Struggling ECT

[PumpkinPie2016]

Just after other people's thoughts/ideas really, in case I have missed something.

I am a HoD and mentoring an ECT1. I have successfully mentored numerous ECT/NQTs and trainees so I am not new to the role.

My current ECT1 is struggling. He was OK at the start - perhaps not amazing but fine for the stage he was at. However, more recent observations and conversations indicate he is struggling.

Taking everything into account, I have narrowed the issue down to planning. We are centrally planned but he is not thinking around the plan.

Before half term, we went through a lesson he was due to teach the following day and it was clear to me that he hadn't planned. He can give you a list of 'things' he will do e.g. retrieval do now, I do, we do, you do, cold call etc. But there is no thinking beyond that. So, he cannot tell you what questions he will have in the do now and why (some are suggested on centrally planned resources but I have always said these need adapting), no idea what the 'I do, we do, you do' will actually look like, or what a mini whiteboard activity will tell him/what the purpose is.

So far, we have co planned a couple of his lessons.

The induction tutor has asked me to increase support for 2-3 weeks post Easter with a view to moving to cause for concern if there is no progress.

My current plan;

1. I will model (again) my thinking behind a lesson I will teach, to show him what he needs to think about.

1. Co plan some of his lessons with him to develop the thought process (I can't feasibly do more than a couple with him as it takes a long time due to his lack of understanding)

1. Him sending me 1-2 lessons per week, that he has adapted, prior to teaching for me to feedback on.

1. Additional lesson visits to highlight strengths and areas for development.

Is there anything anyone else would suggest? He has observed more experienced teachers, myself included, but I think the issue is that he just sees a strategy like 'oh, he/she used mini whiteboards, so I'll do that' but doesn't understand why/what info they are getting and how that is used.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received as I really want him to succeed.

It does sound like you are doing everything you can. In reality - you can lead a horse to water but you can't do it all for him - he has to do it.

I am a professional tutor in a secondary school. All of our ECT1s are really struggling, but they've all had so much support - and ultimately the barrier is that they are not implementing the advice they're being given.

It does sound like you need to continue to joint plan - he doesn't seem to understand how to do it but eventually hopefully he will through planning together.

Does he know he's going to be out on cause for concern? Sometimes knowing they're doing badly is enough to change.

Your role really as a mentor should be separate to the concern. You are meant to be one he goes to for support and for a bit of a cry. The professional tutor is meant to be the one who does the formal plans etc (at least this is how it is where I am!). Are you his head of department? Because that also complicates things too.

It does sound like you're doing really well with him.

I'm induction lead in my school.

If we were considering cause for concern, I'd be looking at:

• additional coaching beyond that which the ECT would normally get
• a temporary small timetable reduction to provide him with the time to take decisive action

The mentor would always be part of the plan but they wouldn't be responsible for all of it. I write the plans and identify what and where the support comes from, and how it's monitored.

This is happening more and more often, sadly. It's as if there's a gap between teacher training - which everyone seems to pass - and the job. And the pathetic amount of teaching load many of them have at the end of training does not prepare them for the actual job.

Thank you, both, for your helpful replies 🙂

He is aware he may go on cause for concern- the induction tutor told him. As you suggest @Smeegall she kept me informed but didn't ask me to tell him so that my role remains that of support and guidance. I am the HoD which I appreciate can be tricky but there was no one else and I have done it before.

@MrsHamlet I will be providing additional support/coaching, but good point about me not being solely responsible- I may draft other colleagues in to help. He doesn't have his own form, he is attached to mine, so if needs be, we could reduce his load by taking him off the form group.

It's interesting that a lot of ECT1s are struggling and I agree - there seems to be a disconnect between training and the ECT years. I also think that whilst centralised planning can be a good thing, too many trainees/ECTs are relying too heavily on it and not learning how to plan in the depth we did when we trained! I have run subject knowledge sessions for our scitt this year and next year, I am definitely going to do more on planning with them!

The number of times I've asked one ECT recently "what did you intend when you did x?" and they don't know .... it's alarming. There seems to be little notion that there has to be thought behind delivery.

Could you two go together and watch an experienced teacher, so that you can break down for him what they're doing in the moment? So if you see a strategy like using mini-whiteboards, you can highlight to him in the moment why the teacher has decided to use them and what information they are gaining from it.

@GetTheGoodLookingGuy good idea! Thank you 😊

Video him teach and you teach and then you can discuss together. I have used that very successfully and it was also very useful (if more than a little cringy) to watch my own lesson back.

Interesting. Whatever you do, be really careful not to break his confidence at this critical stage. It sounds like you're and your ECT are doing everything possible. I would ignore it if he seems not be 'planning' sufficiently, if anything ECTs overplan without leaving anything to chance, which in itself is not a healthy process as in the classroom he'll need to be able to improvise when need dictates. I'm sure you do this already, but but praise the good things and draw a line round the less good things. I've never me a teacher who is perfect and never met one who started off as perfect.

@JayEmAye I will, of course, be supportive and tactful - I definitely don't want to destroy his confidence.

That said, I cannot ignore his lack of planning. It really is beyond that - he is basically pulling up the centrally made PowerPoint and delivering without thinking about/responding to the children in front of him. It's honestly just 'this information, this task' etc but there's no thread/'story' to the lesson.

I absolutely don't expect perfection and nor do I think any of us are - there is always room to develop/improve. I think at our school, we are quite big on this - we all engage with coaching, have an open door policy etc.

It's not a lack of "planning in x format", is it? It's a lack of thinking about the purpose and structure of the lessons.

