Early Engagement for ECTs

Planning for first few days of induction….

Before starting in your new role and if possible, you may wish to be proactive and seek early engagement with your school. Below are some things you may wish to consider before you start in post and/or during the first few days of induction and it’s also advisable that you check your official teacher record held with the government to ensure your details are up-to-date and correct. You can do this via the access your qualifications service

Identify your strengths and needs

You might find it helpful to spend some time before starting your role identifying professional strengths and any gaps where you feel you may need support at the start of your upcoming induction period. You may consider doing this with the support of your ITT tutor if you have recently completed your teacher training and/or with the induction tutor and mentor being assigned to you by your employing school, especially if you have partially completed statutory induction at another school (review development targets stated on any previous assessments and or a career entry deveopment plan/profile)

Ask your school for information

If early engagement is possible with your school, it would be useful to find out more about the institution, pupils and key staff. Information that could be shared early may cover:

• the schools prospectus, vision, mission and ethos
• name of your induction tutor and mentor inc. other key staff roles/organisation chart
• points of contact and map of school
• which early career teacher entitlement (ECTE) programme (formerly ECF) provider you will be undertaking professional development training with, when it will start and any introductory information/documentation
• policies, processes and procedures for the phase/subject(s) you will be teaching e.g. assessment, marking, homework, schemes of work, planning etc
• statutory and school policies for safeguarding and child protection, behaviour, bullying, equality and diversity, health and safety, SEN provision. It’s also advisable to sign up with DfE for alerts relating to statutory changes
• IT arrangements e.g. computer systems, digital tools etc
• term dates inc. times when the building is open/closed

In the first few days of post or before, if possible, you will also need to know certain processes and procedures which have been established by the school, as an example;

• incident reporting procedures inc. reporting sickness/unable to attend to school
• staff meetings, year meetings, departmental meetings etc
• arrangements for acquiring resources and materials
• break and lunchtime arrangements
• playground supervision and other duties inc fire drills
• assemblies
• parents’ evenings/open days

Each school will have policies for whole school issues, and you should be provided with these if not prior to starting in post, certainly in the first few days.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask for help

If you need help, ask. You are not expected to know everything or be able to do everything at the start of your teaching career so don’t be afraid to ask for advice and guidance. Your induction tutor and mentor including other colleagues and SLT are there for support. Make sure you take advantage of that support and experience to enhance your development – don’t think you have to go it alone !

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