If you're an early career teacher (ECT), you'll know that each term your induction tutor is expected to conduct a lesson observation and write a report on your progress as a teacher. They are asked if you are on track to meet all the teachers' standards by the end of your induction period. Most of the time, their answer will be a resounding yes.

But what if it isn't? It may be that there's just one part of your practice that you haven't mastered yet. It may be that you've been unwell, or one of your classes has some tricky behaviour. Whatever the reason, your induction tutor has judged that you are not quite showing the progress they'd like. 

So what happens next? Well, your induction tutor must get in touch with your appropriate body (AB) to discuss a personal support plan (PSP) for you. A personal support plan is not a punishment. A PSP is designed to upskill you in a specific area, via extra training, mentoring, or other support. A PSP is time-limited, and at the end of the designated period you will be observed again. You will either be taken off the PSP, as you have demonstrated that you are back on track, or another plan will be discussed with you.

Your PSP will be created by your school in collaboration with your appropriate body. Your AB will then get in touch with you to see if you would like to discuss it further. Remember that the role of the AB is to quality assure your induction: this means making sure that you're receiving all your entitlements under the early career framework, and that you are being assessed fairly by your school. Please be honest with your AB if you have concerns – they are there to help you.

Common PSP misconceptions:

• If my school puts me on a PSP, it means I'm going to fail my induction.
  • Absolutely not! The vast majority of ECTs who are given personal support plans go on to successfully complete their induction on time. 
• If my school puts me on a PSP, it means they want me to resign.
  • No! They want you to succeed and become the best possible teacher. You just need a little more help in one area.
• If I'm put on a PSP at the end of year one, it means I've failed that year.
  • Nope. You don't pass or fail any point in your induction before the end of year 2. You bank every completed term of induction regardless of whether you're deemed on track or not.
• If my contract finishes before the end of my induction, I won't be able to get another job if I've been on a PSP.
  • Again, no! As an AB, we've seen plenty of ECTs move between schools with or without having had a PSP. 

If you're still worried, keep in touch with your AB. If that's the Julian TSH, you can get in touch at any time.

What is meant by reducing an induction period?

Since 2021, every early career teacher (ECT) in England is required to serve a two-year induction period working in a school after they have attained qualified teacher status (QTS). The two-year induction entitlement is underpinned by the Early Career Framework (ECF), which sets out what ECTs are expected to learn about and learn how to do.

An induction period may be reduced to less than the full two years in certain circumstances. It is rare that the induction period would be reduced to less than one year.

Being signed off in a year? That sounds great!

Yes and no. True, you will have fewer formal lesson observations and fewer reports, but you will also be giving up significant advantages:

• Reduced teaching timetable – 10% reduction in year one and 5% reduction in year two in addition to your regular PPA time.
• Regular mentoring – weekly in year one and fortnightly in year two – from an experienced colleague who has been specially trained to support ECTs.
• Access to high-quality learning based on the best and most up-to-date evidence of what makes good teaching, quality assured by the Education Endowment Foundation.
• Support from your Appropriate Body (AB) – expert leaders who are there to support your induction and ensure that your school is fulfilling their obligations to you.

My school think I'm doing really well and want me to serve a reduced induction.

That's great! But if you're doing well now, you'll be doing even better after the full two years of training and support. Only agree to a reduced induction if you're absolutely sure it's what you want, and that you understand what support you'll be giving up. You can speak to your AB if you're unsure.

Can any ECT have a reduced induction?

Not really. The DfE's Induction for Early Career Teachers Statutory Guidance says, "Reductions should only be considered where an ECT has extensive prior experience of teaching whole-classes to the Teachers’ Standards."

Your Appropriate Body will ask for evidence of extensive (generally 2+ years) prior teaching experience and evidence that your teaching already meets the Teachers' Standards. As this prior teaching must be of whole classes, generally this will apply to ECTs who qualified via the assessment only route.

An AB may also consider a 'technical' reduction to the induction period where an ECT working part-time has completed two calendar years of teaching and is meeting the Teachers' Standards.

I did the assessment only (AO) route to QTS and my school wants my induction signed off early – but I'd really like the full two years of formal learning.

That's absolutely your right! If you're concerned that by doing the AO route you've missed out on the formal learning part of initial teacher training, you might want access to the full two years of induction support. The statutory guidance says that "If a teacher wishes to serve the full induction period, they must be permitted to do so." Your AB will support you in this.

I've thought about it, and I'm happy that a reduced induction is the right thing for me – what do I do now?

Great! Your school should contact your AB to discuss this. Your induction tutor and/or Headteacher will be asked to complete an application form that you will also need to sign. If your AB is happy with the evidence presented, they will agree a provisional induction end date with you and the school. 

Remember that this is not a guarantee that you will pass induction early: at the provisional end date, you will still need to demonstrate that you meet the Teachers' Standards via a formal lesson observation and final assessment report. Your AB makes the final decision and could still ask that you extend your induction back to the full two years.

There are plenty of reasons why an ECT might move schools partway through their induction: fixed-term contracts; maternity cover; finding a new job closer to home; and so on. Or sometimes the first school you work in might not be a good fit - there can be lots of reasons for this, and it doesn't mean you or the school have done anything wrong. Or maybe your circumstances change, and you can't work for a while. None of these things need to derail your induction permanently, and there are things you can do to make sure you have everything you need for your new school.

