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Everything Everywhere All At Once: The life of a Year 1 ECT
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Elaine Long
Welcome to the ECF Staffroom. I'm Elaine Long.
Mark Quinn
And I am Mark Quinn.
Elaine Long
We are programme leaders for the UCL Early Career Teacher Development Programme. Why are we in the staff room? We are here because this is where the best professional learning conversations always take place. This is where problems can be aired bluntly and where solutions can be explored.
Mark Quinn
Over the course of this series, we will hear the voices of different colleagues as they come in the ECF Staffroom. We will hear from early career teachers themselves and from the mentors and induction tutors who support them. We will talk about all things ECF, the challenges and the joys. So, why don't you enjoy a coffee with us, perhaps even grab a biscuit and sit down to half an hour of ECF Staffroom chat.
Mark Quinn
Welcome to the ECF staffroom. Kate, lovely to see you. We know that we are speaking to you in your half term and that you are looking after you, looking after little ones at the home as well. So, we're especially grateful that you've come back into the staffroom to sit down with us and to share a biscuit with us and we can make you a coffee, so or a hot drink of another sort.
What would you what would you like? What can I fix for you?
Kate Hill
Oh, I love a cappuccino.
Mark Quinn
Cappuccino. Okay. I can make all the noises of a cappuccino. I'm not sure, but I'm not too sure our staff from a machine can fix one of those. I'll see if I can go and get a cappuccino for you and Elaine you can start with that with the rest of the introductions.
Elaine Long
Yeah, that's good. I don't blame me for wanting to enjoy a nice long cappuccino in your half term, because I'm sure you've worked very hard and I'm sure you have earnt it, Could you start by introducing yourself for our listeners and tell us a bit about what you teach and what an average day is like for you at school.
Kate Hill
Yes. So my name is Kate. I am a first year ECT teacher, which sounds strange to say teacher and so I'm now I've now done and completed three terms of teaching and my subject is art and design and I teach key stage three, key stage four and key stage five. Average day. An average day for me is like a whirlwind.
It usually starts off on a Monday sort of rabbit in the headlights, and then by Wednesday I feel like I've got to grips with the week and then Friday comes and I feel like I'm on top of the world and I could keep going, but then I realise the weekends there, so I have to stop.
Elaine Long
I really like that metaphor. I think a whirlwind is something that lots of teachers could identify with and every teacher has a story about how they entered the profession, and we know our listeners would really like to hear about yours. Could you tell us a bit about why you decided to become a teacher and what was the route that took you to that point?
Kate Hill
Yeah, it's been I mean, it's been a really long journey for me. I this is obviously you can see me on screen, but I'm not fresh out of university. I'm probably in my third career and hopefully final and yeah, because I was doing art as a subject, I was doing an art degree, a master's in set design, film and TV and that's where I thought my journey was going to go and meet me into the film industry.
I did work in Manchester, Leeds and London, sort of in various different films for a couple of years. I was in my early twenties and I wanted a bit of a change, so I got into marketing, lots of travelling, got into marketing, worked in Australia for a couple of years and came back over here to England in my early thirties and continued in a sort of e-commerce retail role for about, I think I've worked in, it's about 15 years and then COVID hit and I had at that point about a three year old, I think he was about three, two and a half, three year old at that point at home. And I was at that point a consultant and work dried up. People were spending extra money on consultancy. And so I had a long period of time at home. And it really does give me time to think about what my next steps would be. And I hadn't been challenged or feeling kind of the value in what I'd been doing for quite a while and teaching, again, it sort of resurfaced throughout this whole journey and over the COVID period, I did a book called The Pathfinder, and it looks the values and why you should take your, you know, where you can take yourself based on personality tests and lots of other clues.
Teaching cropped up again and so I started to pursue it and then it became a reality last year, was it last year or the year before? Whenever I did it, I qualified last year, so, it must have been the year before that. I went back to university. So, that's a very kind of long, roundabout way of, it's not been a quick decision. It's taken me a long time to get to this point, but I'm very happy that I've done it.
Elaine Long
Is this really fascinating actually, to hear your journey and you're in the probably the quite unique position in that you can compare teaching to earlier careers, and I just wondered how teaching does compared to some of your early careers in terms of the sort of opportunities and challenges of it.
