Progress Tracking
Make Professional Development Visible
Set, work on and show progress towards development goals, right where the development happens. CPD progress tracking that connects goals to the coaching, reflection and classroom practice working towards them.
Development Goals Work Best When They're Part of the Development Itself
We have been looking closely at how professional development and objective setting work in schools. Every school approaches it differently, and one thing came up again and again: goals gain their power when they sit inside the development working towards them. That is what Objectives brings to IRIS Connect.
One Place for Every Goal
However your school sets development goals, in objective-setting meetings, coaching cycles, or against a national framework, each one gets its own home on the platform.
Progress Shown as it Happens
Notes from coaching conversations, links to resources, video reflections, even the exact moment in a lesson where new practice appears.
Visible to the Right People
Teachers track their own progress, coaches see everything they are working on together, and leaders get a whole-school overview.
Goals, Development and Progress in One Platform
Almost every school already sets development goals. Objectives is built for that variety: goals teachers create themselves, school priorities distributed across a team, or national frameworks with their own stages and language.
IRIS Connect brings goals, development activity, and evidence together in one place. Teachers and coaches set goals that matter, attach reflections, video moments, and resources as progress happens, and build a visible record of development across the year.
That coherence now matters beyond the school gates. Ofsted’s leadership and governance evaluation looks for a coherent professional learning programme, and a connected record of goals and progress is exactly that.
“Now we can see exactly what our trainees are doing in schools, and subject leads can see what they’re doing in centre. That mutual visibility has made a huge difference.”
– Treena Philpotts, Director of Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT
One Place for Goals and the Work Towards Them
Set Objectives That Fit How You Work
Create open objective boards where teachers set their own goals, or work from preset frameworks such as the ITTECF, with more added all the time. Stages are configurable too: a simple in progress and complete, or emerging, developing, and embedding for framework-based development. Objectives can be private to the teacher, shared with a coach, or visible to leaders, and each one can carry a due date and an attached technique guide.
Show Progress as It Happens
Every objective has its own progress log. Add a note after a coaching conversation, link a resource, upload a document, or attach a reflection, right down to the time-linked moment in a lesson video where the practice appears. Reviewers see the progress build in real time and can discuss it in the same space, so when review conversations come around, the work is already there.
Let AI Insights Point the Way
AI Insights analyses a recorded lesson, highlights the moments that matter, and recommends a development focus with its reasoning and supporting evidence from the lesson itself. One click turns that recommendation into an objective, with the relevant Teaching Techniques guide already attached. Teachers move from feedback to focused development in minutes.
See Progress Across Your School
Leaders and coaches see every Objective they review: who is working on what, at what stage, and with what evidence behind it. Alongside Pathways dashboards showing progress through each development cycle, you get both views that matter: the bigger goals and the journey towards them. Support goes where it is needed, and progress gets recognised where it is happening.
“Through IRIS Connect, the teaching and learning strategy takes on a life of its own, it becomes something that we’re all talking about and doing…”
– Anna Richardson, Assistant Head, Sir Thomas Wharton Academy
Goals are Part of the Development Itself
| Comparison | Objectives as a separate process | With IRIS Connect |
|---|---|---|
| Where goals live | In their own system or document | Alongside the coaching, reflection and practice working towards them |
| How progress is shown | Written up at review points | Captured as it happens: notes, resources, video reflections |
| Link to classroom practice | Described in writing | Time-linked video moments |
| Connection to development activity | Tracked in parallel | Coaching, reflection and Pathways all feed the goal |
| Visibility | Collated when requested | Teacher, coach and whole-school views built in |
| Review conversations | Prepared beforehand | The year's work is already there |
Working to a Standards Framework?
Objectives began in initial teacher education, where trainees evidence progress against frameworks. Preset boards for the ITT and Early Career Framework let providers distribute standards to every trainee and see evidence build against each one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does IRIS Connect replace the system we use for objective setting and review?
IRIS Connect is where the development itself happens: goals, coaching, reflection, and progress in one place. Many schools run it alongside their existing review process, and the connected record of each goal’s progress makes those review conversations easier, whatever system sits around them.
We already track objectives in another platform. How does this fit?
Objectives on IRIS Connect are not another tracking layer; they connect goals to the coaching, reflection and classroom practice working towards them. Reflection links and progress logs can support whatever wider process your school runs.
Who can see a teacher's objectives?
The teacher decides, within the objective types your organisation configures. Boards can be private to the individual, shared with chosen reviewers such as a coach or mentor, or visible to leadership by design. Lesson videos stay under the teacher’s control throughout.
Can we use our own frameworks and terminology?
Yes. You can build objective types around your own frameworks, standards, or improvement priorities, with your own stages and labels. Preset packs are available for common frameworks, and our team will help you configure yours.
How do Objectives relate to Pathways?
Pathways structure a development cycle; Objectives hold the goals that cycles work towards. Objectives can be set from within a Pathway, and AI Insights inside a Pathway can recommend and set them, so every cycle visibly contributes to a bigger goal.
See Your School’s Development in One Place
Book a demo and we will show you Objectives, progress logs, and whole-school views working together, using examples from schools like yours.