Welcome
Hello! And welcome to our second newsletter just for Induction Coordinators. Please read on for some important updates.
Clinics this half term for your mentors and ECTs
We have separate mentor and ECT twilight online ‘clinics’ running this half term. These are follow-up training which builds on conferences attended and will strengthen mentor practice and ECT teaching practice. Mentors and ECTs will work in small groups. Attendance is a requirement of the funded programme.
We’ve previously shared the dates of the clinics (specific to your school) with you as induction coordinator. Your mentors and ECTs have been invited via the MyAmbition platform. Please ensure that they use their MyAmbition account to RSVP to confirm their attendance. In event that something (illness or emergency) occurs on the day to prevent attendance, a recording will be shared and participants expected to catch up using it.
Coaching on Coaching for Mentors
An extra layer of training for your mentors this half term is 1-2-1 coaching on their instructional coaching technique from one of our trained facilitators. Instructional coaching is a powerful way to improve a teacher’s practice, and we know that it takes ongoing support to develop a coach’s (i.e. your school mentor(s)) understanding and effectiveness. The ‘coaching on coaching’ we are providing was cited as ‘essential’ and ‘transformative’ last year by mentors who participated on the early roll-out of the programme, many of whom are now applying their skills to help raise standards across their schools and trusts.
Please nudge your mentors to book a slot with their assigned facilitator via MyAmbition. Our facilitators are currently being trained on this aspect of support and bookings with them open on 18 November.
Your mentor should not worry about recording themselves leading a ECT meeting at this stage: we want to support mentors to access the programme, and we have a plan for coaching on coaching which requires no preparation for mentors and which we anticipate most mentors using for this first round.
Supporting and hearing from you as coordinators
The ECT Programme is rigorously designed, and yet we know that you may be feeling confused by certain aspects of it, or wanting to feed back positives and negatives about your school’s experience of it so far. We’ll therefore be hosting a zoom drop-in on 18 November, 4-5pm. Please click here to sign up. This is not a formal event, but an opportunity to touch base with you, share experiences and get feedback
As ever, thank you for all you're doing to make our ECTs feel welcome and supported in the profession.
The Julian Teaching School Hub
