Two in five early career teachers (ECTs) say they have learned “very little” from the framework designed to support new teachers, according to a new report published today.
And the report, compiled by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation, concludes that it is doubtful that the Early Career Framework can introduce new content that goes beyond that covered in initial teacher training courses.
Meanwhile, school leaders have warned that the two-year framework will not improve retention of ECTs “if they are so overwhelmed” by workload. Most of the more than 400 ECTs surveyed by Teacher Tapp for the report said the ECF has added to their workload.
In addition to ECTs, 600 ECF mentors and 2,000 senior leaders were surveyed for the report. Two-thirds of new teachers said they had skipped at least some of the programme.
The ECF, launched in 2021, aims for ECTs to be mentored on a one-to-one basis in order to “improve support for early career teachers” and, therefore, retention.
However, concerns have been raised over the workload that the ECF creates for ECTs and their mentors.
Early Career Framework ‘covers material already taught’
Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of first-year ECTs surveyed for the report said the ECF training added to their workload, with this figure rising to 70 per cent for second-year ECTs.
And most warned that the framework covers material they’ve already been taught.
“This holds true even for those mentees in their second year of the ECF, raising doubts about the programme’s ability to introduce new content that extends beyond that encountered during initial teacher training,” the report says.
It calls for a review of the training provided by the ECF after 10 per cent of ECTs said they would opt out of the entire framework if it wasn’t mandatory.
The report notes that a lack of specialist materials provided as part of the framework is a “recurring criticism”, adding that only 3 per cent of secondary ECTs surveyed said the self-study materials are specialised to their subject or phase.
The report also calls for an improvement in the scheduling of time for the ECF for secondary ECTs, after more than four in 10 said their department did not successfully prioritise a timetabling allocation that best suited the least experienced teachers.
However, the report highlights that this feeling could be stronger among those in the second year of the ECT, as it “may be this group now has a strong understanding of which classes they would be best suited to teach”.
ECTs are allocated an 80 per cent timetable load during their first two years, compared with 90 per cent for experienced teachers.
Workload ‘enormously concerning’
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said it is “enormously concerning that schools are finding the additional workload from the ECF so debilitating”.
“One of the key aims of this new system is to improve retention of early career teachers. That obviously won’t happen if they are so overwhelmed in their first two years,” he said.
Mr Whiteman called for “further and immediate action to create additional flexibility in the programme”.
He added that the report “underlines the need to return to the original and agreed intention of the ECF”.
Last March, Robin Walker, who was schools minister at the time, wrote to schools to set out changes to the ECF, admitting that the scheme needed “more flexibility” and promising that the DfE was “making improvements”.
He said that to “help” with the implementation, the DfE would be “reviewing materials to make them as user-friendly as possible”. It was also making changes to ease the transfer to the ECF.
And in March of this year, the Department for Education launched a consultation on the ECF and initial teacher training (ITT) curriculums, amid ongoing criticism of the ECF.
Marie Hamer MBE, executive director of strategy and impact at Ambition Institute, said that the views of ECTs are ”incredibly important”.
Ms Hamer added the Gatsby report findings should be treated with caution as “responses to this survey had sample sizes as small as 69 teachers in some cases, while 100,000 ECTs and their mentors have engaged with the framework since it was first rolled out”.
She said that a survey commissioned by Ambition and carried out by YouGov of over 1,000 teachers found that “three times as many agreed as disagreed” when asked whether the ECF was worth their time investment.
”What’s important is that we keep listening to teachers and improving the training they receive, which is exactly our aim with the 27,000 ECTs and mentors we’re working with this year,” she added.
A DfE spokesperson said that the ECF “provides the solid foundations for a successful career in teaching”.
They added: “Recent findings from an independent evaluation of the ECF induction shows that many ECTs are pleased with the quality of training they receive.
“We are listening to teachers and working with them to address issues such as workload, including through development of a workload reduction toolkit.”