Hi

I completed my ECT in 20233/24. Secondary. Career changer. Replying as obviously I came through with batches of PGCE trainees and ECTs (across subjects), and frankly I was shocked by the lack of effort some trainees / new teachers seemed to put in. The higher the bursary, the more prevalent this appeared to be,

You mention that he just pulls up the slides and presses go. One way of looking at it is that he's still developing. Another way of looking at it is that he doesn't understand the key differences between teaching -v- delivering content. A third way of looking at it is that he does actually understand the differences but doesn't want to put the hours in.

I really respect the fact that you're knocking yourself out for this guy (judging by your action plan), however, who's doing all the work here? Who needs to be doing all the work here? My ECT programme broadly followed the principle of 'what, how, why' (in brief written form). This reinforced my planning skills by mandating that I was able to answer those questions for each lesson. Once my mentor, through meetings and obs, realised I could do this, it became a moot point. However, those teachers who couldn't continued to produce their 'what, hows, whys' ad infinitum until it became second nature. As it goes, I'm also a union rep and there was no come back because it was a SMART goal.

Sorry if I'm overstepping.

@MrsHamlet yes, that's exactly it. I don't make my team plan lessons to a specific format, but he isn't thinking about the purpose of the learning/explanations/tasks.

@ThisKindAmberLemur not overstepping at all 🙂 it's good to hear from someone who has recently been an ECT (it's a long time since I qualified now). I like the 'what, how, why' idea - thank you! I think something like that will really help him to think about each part of the lesson.

I used to run a SCITT and we did loads on planning. My current trainees and some of my ECTs just look blankly at me - they think "planning" means "stuff someone wants me to write down"

I think in some ways central planning is your problem. If the trainees had to plan from scratch, they'd put a hell of a lot more thought into it surely!

Is there any scope for team teaching or sharing sets? We have recently reshuffled some timetabling to give a colleague some more support so that medium term planning is collaborative and it has really helped him to have shared ownership and people to bounce ideas off. It also means that progress, targets, expectations and classroom management strategies are out in the open and regularly up for discussion.
edited to add that this colleague had ended up pretty much in the first stages of capability procedures; he now has sole responsibility for only one group, every other group has at least 1 lesson a week taught by another colleague. He is the lead teacher for all of his original sets, but also dips in to teach odd periods of other groups. It has really improved his understanding of how planning and responding can affect progress.

@FreshAirForwards we are a new (ish) school so won't have gained time unfortunately, which might mean restructuring the TT this year is problematic.

I could look at me and my 2i/c doing a bit of team teach though as that may help.

I have been discussing planning in more depth with him, but now he has said that me asking questions like 'how will you do that' and 'how will you check/know that students understand' during our mentor meeting is too intense and overwhelming and makes him feel bad 🙄 and if he did the detailed thinking for every lesson it would take ages 🤯

Professional mentor has been really helpful and is due to do an obs of him anyway but I'm honestly running out of ideas. I have given up time during my weekend to provide additional feedback on lessons he has sent me etc which I don't mind but he seemingly wants to tick a box that he has done additional thinking/planning for the 2 he sends me, bit doesn't actually then want to translate that process to other lessons.

I have always enjoyed mentoring but I feel really deflated tonight 😔

I have been discussing planning in more depth with him, but now he has said that me asking questions like 'how will you do that' and 'how will you check/know that students understand' during our mentor meeting is too intense and overwhelming and makes him feel bad 🙄 and if he did the detailed thinking for every lesson it would take ages 🤯

Yes. That's your job, ECT. Get on with it.

If he's not engaging with the support, he needs to know that the consequence could be the end of his career.

@MrsHamlet thank you 💓

I said to him that at the start of your career, planning does take a long time but it does get quicker. I can remember being an NQT in an excellent 6th form college and it taking me an age to plan but I didn't complain about it 🤯

The mind honestly boggles!

I'm afraid that my patience with ECTs is limited these days. There are too many who just do not understand that they have to work at it, and I'm tired of excuses.

I would be pushing for some sort of plan for him, and getting additional support in place from the AB.

I bend over backwards to support staff but they also need to work hard.

@MrsHamlet @PumpkinPie2016

I would be pushing for some sort of plan for him, and getting additional support in place from the AB.

Yes, I agree. To be honest the only reason I was able to restructure the timetable was because we’d entered the last chance saloon and had toes in capability procedure. In all honesty, until it was ‘engage or potentially lose your job’ our guy was pretty much paying lip service to planning. I’m continually astonished by the lack of day to day admin from my ECTs. They all appear to work solely at school from where I’m standing. I’m sure it’s because they think picking a few worksheets of dubious origin from the internet is planning. I think back to my first decade of teaching, when we pretty much produced all resources or used text books…….

Don't get me started! I've had to move from coaching to ordering more than one of them this year.

"I'm not asking you; I'm telling you to do x"

What’s his degree in? It sounds like he’s lacking in knowledge.

An education degree really should’ve taught him about how children learn (the gaps you’re mentioning) and he would then know the point of a whiteboard activity.
I’ve never taught but have an education degree and am starting my SCITT in September. To me a white board activity:
Allows you to instantly assess whole class knowledge
Engages pupils who are less likely to put their hand up
Is more interesting for pupils than a simple Q&A
Adds a sense of gamification

There are some learning theory CIPDs he could do. Could you task him with writing short rationales for his lessons?

Here’s the course. Maybe it’ll get him thinking a bit more deeply.
https://shop.cipd.org/product?catalog=Learning-Theories-Essential-Insights#gref

He doesn't need a course: he needs to do as he's told!

Fully agreed. He’s work shy.

He’s already done the course; his PGCE.