Interim assessments

When you leave a job during induction, your school must complete an interim assessment for your AB. This is exactly the same as an end-of-year assessment report: more detailed than a progress review, with explicit reference to all the Teachers' Standards. If you're leaving part-way through the school year, your end-of-term progress review will be converted automatically to an interim assessment when your induction tutor indicates that you are leaving the school. We strongly recommend that you engage fully with the assessment process. Your next school will receive copies of all of your progress reviews and assessment reports; do make sure that you're happy with what's written in them, and add your own comments for further context. 

• I've had to leave my post suddenly and won't be back in school, what do I do?
  • If you can, please do complete your part of the report and digitally sign it. You can change your email address via ECT Manager if you no longer have access to your school email account. In extremely extenuating circumstances, your AB can override the need for your signature and finalise the report in your absence, but we don't recommend this unless it is truly unavoidable.
• I don't have another job lined up, what happens now?
  • Your reviews and reports remain with your AB. When you join a new school, your new AB will need copies of these: you can download and keep them yourself, or make a note of who your AB is and how to contact them. If you don't have your reports and don't remember who your old AB was, don't worry - your new AB will be able to find the information and request the reports directly. Do bear in mind that this may delay the resumption of your induction.
• I won't be returning to teaching, do I really need to worry about this?
  • Never say never. We totally understand that you may change your mind about your career and that's fine! But there isn't a time limit within which you must complete induction so it may be worth keeping your options open.

Leaving in less-than-amicable circumstances

It happens, we know this. Hopefully you and your school have accessed all the support available from your AB - but sometimes a clean break is the most beneficial solution. Again: we strongly recommend that you engage fully with the assessment process. Always remember that your next employer will read the interim assessment: when you add your comments, be factual about any challenges and how you approached solving them.

• I don't agree with what my school has written in my interim assessment, can I refuse to sign it?
  • You can - but your next school will see that you haven't signed it. We recommend that, instead, you add your own comments to contextualise the situation. Stick to the facts.
• I was on a personal support plan (PSP) when I left, do I have to tell my next school?
  • Your PSP will form part of the documentation shared with your new school. We recommend being honest from the start.

Saving your progress

Obviously the terms of induction you've already completed are banked and documented by your AB - they can't be taken away from you. We also recommend that you save the evidence of what you have studied in your ECT induction training programme: this can be really useful whether or not your next school is following the same provider's programme. You can download your portfolio from StepLab - this is a list of the modules completed - or you can download and save the content of the modules for future reference.

You've got this

Starting a new job is always daunting, especially early in your career. The beauty of the ECF-based induction programme is that it standardises the induction process, meaning that you know what to expect in your new school. Keep engaging with the programme, keep in touch with your AB, and you'll be fine.

As an AB, we work most closely with school induction tutors (ITs): communicating key dates, answering questions, and generally assisting them in their vital role of supporting early career teacher induction in their schools.

We want to make sure that induction tutors have everything they need to perform this important role. Therefore, as you will have seen when you signed our service level agreement, we offer a comprehensive training package, delivered asynchronously, so that ITs can access the most relevant content at the appropriate time for them.

The training is delivered in four parts, all taking under 20 minutes of your precious time:

• Getting started
• Monitoring, support, and assessment of ECTs
• Making judgements on ECTs' progress
• Reduction to the induction term.

Get started here.

Appropriate bodies are tasked by the DfE with quality assuring the two-year ITTECF-based induction. The statutory induction guidance says that the AB should "assure itself that:

• Headteachers/principals (and governing bodies where appropriate) are aware of and are capable of meeting their responsibilities for monitoring support and assessment. This includes checking that an ECT receives a programme of training and support based on the ITTECF, a designated induction tutor and mentor with the appropriate skills and experience, and the reduced timetable and
• The monitoring, support, assessment and guidance procedures in place are fair and appropriate."

One of the ways we do this is via a visit to the school. There are several reasons why we might select your school to visit:

• Random! At the start of the school year, we look at the schools signed up to our service and select a certain number to visit at random – generally schools we haven't visited before.
• If your school is new to our service, or has not had an ECT for a few years. This visit will be to help your school make sure everything is in place to set your ECT up for success.
• If your school has a large number of ECTs at any one time. We'll come and see you to make sure nobody is overwhelmed, and that your induction tutor(s) have the time and resources to perform their role effectively. We can also share hints and tips to keep things running smoothly.
• If your ECT is struggling. Induction isn't guaranteed to run without a hitch, however experienced your induction tutor may be. Not all schools with ECTs on a personal support plan (PSP) will be visited, but some will.
• If we have concerns about the quality of induction at your school. This is by far the rarest type of visit.

School visits are always supportive in nature, not judgemental. We want schools, induction tutors, mentors and ECTs to have as positive an induction experience as possible.

What happens on a school visit?

Once we have selected your school for a visit, we will email you to arrange a suitable date and time – your school will have plenty of notice; we're not Ofsted. We will suggest a schedule and let you know who we'd like to speak with. A typical visit will include:

• Initial meeting with the Induction Tutor 
• Individual meetings with ECT(s) 
• Individual meetings with mentor(s) 
• Time for AB representative(s) to collate their notes 
• Final meeting with Induction Tutor and Headteacher to report our findings.

If you have multiple ECTs and mentors, we may not need to see them all. There may be more than one representative of the AB in attendance (e.g. to allow more efficient note-taking) but your designated AB lead will definitely be there. We won't ask for lots of preparation: we have no desire to add to your workload! The visit should take up to half a day.

After the visit, we will send your school our report. This will include:

• An overview of the school, its ECTs, and their progress so far, to provide context for the visit.
• Strengths noted by the AB.
• Recommendations for actions the school could take.
• Any required follow up.

For the majority of school visits, we won't need to visit again. We may request a short virtual meeting to follow up with the induction tutor.

We hope this demystifies the process!