Kate Hill
I mean, it's very different from it in terms of what I'm doing day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute. It's more restrictive in a sense that I was very office based before and so, you are sort of, I've got to do this task. I just need to go in for the kettle on. So, you could just kind of be a bit more fluid and flexible in your approach to your daily tasks and a more in control, I guess.
Very much now, the bell is my controller and I've learnt to sort of pack a flask in the morning and that's it for the day. But in terms of what I'm drawing upon, I guess the politics in terms of what happens in any workplace is very similar. But I think teachers tend to be a lot more open and kind of open to meeting new people.
And I guess because of the training that they do, getting with children, students, day in, day out, I think there is an element of open mindedness you might not get in other workplaces and the creativity is very different. So, I was kind of more towards the end of my second career, I was more kind of strategic, dealing with money, trying to be creative in that way.
Creative campaigns and trying to sort of increase sales revenue, and it had a budget, you know, that was my creative side, whereas now I'm able to explore a lot more of my sort of earlier creativity and inner creativity, not directly, I guess indirectly through students.
Mark Quinn
Do you think you're a different teacher now than you would have been if you had trained as a teacher rather than go through your previous two careers?
Kate Hill
Yes, I don't think I would have managed it as a profession if I'm honest. In my early twenties I had different priorities back then. I did genuinely want to travel everywhere and actually teaching would have allowed me to do that. But I am actually Australian by birth, so I didn't really need to go and work in Australia.
I think the organisation, using my time effectively, being efficient in what I do, I think that has been drawn out of experience as an industry that I wouldn't have been, I know I wouldn't have been able to do it in the same way. Also confidence. I definitely wasn't. I was confident in different ways in my early twenties, but I think in terms of being a good teacher and getting the most out of myself and for the students, I definitely think I'm better now than I was then.
Mark Quinn
Yeah, this is really interesting because we know that compared to other countries internationally, the workforce in England, the teaching workforce in England is the youngest. You know, in other countries, people don't often start teaching quite so young or they don't leave the profession quite so young as unfortunately they do in England. And you must have come across this, you know, as you were training, I guess you were training amongst other young things, and perhaps you've got other ECTS in your school now, or do you feel that you have more to bring to teaching because you actually have had a few more years on the road.
Kate Hill
In terms of what I can bring? Yes, I think I haven't seen the full benefit of it yet because I'm still new. You know, you are rabbit in headlights when you stop. So, I know once I start getting more established and finding my feet, which I am every day, every time I sort of, wow, you know, I've come a long way.
I haven't reached for the full benefit of it yet, but I'm excited about how I'm going to do that.
Mark Quinn
I always say this, but teaching, though, that no experience is wasted, you know, you draw upon every resource and every experience you've ever had outside of the classroom. You end up talking about it at some level. And I imagine, particularly in your own subject, you know, you will draw upon all that, all the other experience you've had, you said you’re towards the end of your third term as a teacher.
Is that right, Kate? Is that what you said?
Kate Hill
Right. Yes. So I started September.
Mark Quinn
So you started in September. So, I want you to cast your mind back to September and try to remember how tough things were then. What was most challenging for you at that point when you were starting off as a newbie in your school?
Kate Hill
I think it's those everything happened at once. It's like everything collides and you're a new a new teacher in a new career, in a new school, new staff around you, new rules, protocols. Everything is new. So, it's not just one thing. So, if you change your job and when I've changed many, many jobs, when I've changed jobs, you know, you kind of, you've only got to think about really, okay, you want to do the job description, you've got it. You've got through on the interview, you know what you meant to be doing. Generally it's similar to what you’ve been doing before. When do they come in and you know, and now you know, what's the general culture of the office around or the environment you're in, but this was everything, this was, I had a classroom that I inherited that somebody else had left behind. I had to establish it as my own, which is still ongoing. It's going to be an ongoing thing for quite a while, I think.
Working out where my computer was in relation to the whiteboard, the projector. Was there a visualiser, no there wasn’t, so it's kind of learning. You have to teach a little bit without something and then getting to know who was who and that's been all so gradual because because I'm in the art department and I'm very much in my area, I don't necessarily always see all people in in the school, apart from the sort of key meetings that we have.
