Aquila are working in partnership with Best Practice Network to deliver the Early Career Development Programme for the Kent area. Schools can now register to enrol their Early Career Teachers starting in September.

What is the Early Career Development Programme?

From September 2021, the government has been funding an entitlement for all early career teachers in England to access high-quality professional development at the start of their career with a view to greater teacher support and retention. Best Practice Network is one of six Lead Providers delivering the Early Career Framework nationwide.

New teachers receive development support and training over 2 years instead of one, underpinned by the ECF. The offer for early career teachers includes:

• 2 years of funded, high-quality training
• Funding for 5% time away from the classroom for teachers in their second year
• A dedicated mentor and support for these mentors including access to funded high-quality training
• Funding to cover mentors’ time with the mentee in the second year of teaching

Registering your ECTs and Mentors

In order to access ECF training provided locally with Aquila and Best Practice Network:

1. Access the DfE online service to input your Early Career Teacher and Mentor details https://manage-training-for-early-career-teachers.education.gov.uk/
2. If you are changing Lead Provider, from another Lead Provider to Best Practice Network, you will be prompted with instructions of what to do within the DfE online service

If you are changing Lead Provider you will also need to register your school with Best Practice Network here

N.B. If registering your school with Best Practice Network, make sure you select Aquila from the drop-down list of Delivery Providers to ensure your school is linked correctly.

ECF Schools Dashboard

Don’t forget to utilise your ECF School Dashboard! The School Dashboard is a user-friendly way for Headteachers and Induction Tutors to find and view key information about their ECTs and Mentors.

Key benefits include

• Monitor ECT / Mentor registrations and information
• ECT / mentor programme schedules to support with engagement, workload planning and staff cover
• Make changes to participant details
• Access the latest newsletters, policies and guidance
• Monitor ECT and mentor progress and attendance (from Sept 22)

To find out more about the School Dashboard please visit https://www.bestpracticenet.co.uk/news/our-ecf-dashboards-explained

All Induction Tutors are also granted access to our Virtual Learning Environment which provides a detailed and interactive view of their ECT / mentor learning.

For comprehensive answers to frequently asked questions, have a quick look through our ECF Frequently Asked Questions. If you have any other questions please email the dedicated ECF participant support team at ecf@bestpracticenet.co.uk who will be happy to help.

 

In addition to the offer above - Both Kent TSH and Thames Gateway TSH offer ECF based induction as part of their DfE designation as Teaching School Hubs.  Information on both offers is included below: 

 

Thames Gateway Teaching School Hub and Education Development Trust

The Thames Gateway Teaching School Hub is proud to partner with the Education Development Trust for the delivery of the Early Career Framework Full Induction Programme.

Education Development Trust have worked closely with schools and with the Sheffield Institute of Education, part of Sheffield Hallam University to develop this evidence-led programme to ensure it is based on what really works and how pupils learn.

Early Career Teachers will be provided with opportunities to learn the theory, put theory into practice, and reflect on personal and professional development with the support of their mentor. Activities include:

• Face-to-face and webinar sessions with expert input from specialist organisations, exploring effective classroom practice across settings, phases and specialisms.
• Regional and local training sessions.
• Regular mentoring sessions centring around the benefits of Instructional Coaching and exploring content with a focus on learning, practising, and reflecting.
• Opportunities for reflection and discussion as well as carefully timed self-study.
• A state of the art online platform to support Tutors, Mentors and ECT's throughout their 2-year Induction.

Excellent mentoring will be key to the success of the ECF initiative. This Programme is centred around developing the mentor relationship and includes a focussed learning pathway for mentors that is realistic in its expectations.

Registering your ECTs and Mentors with Thames Gateway

In order to access ECF training provided locally with Thames Gateway and Education Development Trust. Please follow the steps listed in this linked document:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1X1MpTSyH62h8lhtXrqyIzYJDB12yifrn_Q6GghcymT8/edit?usp=sharing

To find out more about our offer please visit https://thamesgatewaytsh.org.uk/ or email enquiries@tgtsh.org.uk.

 

    

Kent Teaching School Hub and Ambition Institute

As a school led centre of excellence the Kent Teaching School Hub has chosen to partner with Ambition Institute to offer our free, two year full ECF programme. We believe Ambition provides an exceptionally well sequenced, rich, and high quality curriculum which has been well established since it’s pilot in 2019.

Schools are supported with:

• An online platform which guides ECTs and mentors through a curriculum based on the best available evidence, from internationally recognised effective practice. Full access to research literature is provided, should ECTs and mentors want to look further into some of the areas of study.
• A balanced programme which is manageable for early career teachers and their mentors . We offer a blend of face to face, virtual support and flexible weekly learning through the market leading Steplab platform.

• Mentor training in adopting an instructional coaching approach. This is designed to support ECT’s to apply insights from their learning into classroom practice.
• A flexible approach to live event attendance. This gives ECTs and mentors a choice in which locations and dates for training events. Such an approach allowed 95% live event attendance for ECTs in January 2022.
• A fully supportive team of teachers and administrators at Kent Teaching School Hub who are on hand to support ECTs, mentors and their schools. We will gladly provide additional school support if required.
• Option to use our integrated Appropriate Body (AB) service

To find out more about our ECF and AB offer visit our website email info@ktsh.org.uk or register directly here