Over the last year, Teacher Tapp and Gatsby Foundation have been asking Early Career Teachers (ECTs), their mentors and senior leaders how the new Early Career Framework (ECF) is working for them. This new framework was introduced to all schools just over a year ago and seeks to improve early career support and development for teachers, by extending the period of support to two years and by offering a package of mentoring, training and self-study materials.
Most new programmes have some teething problems, and the ECF is no exception. Whilst most mentors said there were positive aspects of the framework – for example that it increases ECT knowledge and offers good guidance, a majority of mentors said that it adds too much to everyone’s workload and isn’t able to meet the individual needs of teachers well.
