ECT no proper support, failing

[sv99]

Today i was out of class for PPA and ECT time, when i came back to my class deputy head and Assistant head of eyfs was waiting - they told me they need to have a meeting with me.

Deputy head started by saying that I am not meeting some teaching standards and that my ECT review is coming up - and that I need to make sure i meet them before my review. They were both picking on my classroom sayign 'pen lids are not on" I wasnt even in class. They recently changed my mentor - after 7 months and told me its because my old mentor is part time and is not able to support me. on top they gave me a consultant teachet to improve my classroom behaviour management - as a i have a very challenging EAL class - even the consultant teacher who came in realised that my class is very challenging.

My intial mentor was part time from wednesday to thursday - and only was able to observe me for 10 mins each time and we missed many meetings as they couldnt give us cover and this time wasnt every given back to us.

There is so much more to the story.

has anyone had anything similar ?

Are you in an union? You need to speak to them (not your school rep) urgently.
You cannot fail at this stage - you can be identified at not on track and you should then be put on a support plan, but they have failed in their responsibility towards you if you've not had the allocated time.
Do you have a contact at the appropriate body?

Hi, I am with a union - in the meeting i started crying and couldnt say much - so i sent them a big email earlier after the meeting. Does failing 1 review mean i failed my ECT year? they expect us to meet in our own time afterschool or before school - they gave me a new mentor and she had to go to a trip today so we couldnt meet again, they still gave me my 2 hours today but i still have to meet mentor in my own time. With my previous mentor they never gave back our allocated meeting time and she was always busy to meet later. so we missed about 4/5 meetings.

No. You cannot fail at any stage except the end.
What did your term 1 review say?
Are you getting your NQT time?
We can't give our mentors time in the school day but if there was any question that an ECT was struggling, we'd have put additional support in place. In fact, we would have to.
Are you primary or secondary?

Pen having lids on isn’t a standard. What standard are they suggesting you need to provide more evidence for?

If your school does try to say you are not meeting the standards and they have not adequately supported you, you can contest it.
-Have they given you specific standards to work on?
-Are they providing training and support for the standards you must improve?
-Are they now going to stick to weekly meetings so you are receiving weekly support?

I think it is pretty standard to meet your mentor in your own time though. I meet my ECT weekly, before school starts.

A few things

1. Ect observations are 10 mins once per week now, with a full formal one once a half term, but this doesn't necessarily have to be the mentor (in our school it's the pcm or slt).
2. You are already on a reduced timetable being in your ect year, you don't get mentor meetings back. The are obligated to give back to the mentor but not the mentee.

I'm not being funny but you come across like you are blaming everyone else. It sounds like a shitshow but equally, you've blamed the school, your mentor and the kids in your OP but you haven't once reflected on the impact of your own practice. Are you being proactive? Have you organised observations with other teachers? Are you aware of which standards you are failing and why?

They can't just fail you out of the blue and they can't fail you at this stage. It's a 2 year programme so you have got time to put in the work and pull it back. Your ect programme should be led by some kind of organisation, do you know who it is? Even if it's the school they'll be accountable to someone. You can report the lack of mentoring to them. But they will argue that they have swapped mentors taking the prior lack of support into place.