So, I'm slowly starting to sort of unravel who people are and who's the right people to go to for different things. Then there's a schedule and I think nothing can really prepare you for that schedule. It's a shock and I knew that was going to be a schedule, I knew what the schedule was because I've been training, but I've not had to do all the extra kind of activities being a tutor, sort of. I did the school play this term. There's a lot of art clubs, all those things that you have to manage or liaising with parents I haven't had to do as much of at all. I wasn’t responsible, accountable when I was training. A different school, sort of the way my current school is versus my training schools have different lengths of lesson time and lunch break fall at different times. I had a duties to think about being set up, inductions, all of that stuff. It all hit on that day, the first day we started. So that was that was like I to say, perfect collision of everything.
Elaine Long
Yeah, I think that's a really good description of the cognitive load that people have when they start schools. And I think that is very unique to teaching. Like you say, although some of those problems might exist when you change jobs in other areas, the intensity of time in teaching and the speed at which you have to get to grips with stuff just to sort of keep your head above water and the urgency of things because you've got a classroom and children in front of you is really, really intense.
I guess what we're interested in is how the programme can help you with that and how it can help your development as a teacher. So, we're interested in which aspects of the ECF programme have helped most in your development.
Kate Hill
I think a lot of it, I think every week is kind of like chipping away and like reminding kind of the reminders I guess put in with the weekly themes of what I should be focusing on, because like I said, it is that collision of everything. You start to surface from it towards the end of the first term and anyone says that they surface in the first day is a liar, I think you know that people that do say that, oh no, it was absolutely fine for me.
But I think you just there's just so much to think about. I forgot what I was talking about. Again, sorry.
Elaine Long
We were just talking about which aspects of the ECF programme have helped you most as a new teacher.
Kate Hill
So definitely having the weekly meetings with my mentor have been really, really helpful because like I said, the themes that we had to kind of remind you of what you should be focusing on. We've also discussed that and we've done the done the task or whatever the assigned task was on the module for that week, and then we'd have a discussion about it.
But having a really strong tutor to guide me and the other ECTs at my school has been really very useful because along with each theme comes out questions, different ideas, different approaches, things that we might have discussed on training, but they just got lost in the quagmire of, you know, starting a new profession, and so that's been great.
The external meetings have been really interesting and I have found them really useful and because it's been one level to go and meet other trainees and kind of share experiences and another is to go and visit other schools, it's been really nice to go and sort of, even that I get to see teachers teaching and you just walk through the corridor, it's quite nice to be in a different environment and learning environment for a short space of time, and then I'm very fortunate that I well, I feel very fortunate, I've got an excellent, I'm not actually sure of the title of her title, but she manages us in our area. So, all the ECTs that come together on are external meets. She's a deputy head at a school, but she's also got a creative background history, so she delivers a really, really strong programme for us and yes, so I feel quite lucky to have that.
So, I think it's all of it, working together really helps so that if I, you know, ideas and what we maybe we already know but you've forgotten I've been put in the back burner, things for example and that's how you know, how to kind of get students into your classroom. That was one of the earliest ones I remember doing, and when I started and actually I didn't really think I think about that because I have a weird little corridor to get students in through. I just try to get to line up outside and actually stepping back and having that moment to reflect on it and discuss it with somebody else and explain my situation, I've now got them coming into my classroom and then I greet them and then they go, you know, manage to get a routine.
That was helped by the programme and sort of the focus and behaviour management just, you know, re-cementing what you know, but a different school. You had to learn the policies and then classroom practice, so I think the classroom practice side of it ties in quite often with your school CPD, so we've got, we've been lucky to have Tom Sherrington come and he's been working with us at the moment from a sort of a teacher learning perspective, and that seems to have sort of worked really well with what we've been sort of listening, you know, thinking about each week on the ECF programme.
Elaine Long
It's interesting what you're saying about your context, Kate, because some ECTs say that the programme is a repeat of their ITE year and although you recognise that some of the messages are familiar. You also recognise that you need to apply them to your context. So, in terms of entry routines, I'm sure that wouldn't been an unfamiliar thing to you, but actually thinking about how you do that in your environment or what the behaviour policy is at your school.
So, it's really nice to hear that you've been able to apply the key points from the self-study to your specific context. I just wanted to ask you about your facilitated sessions. Are you with ECTs who also teach art and design, or are you with a mix of ECTs?
