Five commonly asked questions by Early Career Teachers (ECTs)
Picture the scene – a university recruitment fair, with all sorts of organisations attending, manning their stalls and giving away freebies… get to the education section, and you’ll find representatives from the neighbouring Local Authorities, trying to get trainee teachers interested in working in their schools…
Occasionally, you’ll get an original question from someone who wants to stand out from the crowd – this breaks the day up for you – but most of the time, you’ll be answering the same questions from individual or small groups ; there’s nothing wrong at all with this, but it just goes to show how little information is out there for ECTs to access.
In this article, we will share the five questions that most ECTs want answers to.
How long do I have to complete my induction?
The simple answer is ‘As long as you need…’ – whilst the DfE’s stance is that ECTs should complete induction as soon as practically possible after gaining Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), there is nothing that says you have to start your induction within a set timeframe, nor is there anything that says that you have to complete your induction within a set time of beginning it.
You have to complete at least the length of a school term (September to December, for example) for the time served to count towards your induction but – once you’ve done that – any time completed at that school will be ‘banked’ if you leave; you won’t need to reserve that part on your induction somewhere else.
The only time-bound stipulation around induction is that you can only teach in short-term supply positions for five years from the date of award of QTS; after that time, you will need to complete your induction, by working in permanent or longer-term supply positions, if you then want to return to short-term supply work.
What will my starting salary be?
At the time of writing this article, the pay scales for the 2024-2025 academic year have not been finalised, so we’ll use the current 2023-2024 academic year pay scales for this section.
For those working in maintained schools (as opposed to academies), the Main Pay Scale – the entry point for teachers – is a six-point scale (unoriginally called M1 to M6), and this scale differs whether you teach in Inner London, Outer London, ‘The Fringe’ (the Local Authorities neighbouring the Outer London area) or the rest of England.
Lambeth is one of the Inner London Local Authorities, so teachers in our schools receive the highest of the four Main Scale bands.
M1 | £36745 |
M2 | £38491 |
M3 | £40318 |
M4 | £42233 |
M5 | £44615 |
M6 | £46001 |
For those working in academies, these pay scales do not have to be followed and the academy or Trust will set their own pay scales.
Whether you work in a maintained school or an academy, you will usually begin the first year of your teaching career on point M1 or its equivalent – however, if you feel that you can demonstrate that you bring specific and relevant experience to your position (perhaps from a previous profession), and the school agrees with this, then there can be negotiation for the starting salary to be higher on the Main Pay Scale.
How many hours should I be teaching during my induction?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a nice, tidy answer to this question – we can’t say ‘You should be teaching for 25 hours per week’ or anything like that…
The answer we can give is that, in the first year of induction, an ECT should receive the following:
In the second year of induction, the 10% PPA reduction remains in place, but the induction-based activity reduction decreases from 10% to 5%
In total, this means that an ECT in Year One of their induction should be ‘off-timetable’ for one day each week, and a Year Two ECT should be ‘off-timetable for three-quarters of a day each week.
Hope this helps – sorry we can’t be more specific…
What are the roles of my Induction Tutor and Induction Mentor?
An Induction Tutor will monitor and support you during induction.
They will conduct regular observations, progress reviews and two formal assessment meetings with you - one at the end of Year One and one at the end of Year Two.
An Induction Mentor will make sure that you receive a high quality induction training programme.
They will meet regularly with you to provide support and feedback and take prompt, appropriate action if you are experiencing difficulties.
If your school uses a Provider-led training programme for their ECTs, your Induction Mentor may also be asked to observe you; this will be for professional development purposes and must not be used as part of any formal assessment process.
Schools should try to choose two different people to act as Induction Tutor and Induction Mentor, as the two roles have quite separate and different responsibilities.
Do I have to pass the training element of my induction to successfully complete induction?
In a word, ‘No’…
The Early Career Framework-based training you undertake (however you do it; a Provider-led programme, a school-led programme using approved materials or a school-led, built-from-scratch programme) is a support package, and is not designed to be an assessment tool.
You will not be tested on your learning from the programme, nor will you have to complete any written assignments – your learning from the programme will be ‘tested’ by how well you implement it in your day-to-day teaching practice, demonstrating your progress towards meeting the Teachers’ Standards at the end of your induction, by your induction Tutor as part of your ongoing Progress Review and assessment processes.
Whilst you do not have to ‘pass’ or ‘complete’ a training programme, you do need to engage with a training programme as part of your induction.
We hope this helps with the most common questions asked…