Early Career Teachers (ECTs) benefit from Trust-Wide Training Session
Early Career Teachers (ECTs) benefit from Trust-Wide Training Session
The professional development of our staff is immensely important to us. Across South Lincolnshire Academies Trust, we employ 38 ECTs (which is short for Early Career Teachers who are in their first or second year of teaching) and we work with them closely to support them in the early stages of their careers.
All of the ECT1s (first years) from across the Trust gathered together at Spalding Academy for an after-school workshop training session where the aim was to share best practice as well as discussing key achievements and challenges with colleagues (all whilst enjoying an afternoon tea!).
Our talented group of ECTs have come from various backgrounds – whether that is straight from university (after a degree or teacher training) or from a totally different career to change to a job that is more rewarding. Everyone can therefore bring a different perspective and new ideas that can be shared.
Working in small groups, the ECTs were able to discuss how they have progressed through their first year of teaching, best practice in lesson planning, how they overcame any difficulties throughout the year and they also had an opportunity to highlight their proudest moments.
They were then able to share their ‘golden nuggets’ amongst the whole group so that others could use these to inspire their teaching and these could also be passed on to the new ECTs joining us in September.
The ECTs within our Trust have access to a tailored and challenging in-house training programme which runs throughout the year and this session was one of the highlights of the calendar. A recent scrutiny and report from the external provider for ECTs found the in-house SLAT programme and support to be ‘outstanding’ with ‘no areas for development’.
The workshop was led by Mrs Daisy Bland, Assistant Headteacher, who oversees the ECT programme across the Trust and the Induction Tutor Team from across the Trust, which includes Miss Judith Iles, Miss Sally Wetherill and Mr Jamie Moorfoot.
Left to right: Mr Jamie Moorfoot, Miss Judith Iles, Miss Sally Wetherill and Mrs Daisy Bland
Mrs Daisy Bland, Assistant Headteacher, who oversees the ECT programme across the Trust, said “It’s amazing to gather all of our first year Early Career Teachers from across the Trust together at one meeting. Tonight’s session has been brilliant. We are very lucky to have such a dynamic and engaging group of ECTs working across our Trust. The students they teach benefit hugely from their energy and enthusiasm, as well as their recent training and knowledge of the most exciting developments in pedagogy. The golden nuggets collected tonight will be extremely useful for all of the ECTs moving forwards and we will also share this collection of best practice with our wider staff teams. We are very proud of our ECT1s for all they have achieved this year.”
- If you’re interested in getting into teaching and training at South Lincolnshire Academies Trust, please visit www.slat.org.uk/teacher-training