Kate Hill
There’s two others one's P.E and one is English. So, kind of quite different. We all bring different strategies. A lot of strategies for some of the other subjects are really applied to art in the same way, although people might disagree with me on that. My main goal is to get students to practical quite quickly and obviously they understand the task and all the other things that go with it, but I think a lot of, PE maybe is a bit like that as well, but a lot of the kind of more smaller chunked tasks that they might do in English or maths, my mentor is a, science teacher, I can see why they’re really effective for those subjects, not necessarily always effective in mine.
So, but it's always really interesting to share and be able to sort of consider different strategies.
Elaine Long
Is that quite a useful discussion you have with your mentor, sort of comparing what might work in a science classroom and what might work in an all classroom and the reasons for that.
Kate Hill
Yes, and also sometimes it's maybe that I've kind of sort of said no to it too quickly as an idea and then I think about it, I think actually, well, sometimes I leave those meetings and think I've just missed it, then I'm driving home and I think actually, maybe it's my approach to it that's wrong.
You know, I could actually I could use some elements of it to support me, or sometimes it's just the thought of it. Have I thought about. No, I haven't. Maybe how could I one day? And a lot of it is one day because I'm still sort of, I feel like I'm very much finding my feet. Starter task was a really good one because I knew about starter tasks obviously in my training.
We know how important it is of the recapping and recalling and revisiting information, but we didn't actually have any of that pre designed in my schemes of work, which is probably a common thing that I feel that my second year as an ECT, I'm going to have the benefits of this year's work that I put into kind of trying to establish starter tasks, but a lot of that is off the back of those conversations I had weekly, different ideas, testing, not just sort of recalling or recapping of what we've been doing in vlass, but like key vocabulary and ways of kind of ways of methods of making starters that's a bit more fun but also effective.
Mark Quinn
I think we need to give your mentor a shout out, Kate, because it sounds like they're doing a great job.
Kate Hill
Yeah, to be able to be fair, if I'm honest, I feel like she tends to be a trouble-shooter for us and we go to her with all of our sort of woes and but it's nice to have somebody to go to. She is a really, really highly skilled practitioner herself, and I've got to observe one of her lessons the other day and very different to mine, but, you know, you sort of think, wow, I do teach some of these children, these students myself, not all of them, because it's set differently to my classes, but just seeing them behaving differently and how she sort of manages a class. Her slides, her slides and her the resources are all really cleverly put together.
Mark Quinn
Yeah. And actually what she's done is that she's, she's made the very complex job look very simple I guess. You were describing earlier about how complicated everything is, especially at the very beginning. But what great teachers are able to do is to cut through all of that and make the whole thing look sensible and obvious.
Actually, when you watch a really expert teacher teaching, it's quite hard to see what it is that they're doing, which is so special because it just looks so obvious what they're doing.
Kate Hill
Yes, Like a swan.
Mark Quinn
Yeah, a bit like that. Also. Also it's interesting, you were talking about the you know, one of the things that they say about the ECF, the framework itself, of course, is that it is generic and it's not subject specific. And it's a challenge for our participants because, you know, they're art teachers or they're early years teachers or they're teaching in a special school or their maths teachers.
Of course, you know, and it's logical, it's obvious it's fair that they come up with this comment from time to time that we would they would like the programme to be more specific to their own setting or to their own subject. There's a strong case for that, of course there is, but there is a strong case for doing what you for, for having it the way it is.
You've, I think given give an example of that is that there's a lot that an art teacher can learn from the experience of a science teacher or a PE teacher or from a teacher in a different setting because actually there are things which you wouldn’t transfer it directly into your own classroom. But in that transference or that translation into your own classroom, something, something new happens and some, you know, you add another bow to your own pedagogy, which I think is really, really kind of creative thing to do in teaching, isn’t it.
Kate Hill
Yeah, definitely. I think the external mix that we've had, mostly we are around similar subjects, so that's when I tend to be with DT and art teachers and occasionally we'll have some, you know, history might join us or somebody from English might join us, which I find really interesting. But yeah, with my, with my weekly so I feel like I get I do get some subject specific, but yes that is very again, she's very recognised in this area this community of teaching teachers, she is an amazing professional, she's excellent and, and she actually had come to when I was training, she'd come and done some workshops with us because she is in to art and design and had been a head of department the past so she has that knowledge which is great in those sessions.
