Book excerpt: Great staff make great schools, and by choosing your staff carefully and helping them to develop, you will make a significant impact on the lives of the young people in your care. The school workforce isn't only teachers these days, and good staff development must take into account everybody working in the setting. As a practical guide to developing your staff, this book offers an inspirational and exciting view of the transformative power of highly motivated personnel. It summarizes the most recent research that sets staff development in context, and then provides examples of good practice and successful ideas from a range of schools, colleges and local authorities. The authors address practical considerations, as well as management and leadership implications, to help devise strategies for developing the school workforce in order to become more learning-centred and student focused. Topics covered include: - why staff development matters - leading staff development - being strategic - finding time for staff development - identifying needs and planning for impact - evaluating the impact of staff development With an emphasis on practical and research-based perspectives, this book offers tried and tested strategies for successful and rewarding staff development that, most importantly, can contribute to improving student outcomes. This book is particularly relevant to those responsible for leading and managing staff development in schools, colleges and at local authority level. It is also useful for anyone working towards higher degrees in Education Leadership and Management, Mentoring-Coaching and the new qualifications for leaders of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL). Sara Bubb is involved in many aspects of staff development, leads the national Advanced Skills Teachers (AST) network, and lectures and researches at the Institute of Education, University of London. Peter Earley is Professor of Educational Leadership & Management at the London Centre for Leadership in Learning, Institute of Education, University of London.