Welcome

Hello! And welcome to the final newsletter of the year – we made it! And much more importantly, our ECTs made it! Huge congratulations to everybody completing their induction at the end of this term: you worked so hard, learned so much, and we are so proud of you.

And to those of you who have worked so tirelessly to support our ECTs, we see you and we appreciate you.

BREAKING NEWS!

You may have seen that the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has released its guide to inclusive teaching. We unpack what's in it in the blog post in the feed below.

And finally... 

I'd like to thank the incredible JTSH team who work tirelessly to support our ECTs, mentors, induction tutors, NPQ participants, and each other. Ben, Emma, Kate, Lucy, Ana, Maya, and Jen: you're the best.

Keep in touch

You can follow us on Bluesky and LinkedIn, sign up to receive this newsletter - or just drop us an email.

Spotlight on... Help the EEF answer a key question about writing instruction in KS2

There's still time for primary schools to take part in a fully funded trial comparing two approaches to re-teaching sentence combining in years 3 and 4. The trial will generate evidence on whether sentence combining is more effective when taught explicitly, or through metacognitive guidance.

Participating schools will deliver short, structured re-teaching sessions from January to April 2027, with one year 3 class and one year 4 class randomly assigned to each approach.

All resources are provided and schools will receive £200 for completing evaluation activities, plus a further £100 if they host an in-person visit.

To be eligible, a school must be a state-funded primary school with at least 20 pupils in each participating year 3 and 4 class.

Find out more.

Focus on... the NPQ in Leading Literacy

With a new national curriculum on the way, and many schools introducing new reading and/or writing frameworks, now is a great time to make sure that your literacy lead is well versed in the latest evidence-informed practice and implementation. Enter the NPQLL!

Suitable for anyone leading or aspiring to lead literacy in their school – in any subject – the NPQLL will help them become an expert leader of literacy and learn its importance in enabling young people to reach their full potential.

Participants will learn how:

• To support staff, of all subject specialisms, to develop pupils’ language and literacy skills
• Pupils develop aspects of literacy, including how children learn to talk, how effective spoken language supports literacy development at every age, how children learn to become fluent readers and how teachers can support this across every stage, and explore the importance of subject-specific vocabulary and different strategies to teaching this
• To support pupils' writing – whether learning to write in primary school, through to writing academically at key stage five
• Support, develop and teach pupils literacy using evidence-informed approaches
• Lead literacy through curriculum, culture and motivation
• Effective literacy education can support your school
• To contribute to effective professional development for literacy, linking it to teaching, the curriculum and assessment across the school.

Find out more about all the NPQs – including how to apply – here.

Focus on... Registering September starters

You can find our six simple steps for registering September starters in the news feed below. We also have a few top tips:

• If you haven't managed to get everyone registered and you're panicking because it's the end of term: it's fine! Induction is a two-year process, and your ECT(s) won't be at all disadvantaged if you leave it until the start of next term. You certainly won't be the only one.
• Make sure your induction tutor and your mentor have enough time to be effective in their role: this provides the best start possible for early career teachers.
• You can see below what's expected of ECTs in the first half term - keep a copy of this somewhere you can refer back to.