Mark Quinn
We want to talk to you a little bit this afternoon Kate, about wellbeing, teacher wellbeing and you know, it's ironic, isn't it, that we're dragging you out of your half term to talk to us about teacher wellbeing, but we'll leave that where it is. It's always been a really important question. Perhaps we're more conscious of it as a question these days because the profession is struggling somewhat to keep teachers in teaching and the wellbeing agenda therefore has risen up, I think quite rightly and so we are interested in how well supported in their wellbeing, our teacher teachers in our programme feel because there's a danger, isn't there? There is a danger that we put you through this weekly programme and we send you off on training sessions and you know every so often with your facilitator and all feels like a burden, it all feels extra because clearly it's on top of what you would normally be doing.
So, this is why we developed this thing that we call the Wellbeing Charter, and we know it's not, you know, we know not everyone knows about it. It's not hidden, but not everyone's discovered it yet. But you have discovered it. So, so we're interested in what aspects of that wellbeing charter to you found most useful for you, what you draw on to support you, and actually maybe what else we might do to support you and your wellbeing as a teacher on our program.
Kate Hill
Yeah, I think the for me there was four key things that stood out on the charter, the flexibility of each module, sort of the weekly tasks and the fact that you could sort of approach them at your own leisure be it within ideally within that time frame. So you can have that discussion with your, your mentor. But that allowed me to, I find it very difficult to manage it in the day and the teaching day so I can do it in my own time.
So I can sort of flex that in and, and make that suit my schedule The fact that you can go back in and out, it's not like, you know, if you click through and it stops and you know, you can't move up, you can pause it. You have to you know, you can do that.
You can take time out, you can come back to it, dip in and out and, and yeah, that's been quite the community and peer learning for me, I think it's been probably based on what I've been saying is one of the big things is being able to feel like you're not alone is an ECT, that you are part of a, there's a whole cohort of you, there's a whole group of you, cluster in your area and in and around the country that are going through a similar thing to you, that being able to draw on sort of the support of your peers, but also mentors and another professional, I think this gives you a really good opportunity to do that. I think if I hadn't got it, I'd be a bit lost.
I mean, I would talk to other teachers at the school obviously, and I'd have my line manager and I'd have the colleagues that are close to. But it's a bit different, you know, you're coming as a new teacher. You really are quite vulnerable in in the early years of teaching and so I think it's been really useful for me.
I felt much more secure having that structure there. I like the idea that it's a guidebook, not a rulebook, and that you really do have to kind of interpret and take on the elements or snippets of it that you think will see your teaching practice. it's not telling you this is the way to do it because I don't think it can that I found, you know, like I said earlier in conversation. Each week, it's made me think about nuggets of information that I've gone oh yes I need to maybe make that my number one goal this week and reprioritize or maybe I won't do that now, but I’ll just put that on my notepad. I think about that, you know, maybe next year when I've got more time.
Mark Quinn
Well, you will.
Kate Hill
And mentors on site, so I do really feel very lucky. I said very lucky with my mentor. And I do feel like she's got my back and she understands. I'm sure when she goes home, she probably sits on the sofa has a glass of wine and thinks, Oh my goodness. But you know, generally I feel that she's understanding, she's got empathy that I think you really need to have for first year students. Students, Sorry, I'm not even a student. I keep forgetting I'm a teacher. I think there's a there's more like an experienced teachers and they get into their whirlwind of a day can sometimes forget what it's like to be an ECT.
You know, when equipment goes wrong or and things do go wrong in the day, you need to have somebody that you can go to that's going to be really empathetic and find strategies to support you to work away around it. And, you know, knowing that not everything is perfect, but that they can help you navigate that.
Mark Quinn
Yeah. Our mentors do. I mean, Elaine, you might hear this as well. Mentors do tell us that they like this approach to mentoring that we suggest this on side approach to mentoring, this non-judgemental approach. And of course it's completely consistent with the principles behind the Early Career Framework programme itself, which is that the mentor isn't there to judge you, isn't there to pass or fail you.
I think, you know your experience of being mentored when you were doing initial teacher education and that would have been no large part of their role. You know, they have to provide evidence. If you're not passing the standards, you're not passing the standards, that you're fit to teach, you are not. There is something different about the way mentoring has been characterised within the Early Career Framework, which I think mentors really love because you know, your mentor who's a science teacher can actually talk to you about realising you've got longer to develop, you know, you don't, you're not to race to become a great teacher at the end of one year, you've got a couple of years, you got, you know, this isn't a race or this is not a sprint, that you've got the right to get things wrong over, you know, occasionally without being judged for it, that making mistakes is actually part of what will help you learn.
