles here.