Teachers will be guaranteed a 5 per cent timetable cut during their second year in the profession for additional support and training, the DfE has pledged.
The DfE’s Early Career Framework (ECF), which will be published today as part of its teacher recruitment and retention strategy, sets out the training that early careers teachers will be entitled to by the end of an extended two-year induction period.
The department says it will “fully fund the national roll-out of the early career reforms in September 2021, as our top priority to support early career retention and to support teacher quality”.
By the time the new system is fully in place, the department anticipates investing “at least an additional £130 million every year to support ECF delivery in full”
The DfE has committed to “funding and guaranteeing 5 per cent off timetable in the second year of teaching for all early career teachers”.
Currently, early career teachers have fewer teaching hours and get formal support from their school during their first year of teaching.
Support for early-career teachers
Last year, research published by the DfE found that new teachers faces a “shock” in their second year when they are expected to move to a full timetable.
Other commitments in today’s document setting out the ECF include:
- Creating high-quality, freely available curricula and training materials;
- Establishing full high-quality ECF training programmes;
- Funding time for mentors to support early careers teachers; and
- Fully funded mentor training.
The framework aims to support the development of teachers early in their careers in five key areas: behaviour management, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and professional behaviours.
The DfE stressed that the framework was not an extra assessment for new teachers.
It said that during its consultation, heads and teachers were extremely clear that “the early career framework reforms must be firmly and exclusively about an entitlement to additional support and training - it must not be, or appear to be, an additional burden or an assessment of early career teachers”.
In its briefing, the DfE said it was “committing clearly” to this, and as well as confirming that the reforms would not negatively affect the pay of early career teachers.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT headteachers’ union, said: “Teaching is a hugely rewarding career, but the first few years can often be challenging.
“The Early Career Framework has the potential to transform the reality of teaching in England.
“Delivered well, this programme of mentoring and support will help new teachers to build their confidence and hone their skills, providing the foundations for a successful career in teaching, and creating the school leaders of the future.”
The Chartered College of Teaching, which helped to develop the framework, said it believed that it “is rooted firmly both in the evidence of what works, but more importantly in the evidence of what is needed”.
