How to Start Your ECT Year Successfully?

Are you feeling nervous about starting your ECT year? Do you feel you’ve still so much to learn? Are you worried if the children and parents will take you seriously?

Experienced teachers can empathise with you as everyone has had to start. Yet your experience this year will be different as you are beginning your ECT year after having a disjointed training year of remote teaching and being in the classroom.

Compiled below are tips for you as an ECT, a teacher who wants to remain impactful beyond their first year.

1. Learn to prioritise

It is best to know and understand from the beginning that you will never complete everything on your to-do-list. This list is endless and it will continue to grow. Understand that you are part of a continuous journey of growth not just for yourself but within your school. There will be many new instructions, ideas and initiatives to get familiar with.

The key is to prioritise.

Ensure you get your own structures, routines and patterns into place. Find a way that you can organise yourself. Then consider which tasks need to be tackled first. What task will have the biggest impact? Could one task solve two problems?

Having a priority list to follow will save you time and energy which is beneficial for your mental wellbeing.

2. Should an ECT ask questions?

You have just qualified. Therefore you are not expected to know how everything works. A different school is a different job. You may find that what may have worked in your training year may not fit in your new school. It is essential therefore that you always ask questions. Ask questions: to clarify, to learn, and to gain insight. Most teachers are willing to help (as this is in our nature.)

Equally, do not be afraid to question! If you are unsure about how something works: ask and enquire. It may be that this system has been in place for a while and everyone else has just followed because, ‘it’s always been this way!’ Remember just because something has always happened that way, it does not mean it’s the only way!

Insightful questions can lead to change.

3. Remain flexible

A change is gonna come. This statement should be mentioned to all school employees when they start their role. It is inevitable.

Change happens due to unpredictable factors of the environment. You are working with your pupils, their parents, your colleagues, outside agencies, the government and now unfortunately the inconspicuous symptoms of Covid.

Uncertainty in schools is very common and with recent events this has heightened. At times, aspects of your school day may be out of your control. When this happens, just focus on what it is that you can control and remain flexible.

4. Find your Tribe

From the beginning of the year, speak to everyone. Everyone is fresh from their holidays and approachable. Establish connections with staff across the school too (not just in your year group or department.) Various members of staff in school have different perspectives and may have answers to questions you did not know.

You don’t know what you don’t know!

Once you feel settled you will most certainly know which people are your people. Those that you can confide in, the people who will support you without judgement, ones that can inspire whilst also keeping you balanced. These people are your tribe.

5. Be yourself

Quite simply no-one else is you. Your head employed you as they believed in YOU! Always remember this fact.

As an ECT, it is so easy to get caught up in trying to be like Ashley who has been teaching for seven years and has such a good relationship with their class. They always seem calm and seem to speak up in the staff meetings with insightful ideas. The keyword here is seem. We often make unrealistic assumptions on others based on our own perspectives based on very little evidence or logic.

Be kind to yourself! Avoid the trap of comparison; there are no winners in that game and it is exhausting.

When you focus on yourself, your own progress and development teaching is a dream.

Stay in your own lane!

Working with pupils as an ECT

6. Build and maintain positive relationships

This is one of the most vital elements of your ECT role. Successful teachers always have positive relationships with their pupils. When you build relationships with pupils, this can eliminate potential issues in the future.

Learning the names of pupils makes them feel special and immediately shows that you care. Consider why the strategies of a successful sales person; they use your name. When we hear our name we immediately feel like an individual and are instantly more willing to be open. Pupils have the same feelings as you and I. We all want to know that we are valued.

Building mutual trust and respect with pupils from the beginning is integral to your enjoyment as a teacher.

7. View children holistically

It is important to engage all aspects of your pupils. This includes their physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual (cognitive) development. The world is evolving. The traditional education paradigm of the past focussed simply on academic development with little emphasis on the pupil having a voice or choice.

Adaptations to teaching methods and focus on ‘the whole-child’ has become more popular over the years. When planning, consider all aspects of your pupil’s development and build in opportunities to nurture and foster this.

Ensure you understand how your school views the child as a learner.

8. Show care, compassion and time

Humans need connection. Right now collectively, we have all been experiencing such drastic changes to our ‘normal’ way of living. This will have impacted your pupils. How? We may never be sure but all you can do is meet each and everyone of your pupils with care and compassion.

Some pupils returning may find the new dynamics quite frightening. It is not their normality. This is not the memory of school they had. Consider that this may be disturbing for them. It is crucial then to build bonds of trust to put them at ease. You may be their constant stability.

Pupils may require time to acclimatise to their new environment. These changes may trigger emotions which may be reflected in their behaviour. All you can control is your response. Always empathise and be compassionate. Build in time to allow pupils the opportunity to express themselves.

Kindness will be the key to success this term.

Children are born as individuals. If we fail to see that, if we see them as clay to be molded in any shape we like, the tougher ones will fight back and end up spiteful and wild, while the less strong will lose that uniqueness they were born with.
Melvin Konner

9. Treat each child as an individual

The children in your class are not just pupils. Each student has their own identity, preferences, perspective and personality. What may work with one pupil may not work with the other. As you establish your position and build relationships with the class, play attention to the successes of each pupil. Reflect on what strategies you may have used and repeat. There will be a variety of strategies for each pupil. Eventually as you get to know your class/es personally you will respond to them as individuals. This is beneficial for both pupil and teacher and is highly rewarding.

10. Set clear boundaries

As an ECT you may want to please and to do everything right. Whilst it is commendable to have good intentions to do your best, it is also important to set your own boundaries.

Boundaries are imaginary lines set between yourself and another. Healthy boundaries enable successful relationships. When setting boundaries with pupils it may be as simple as making it clear that you do not need them to stay in the classroom during break to help, to establishing that you are their teacher and not their friend.

These are just a few of points to consider during your first year of teaching. You have decided to come into this profession, I am sure to help children to do their best. One sure fire way of achieving this is being a great model. During your ECT years, you will learn, make mistakes and grow. Remember to have fun in the classroom. I wish you the best of luck!

Below are some invaluable resources for guidance and educational interest.

TES Aimed at education professionals this is a hub of everything educational including, resources, forums and jobs.

Schools Week Offers in-depth investigative articles and news, with the aim to get past the bluster and explain the facts.

EduTwitter This is Twitter for teachers. It’s an amazing tool to use to discover who to follow on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter