Welcome

Hello! And welcome to our final newsletter of this academic year.

While we lucky souls break up for the holidays today, we know some of you will be slogging on into next week - you have our deepest sympathy.

In this newsletter, you can read about how we have updated how we will deliver the ECT programme ready for September; find out how Norfolk Research School has been working with schools in Fenland on high-quality talk in the early years; and we remind you what you need to do if you have employed an ECT for September.

BREAKING NEWS!

We have finalised our training dates for ECTs, mentors, and induction tutors next term:

• 11, 15, 16 September, all day, face to face: Mentor conference 1 (for mentors new to the ECT programme).
• 18, 23, 24 September, all day, face to face: ECT conference 1 (for ECTs starting their induction in September).
• 22 September, 2-4pm, online: Induction Tutor training (for new induction tutors, or those who would like a refresher)
• 25 September, 4-4.45, online: Welcome to your Appropriate Body (for ECTs newly registered with the Julian TSH AB service).

To find out how to book onto any of these sessions, please email us.

And finally...

We're all a bit tired and emotional at the end of a school year, and as we look back on 2024-25 we can't help but be incredibly grateful for your continued support and friendship - not just for ourselves, but for all the ECTs, mentors, and NPQ participants to whom our schools make such a difference. While the TSH team works on these programmes every day, we know that in schools much of what is demanded by NPQs or the ECT programme is an add-on to the enormous day job of educating the children in our communities. So, as ever, we see you, we appreciate you, and we thank you.

Have a wonderful summer when it comes!

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... still no NPQ news :-(

We were sincerely and desperately hoping that we would be able to let you know about NPQ funding by now, but despite us increasingly frantically refreshing the gov.uk page approximately every 5 minutes for the past three days, there is still no update.

We do know that there will be a cohort beginning in November 2025, but other than that, there has been a resounding silence from DfE.

We will continue with our so-far fruitless clicking of the reload button, and will let you know as soon as we know anything more.

In the meantime, please complete our 1-minute survey to let us know which NPQs your school would like us to offer next year - we really want to make sure that whatever happens, we do our best to provide what is most needed in our region.

Thank you for your patience!!

Focus on... Living our values

As a teaching school hub, we believe strongly in our values; as a team, we return to them regularly, measuring our performance against them.

This year, our Acting Deputy Director and ECF Lead Emma Newby demonstrated a "relentless focus on professional development"; "learning and growth for all"; and "fidelity with intelligent adaptation" when she took a close look at the ECT programme and wondered if we could improve the way we delivered it. Spoiler: we could!

You can read about the improvements Emma put in place in the blog post in the feed below - but it's not really fair to give her all the credit. 

We really are fortunate to have a team of incredible Teaching School Hub Officers: efficient, organised, and - most importantly - empathetic, Ana, Jenifer, and Maya are the true superstars of the Hub and without their expert support all of our good ideas would have to stay in our heads. 

Focus on... Norfolk Research School's Great Talking Partnership

This year, Norfolk Research School has been part of an EEF-funded partnership project focusing on tackling early language and communication challenges in rural schools.

Great Talking is a collaboration with the East Cambs and Fenland Evidence Network, a school-led network developed as part of the legacy of the Opportunity Areas initiative. Many of the established evidence advocates, who were already deployed as school-to-school support in the area, joined the project and co-constructed the partnership along with local authority and MAT representatives.

The Great Talking programme combines online training, group coaching, and structured networking and professional dialogue. 

You can read more about the project here, and here you can read a brilliant blog about child-led play in EYFS.

Reminder: Getting ready for September

Schools should register their ECTs and mentors on the ECTE programme via the following steps:

1. Let your ECTE programme provider know that you wish to register with them – they will need to contact DfE and let them know. Find out more about the Julian TSH ECTE programme here. 
2. Choose your Appropriate Body (AB) and let them know that you wish to register with them. If you wish to join the Julian TSH AB, please contact us to request a service level agreement.
3. Identify your induction tutor and make sure they have access to the DfE online service, Manage Training for Early Career Teachers.
4. Register your ECT(s) and their mentor(s) on Manage Training for Early Career Teachers. Your school’s induction tutor should do this; they will be asked to specify your chosen AB and your chosen ECTE training programme.
5. When your chosen AB confirms you can do so, register your ECT(s) on ECT Manager. Induction cannot begin until you have done this, and your AB has authorised the registration.
6. Your chosen ECTE training provider will receive the information that you have entered on Manage Training for Early Career Teachers and will send you an email with next steps.

Registration on the DfE online service opens on Monday 16 June for the first wave of schools. Your school will receive an email from DfE inviting you to register; all schools will receive this email by 30 June.

Find out more about ECTE '25 here.

If you run out of time to complete your ECT registration this term - don't panic! It's absolutely fine to do this in September: induction is a marathon, not a sprint and nobody will be disadvantaged by a week or so's delay.