How we're helping early career teachers to keep getting better

We know that schools are working hard to be as business-as-usual as possible and we’ve been so inspired to see that leaders are still making the time to think about the development of their NQTs.

In the webinar, we were joined by Steve Farndon, Ambition Fellow and leader of our pilot Early Career Framework (ECF) work in Blackpool. He discussed the perspective we’ve taken on the ECF and how we’ve translated the advice of the framework into practice.

Before reading any further, please be aware that this early roll-out is only running in Bradford, Doncaster, Greater Manchester and the North East. The programme begins in September 2020 and we are advising schools to apply soon before all the places in their area are taken.

Everyone is aware of the recruitment and retention challenges in schools. We’re seeing a growth in the number of students, more experienced teachers retiring and, most worryingly, we’re really struggling to keep teachers we’ve just trained.

The government are focused on early career development because they recognise teaching is a complex job, it’s difficult to get consistent quality of provision for all NQTs and that a central framework would save time for schools.

The last thing schools need is more paperwork and accountability, so our programme aims to develop NQTs in a holistic way. We’re a mission-focused organisation: by offering more support to teachers and schools, we will have better quality teachers staying in the profession for longer and improve the life chances of young people.

The first thing we did when we designed the programme was look at the challenges facing schools. See if you agree with any of the below:

• Induction now two years.
• Very little investment in developing mentors.
• School (especially CPD) budgets are tight.
• NQTs have missed a term of placements because of COVID-19.
• Capacity to filter good research on best practice.
• Teachers plateau after a few years (if unsupported).

Using the design principles that underpin many of our development programmes, we decided on:

• Regular, bite-sized learning.
• Examples of classroom practice.
• Familiar routines.
• Practice makes permanent.

To structure the programme, we identified three challenges in early career development:

For NQTs:

• Key insights from training are forgotten.
• NQTs struggle to see relevance.
• Insufficient time.

For mentors:

• Hard to explain something they do automatically: how do you break down teacher learning?
• How to make sustainable change?
• Separating assessment from development.

This programme is funded by the DfE, but there’s still a cost in terms of time.

The way we see it, it’s better to have the upfront and planned time costs than unexpected costs later on. By that we mean the tearful conversations at 3:30pm on a Wednesday after a particularly bad lesson, SLT members dropping into lessons to support on behaviour, or unplanned cover costs and recruitment costs if NQTs drop out after a year or two.

You’re probably aware that there are a number of different providers offering an Early Career Teachers programme. You might be trying to decide between them. So here’s what makes our offer different.

We’re already running this programme, taking part in two pilots and applying the learning and insights to the design and delivery of our programme.

We have fifteen years’ experience developing teachers and leaders and have a broad national network of 3,000 schools and 15,000 teachers and leaders in a diverse range of settings. We partner with schools in coastal areas, inner cities, big MATs and small schools, faith-based schools, isolated schools, and teaching schools.

If you'd like to catch up on the webinar, you can find the recording here (enter the password: 9G&1h43%). The webinar starts from 5 minutes 30 seconds.

Learn more

If you'd like to find out more about what the early career framework is and how it works, read our explainer here >

To find out more about Early Career Teachers, visit the programme page here >