So, I think our mentors really, they tell us that they really like this approach to mentoring, which is quite different from the way that they themselves were mentored. I think that that's another aspect of this. So, it's really, really great that you pick that out as one of the key things of the programme of, of the of the support package, if you like, that your mentor and the, the whole network of teachers and colleagues and peers you're working alongside.
It's a social enterprise, isn't it? Teaching isn't just a closed door. I've got my 30 kids and I'm going to get them to make progress. It's something we, if we're not doing it collectively, we're not doing it right.
Kate Hill
Yeah, I’m also quite outspoken with how I'm feeling about some things. I just tend to speak my emotions. And so, it's quite good, it's good to have somebody to aimless out rather than to try whole world.
Mark Quinn
I've never met art teachers like that. Oh, you must be very unusual in the art teacher world.
Kate Hill
I think she's I honestly think she'll go she does go home sometimes and think, oh my goodness, that. But it is useful having like a direct, you know, somebody to direct things to, and there are obviously other people in the school that you can go to. And I think I've been lucky that, you know, I've got colleagues around me who I can ask questions and I think that very supportive.
Mark Quinn
So, to be honest, be honest with us. Kate, is there anything that we make you do as part of the programme, or is there any kind of hoop that you feel that we're making you jump through that's actually not good for your wellbeing? Is there something that you think that we should be doing differently or not doing at all maybe on this program that you'd suggest that we change?
Kate Hill
I don't about not doing at all. The weekly tasks, they are quite, often it's just another thing to do, if I'm honest. We talk about them, we discuss them. We, my mentor, always comes with supporting literature or resources for each session. It's relevant to the theme. So, and you know, off the back of that, I'll have an observation or I might go and do something else.
So, in the week I'm actually doing already quite a lot of ECT stuff. So that is, is almost feels like a formality to go and click and submit. I very rarely have that hour in my teaching day to do that. Once a week, I very rarely do. So, I guess it's maybe me being more organised in my time. I don't know how at the moment, how that how that could be, but yeah, I think I know that it's a guidebook, not a rule book and I know that we're trusted to complete the tasks, but if you are quite diligent and a person wants to do the right thing, I think it might and it does definitely add that extra time to you.
Mark Quinn
Yeah. I think the self-directed study stuff that you might do alongside the mentoring. I think those are, that we do hear that kind of thing. People do say that to us and that's fair. I mean one of the reasons, of course is that we make the research and practice summary element of that self-directed study the same as the, it appears again, in the mentor meeting materials you get later in the week.
So, there's a reason why that happens. You know, because you don't have to do it. You only have to do it once you know. So, but and also, we do we talk about, you know, scanning through the sessions first, working out, you know, which bits of it make more sense to you, sort of tailoring the session for your own needs rather than feeling you got to plough through every one of the suggested activities is probably more activities then any individual teacher would need to go through. But, but yeah, I mean, point taken. That's good. That's good feedback. That's what we want to hear. But what the most important thing is, it's not getting in the way. You're not you're not allowing that to get in the way of your own progress.
Kate Hill
No, I use it as a refocus. So, I use it like you say. sessions is a refocus. And sometimes I come to the session with more than other times. So yeah, I think I do like the self reflection element of it. And that's really, really to me, that's the most valuable part of those things is to go and think, how am I doing what is just said? How I doing that? How do I grade myself? What could I do to improve? How am I going to do that? What's, you know, and then the mentor meeting that follows up and, you know, you can share insight. That's really helpful but I don't think, it's not it's not that it's not interesting and it's not useful stuff. It's just in terms of the time and the schedule that's already quite busy, it's just extra but that's the only thing, really.
Mark Quinn
Excellent.
Elaine Long
What I notice when you're talking and you're probably quite modest and humble about this, but there's a real of you driving your own learning and taking responsibility and having agency for it and that that really comes across, I think, as quite honest and critical and reflective way of approaching you learn. And I think that that's a real skill you have that probably not all teachers enter the profession with.
But it's certainly obviously really, really helping you to be successful. We have two final questions for you. The first one is, I'm sure time is moving pretty quickly, but fast forward to next term or maybe even, say, next academic year, perhaps even when you start year two at the programme, what are you most looking forward to?
