The ECF driving school improvement

Using the Early Careers Framework to drive school improvement and revolutionise our practice across schools.

Blog by Trudy Simpson, Deputy Head at Cherry Dale Primary School, Barnsley, working in partnership with Exchange Teaching Hub.

As an experienced mentor of many years and senior leader, I know the importance of mentoring in schools and getting this right for our new teachers. Undoubtedly, the two-year fully funded induction programme underpinned by the Early Career Framework has supported our school in doing this. It has provided school with a clear framework and resources to empower our teachers and ensure that they have the best possible start to their teaching careers.

At Cherry Dale, we asked ourselves, “Are we providing the right amount of support and instruction for our early career teachers?”

The framework has been instrumental in encouraging us to reflect on our current approach to mentoring in school and challenged us as leaders to review our earlier approaches to mentoring. The ONSIDE model in Year 1 of UCL’s programme, with a shift to Educative Mentoring in Year 2, has ensured that our ECTs have developed a reflective approach to their practice where learning together is a common approach. Pupil outcomes are always at the forefront of any changes our early career teachers make to their practice and are always based on informed decisions, including the use of robust research evidence.

From the left – Kate Woolley Year 3/4 teacher,  Mollie Firth Year 6 teacher, Max Reeder Year 3 teacher and Jade Farrar Year 5 and 6 teacher.

The suggested reading materials which accompany each module have supported us in becoming a research informed school. Building time into our weekly professional development meetings for both teachers and teaching assistants to engage with evidence has been enormously valuable in informing our practice across school for both novice and experienced colleagues. Together, we have had opportunities to critically reflect on the research, discuss aspects which have challenged our thinking and use the best evidence to improve teaching and learning in core and wider curriculum subjects.  

As the ECF is based around five core areas (behaviour management, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, and professional behaviours) which are carefully sequenced in modules across the year, we have been able to make informed choices about which aspects of the theory and practice to engage with as part of our whole school training, linked to our school development priorities. The training materials have strengthened our knowledge of effective teaching for all the team at Cherry Dale.

Investing time in our early careers teachers to fully access the structured support offered by the Early Career Framework has been key to our success at Cherry Dale. All four of our ECTs are now in year 2 of their induction and we have no doubt that they will have a lifelong career in teaching and have a positive impact on the lives of many pupils in our community.