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  • Support for early career teachers
  • UCL
  • Year 1: First half-term: enabling pupil learning
    • Autumn week 1

    Mentor materials

    Module audit

    Learning intentions

    The aims of this session are:

    • To use the M1 ECT audit (Year 1) as a stimulus for discussion around the mentee’s current knowledge and practice in relation to Module 1 (ECF standards 1 and 7).

    • To support the mentee to make accurate judgements of their current knowledge and practice.

    • To agree with the mentee areas for particular focus in relation to Module 1.

    Topic introduction

    In this first mentor meeting of Module 1, you will begin by spending some time on ‘contracting’ with your mentee. This is an opportunity to talk through how you can work together on this programme to best support your ECT’s learning.

    You will then work with your mentee to audit their current knowledge and practice in relation to the relevant content of the Early Career Framework. This is an opportunity to benchmark your mentee’s existing competence and confidence in relation to the contents of Module 1. This should inform any decisions you make about sequencing and orientating the remaining sessions within the time you have available with your mentee. While it is essential that all learn that and learn how statements are covered throughout the module, using the audit outcomes will support you to personalise this experience for your mentee to best address their learning needs.

    You will need to brief your mentee in advance of the session so that they have access to their transition paperwork produced at the end of ITT/ITE to support progression to the NQT year. This will support the auditing process during the session.

    Research and practice summary

    There is no research and practice summary for this session, in which you are working with your mentee to audit their current knowledge and practice in relation to the Early Career Framework. Research and practice summaries in subsequent sessions will support you and your mentee to continue their learning in relation to this content.

    If you wish to refresh your knowledge of the M1 content at this stage, you may choose to read ahead so that you can engage with the research and practice summaries for each of the remaining M1 sessions.

    Meeting activities

    Review: 15 mins

    Talk to your mentee about how you will work together over the coming two years to make the most productive use of this programme. You may wish to discuss some of the questions below. The purpose of this time is to clarify expectations that you each have of yourselves and each other so that you can pre-empt challenges and share strategies for dealing with any that arise.

    Possible topics for discussion are:

    • where and when will weekly sessions happen? This includes your mentee’s self-directed study as well as your mentor meetings.
    • how will you keep these sessions separate from statutory NQT induction activities, bearing in mind that the Early Career Framework is a support framework and not an assessment framework?
    • how will you work together in sessions? What are your preferred ways of working? What do you each find most enjoyable/challenging, for example?
    • how will you resolve any difficulties that arise over the year?
    • what are you each most looking forward to about working together on this programme?
    • will your mentee keep a record of the meetings and, if so, how? You may want to consider using a Learning Log, as outlined in the programme handbook.

    Plan and Theory to Practice: 40 mins

    • Ask your mentee to work through the Module 1 audit and to self-assess against each criterion. They should base their judgement on their current knowledge and/or practice. Some suggested definitions to support this assessment are offered below. All should be interpreted in relation to the mentee’s context and what can reasonably be expected of an early-career teacher who has just completed initial teacher education.

    Emerging: I don’t feel very confident in this area. I have substantial gaps in my knowledge and/or practice which definitely need to be addressed.

    Developing: I have some knowledge about this, and/or there is evidence in my practice that I do this some of the time or to some extent. I am in a position to build on this with further work in this area.

    Secure: I know a lot about this, and/or I do it in my practice consistently and well.

    • Now ask your mentee to talk you through their audit and to explain the reasoning behind each self-assessment. Where possible, prompt your mentee to support their assessment with reference to examples and/or to their transition paperwork from ITT/ITE to their NQT year. Use your expertise and experience to shape the mentee’s reflections and to draw their attention to aspects of their practice which they may be overlooking (either by judging themselves too harshly or too kindly).
    • You might use questions/prompts such as:
    • can you provide examples from your practice which support your assessment in relation to this statement?
    • tell me a bit more about how you’ve used what you learnt during ITT/ITE and built on this as you’ve moved into your role as an ECT
    • what feedback have you received in relation to your knowledge/practice in this area?
    • what would it take for you to assess yourself more positively against this criterion? What’s missing at the moment?
    • what are your relative strengths in relation to this area, on which you can continue to build to improve your practice?

    Note that, especially at this very early stage of the year, your mentee is quite likely to be ‘emerging’ or ‘developing’ in most of the aspects of the audit. This is absolutely to be expected. The purpose of the audit is to give you both a baseline against which you will be able to observe and celebrate your mentee’s progress. It is also important for your mentee to develop the habit of self-auditing as part of reflective practice and ongoing improvement.

    Next Steps: 5 mins

    Agree with your mentee how you will use the outcomes from the audit to inform your use of the programme materials for the remainder of this module. Using the Summary Module Guide highlight, together, any areas to which you will give particular focus. Consider how your mentee might best engage with some of the optional further readings suggested in the Summary Module Guide. Discuss the value of returning to the audit as you work through the module, using it to chart your mentee’s progress.

    In particular, give attention to those statements where your mentee considers their knowledge/practice to be ‘emerging’ and share some examples of how the programme will support them in moving to ‘developing’ and then on to ‘secure’.

    Finally, remind your mentee that their first self-directed study session will take place next week, and confirm the date and time of your next ECT mentor meeting.