Kate Hill
I think feeling is confidence. I think feeling like I'm not the new kid on the block anymore. I'm, you know, I've actually done a year. I think knowing that I've achieved that, knowing what I've achieved so far in my journey, that one year, craziness whirlwind and kind of building upon that. So using my knowledge and starting to well, these things, I keep saying I'm definitely going to do that definitely going to do that.
Let's start doing some of those things. I think being on top of my schedule, feeling more in control of it, like I'm almost directing it a little bit more than it's directing me. Obviously you can’t change the school bell, but I feel like this year I've been very short term sort of fighting fires in terms of my planning, but I'd like to be a little bit more longer term and that would be a big goal for me, to be longer term.
I think refining my sort of lessons, my schemes of work, my practice, but really fine tune it a little bit more. I know that I’ve got the basics in place from this year, but yeah, feeling a lot more in control of everything and I've got two points I think, making great progress with my year ten students, knowing that I've taken from year 10 to 11. That's something for me that's really important because whilst in the training you do see the progression in over a short period of time, you don't stay in one school environment for a full academic year.
So I'm really excited to see my year ten is going to year 11. Finally actually having the time to enhance my classroom environment because it really is quite tired and needs some TLC and you know, I've got the important things on the wall, AO’s, key vocabulary and you know, I've got behaviour policy, but it really does need a bit of a re-jig and to make it beautiful, a beautiful disruption free learning environment
Elaine Long
That sounds good. Hopefully next year with practitioner inquiry that will give you an opportunity to maybe pick some of those things you've written down on Post-it notes this year that you haven't had time to really think about to choose one and delve deeper into, maybe even, you know, the effect of displays on pupils, that could even be something you tell them how to create an effective learning environment for pupils and that's probably the beauty of next year that you'll get to tailor it to the things you want to tailor it to.
I'm aware of the bell and our bell is coming up. We have one final activity for you. We give every guest that comes on the podcast a Post-it note to write something on, and we allow you to choose where you stick your Post-it note. So, it could be on the desk of someone at the DfE, it could be on Mark's desk at UCL, or it could be in the staffroom or the staff loo’s at school or maybe on the noticeboard on an ECT facilitated session.
What would you like to write on your Post-it note and where would you like to stick it?
Kate Hill
Who’s this aimed for?
Elaine Long
So, whoever you want. So, I guess where you stick your Post-it note will determine who it's aimed for. So, for example, if you decide to stick your Post-it note on the desk of an ECT starting next year, you might want to write some advice on it that's aimed for that ECT that gives them the benefit of wisdom that you've learnt.
Kate Hill
Oh, it’s always be organised. It's a boring one, but it's the best one I've got, be organised or keep up depending on who's going to be reading it, keep being organised and I think that's what's got me through, you know, trying to not put off stuff that you do today, you know what I mean. Try and get it done so you buy yourself some time in the future. Pay it forward. Pay it forward. That's nice one.
Elaine Long
Yeah. Pay it forward. It is a very good one. So that would go on an ECTs desk as they, as they start.
Kate Hill
I think so. Yeah. I think that's something you know, I think when the schedule is so crazy in the in the first couple of months and trying to even make sense of your own diary, I think trying to stay on top of that daily weekly and really make sure that you've got all your CPD books shown and your ECT stuff in there, your lesson schedule, your PPAs in there and at meeting, you know, you just need to keep listening to that bell, look in your diary. You know what's your target at every moment in the school day. So, I think that's my kind of key to success, really.
Elaine Long
The learning how to diarise and prioritise around your schedule
Mark Quinn
Around the schedule and around the bell which we can now hear ringing.
Kate, I'm sorry to bring bells into your half term when you should be just watching Netflix with your family. But we'll let you get back to that now. We are really, really grateful for the time you spent preparing for this, this meeting with us and to spending the time with us this afternoon. Elaine and I really love doing this podcast because we learned so much about what we need to do to improve our program.
So you've taught us a lot, everyday is a teaching day as they say. So, thank you very much and goodbye.
Kate Hill
Thank you. Thank you both.
Mark Quinn
Our thanks go to Kate Hill an ECT in year one of our program. Kate teaches in the Chosen Hill School, Churchtown near Cheltenham, Kate came in and shared a cappuccino with us this week in the ECF staffroom.
Please do get in touch with us if you would like to talk about your ECF experience. We especially want to hear from a range of voices and lastly, we hope you will join us next time for a biscuit and a chat with another colleague in the ECF Staffroom.
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