Last year in my role as team leader for language assistants at the British Council, I created a new learning and development framework which boosted both staff morale and productivity and ensured each person was respected for their own ability.

The team was made up of a mix of new starters and assistants with many years of experience with a diverse range of abilities. However, there was a lack of team cohesion and some of the less experienced members were lacking in confidence due to negative comments made by senior teachers. Morale was low and this was impacting on their confidence in the classroom and so I initiated a project with the objective of developing the team, addressing discrimination and boosting morale.

I first addressed the issue of negative comments made to junior staff by myself working alongside HR and I kept these to the fore when designing the new framework.

The learning and development framework consisted of two parts.

Firstly, I arranged a mentoring system, whereby assistants with experience were paired with new starters for one afternoon per week. This mentorship programme greatly helped new team members gain confidence and learn new skills.

Secondly, I organised fortnightly team-building activities so all of the new team members could feel integrated into the school. 

Through this new framework, skills were shared, and the team got to know each other better. It was a great success as everyone was respected for their own ability, achievement and contribution with much-improved team morale.