This portal from the School of Education is a one-stop shop providing guidance, support, a range of resources, and continuing professional development for all early career teachers (ECTs) in this stage of training.
Teachers are the foundation of the education system – there are no great schools without great teachers. Teachers deserve high quality support throughout their careers, particularly in those first years of teaching.
DfE 2019
Students graduating from an initial teacher training (ITT) course at St Mary's and other providers become an early career teacher (ECT) when they accept their first position.
Your school is responsible for registering you as an ECT and appointing your mentor to provide you with the entitlement for two years of CPD, which is underpinned by the by the Early Career Framework. The framework is linked to the best available research evidence, to help early career teachers develop their practice, knowledge, and working habits.
The following provision will complement and build on the ECT training programme in your school at a time when your learning curve is at its steepest.
The ECT Exchange
The ECT Exchange is a community network where knowledge, resources, expertise, and experiences are shared between ECTs, experts, and practitioners. We welcome all ECTs from the primary and secondary phases across mainstream, independent, and SEND settings. You do not need to be St Mary's alumni to join the ECT Exchange.
We are proud to host online meetings every half term for early career teachers to receive CPD, engage in professional dialogue, and share their experiences. These meetings are specifically designed for ECTs across phases and provide easy to implement strategies for key elements of the Early Career Framework including managing behaviour and adaptive teaching, as well as practical support on settling into a new role, and managing your own wellbeing and workload.
Join the ECT Exchange
Upcoming sessions
The next online ECT Exchange CPD session will be at 4pm on 27th June 2024, where you can learn from our expert Juliette Claro (ECF Facilitator, NPQSL) on the theme of effective planning for assessment and feedback.
Secure your place
We are also looking forward to welcoming Professor Anna Lise Gordon and Jenny Murray for a session focusing on the value of ongoing professional learning and its impact on a teacher's wellbeing. Date to be confirmed.
Previous sessions
This year, the ECT Exchange has hosted sessions focusing on:
- behaviour for learning with Pietro Tozzi (Course Lead PGCE Secondary Mathematics with QTS)
- wellbeing in the classroom with Jenny Murray (Senior Lecturer at St Mary's and author of Wellbeing: 100 ideas for primary teachers)
- adaptive teaching with Clare Martin (Course Lead NaSENCO).
Please contact Becky Knowles (ectexchange@stmarys.ac.uk) for any further information.
More resources for ECTs