Research School Network: John Taylor MAT partner with the Ambition Institute’s ECF Will there ever be a more important time to get the support and development for Early Career Teachers right?

Kirby Dowler is the Early Career Framework Lead within the John Taylor Multi Academy Trust and a Specialist Leader of Education for Initial Teacher Training & Newly Qualified Teachers. She has always been dedicated to the development of early career teachers throughout her career. You can follow her work here @MissDowlerDT

The retention challenge
The challenges of retaining our early career teachers (ECTs) have become an important focus in recent years. Nationally, retention rates of ECTs dropped significantly between 2012 and 2018 (Walker et al, 2018) and, according to DfE statistics, over 15% of those who were NQTs in 2017 had left the profession by last year.

Teachers are the foundation of the education system – there are no great schools without great teachers. Teachers deserve high quality support throughout their careers, particularly in the first years of teaching when the learning curve is steepest’ Early Career Framework, 2019

This is why it is so crucial we develop our early career teachers within the John Taylor Multi Academy Trust – to keep them in the profession and to set them on a path of continuous improvement in order to improve outcomes for their pupils. From September, particularly with the disruption to teaching and ITE that 2020 has provided, will there ever be a more important time to get the support and development for early years teachers right? Teaching quality, confidence, job satisfaction, happiness, well-being and retention all rest heavily on the provision of correct and timely support for our NQTs and early year teachers. 

What is the Early Career Framework?
The Department for Education released the Early Career Framework in 2019. It recognises that the nurture and support ECTs receive can make or break a teaching career, and that improving the quality of this support has the potential to revolutionise our education system. 

The national roll out of the Framework in 2021 will lengthen induction for ECTs to two years, increasing ECTs entitlement to support and training and specifies content to be covered during this induction period. It also recognises how integral the role of a quality mentor is to the development of ECTs and emphasises the need for support and training for them too.

The Early Career Framework sets out what all early career teachers will be entitled to learn about and learn how to do during in five core areas, which consist of behaviour management, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and professional behaviours, all based on a robust evidence base which underpins each strand and entitlement for early career teachers’ professional development.

Why the Ambition Institute’s ECF?

• Ambition Institute are the only provider to have worked on two pilot projects, involving 250 participants and funded by the Education Endowment Foundation (pilot research projects).
• They have used the learning of what works to build their Early Career Teacher programme, so all the materials have been tried and tested in schools by Teachers. 
• Mentors will gain tailored guidance according to phase, context and prior experience and become confident to use instructional coaching for maximum effect. Mentors are at the heart of the ECF programme design with this robust package of CPD. 
• NQTs will gain specific examples of what expert teaching looks like, will be able to easily connect theory and evidence to classroom practice and have improved job satisfaction, confidence, knowledge and skills.
• The Early Career Teachers programme focuses deeply on one area of teaching at a time, allowing NQTs to see and feel that they are getting better. Foundational concepts are intentionally repeated and revisited across modules so that NQTs can easily connect the theory to classroom practice on a Monday morning.

What are we doing at the John Taylor MAT?
We have been successful in securing 40 places on the Early Career Framework early roll out extension this year with Ambition Institute which will run for 1 year. Now more than ever this is going to be integral in supporting our NQTs across the MAT in September, especially with the paucity of experience that they will have encountered in their training year. The JTMAT will be working closely with Ambition as a Delivery Partner, collaborating with other local Trusts, including The Central Co-operative Learning Trust, The Fierté Multi-Academy Trust and with King Edward VI School in Lichfield, to help to shape the next level of the early career programme as part of the early roll out including:

• Providing expert, local co-facilitation 
• Informing design by contributing school-based best practice in supporting ECTs 
• Supporting the range of exemplification materials to cover the full range of phases, subjects and contexts

Ambition’s programme, alongside our individual school’s induction programmes will ensure our NQTs are fully supported whilst their initial learning curve will be steeper than normal. We are excited that the John Taylor MAT have partnered with Ambition Institute on these exciting developments in early career teacher support and are confident that at the end of their first year, our NQTs will feel they have been fully supported and that they will continue to make a positive impact on our young children’s lives within the John Taylor MAT for years to come.

If you would like find more about how your NQTs can benefit from the ECF programme at John Taylor or the benefits of joining of the National Forest Teaching School Alliance, please visit https://nationalforestteachingschool.co.uk/