Induction Loop

As a new teacher working through the statutory induction period, you’re making what’s potentially the most empowering transition of your career, from trainee to fully-fledged teacher. So critical is this move that you have an entitlement to high-quality support from all of your colleagues generally, and from your induction tutor in particular.

The strength and value of that support could be the factor which decides whether you remain in the profession for the long term, so it’s essential that schools get it right and that new teachers shout loud should they feel unsupported in any way.

Your induction tutor is not simply a coordinator of the support you receive throughout your induction. There needs to be a real partnership between you both and a commitment on all sides to work on developing a culture of effective, challenging support.

John Carr and Jeff Cull, both members of the Teacher Training Agency’s induction team, are well aware of the importance of support in helping to establish new teachers in the profession and encouraging them to go from being a trainee teacher to being a qualified teacher who’s able to make a real contribution in the classroom and in the school.

‘There is a generation of teachers who didn’t have that very structured support and while many were lucky enough to find themselves in schools or authorities where support was forthcoming on a local basis, there were many who were effectively left to sink or swim. If there’s a single most important thing about having a statutory induction arrangement, it’s that every NQT really does have an entitlement to some level of support, and they can expect that and are entitled to expect that’, says John Carr.

‘It’s also important to the profession as a whole that it supports its newest members. Clearly we all know that we lose a significant number of teachers fairly early on in their careers and we’ve got research which shows that an effective and supportive induction programme offsets a lot of the negative things that affect teachers early on. It encourages them to have a positive attitude to the profession and to stay in it.’

Jeff Cull agrees: ‘The key message is that having invested in their training, and with these people having chosen teaching as a career, we want to ensure that we do everything possible to see that they are retained, and so that they can contribute to raising standards both for themselves and also for the children they teach.’

What you can expect

The Newly Qualified Teacher’s Handbook  states that, ‘It would not be unrealistic for you to have high expectations of the mentoring process. At the very least you can expect:

• A carefully selected induction tutor or mentor with excellent interpersonal skills who knows the exact details of their role
• An induction tutor or mentor with sufficient time to devote to your induction period so that fair judgements can be made on your progress
• A relationship with your induction tutor or mentor that can develop over the time of your induction in response to your progress and changing needs, with support always remaining a constant’

That ‘carefully selected induction tutor’ is the person who takes overall responsibility for your induction. There may be many other people involved but the importance of the induction tutor is that they liaise on your behalf with other colleagues, organising activities and generally looking after you.

Very early on in your induction (almost as soon as you arrive in post) you can expect to have a discussion with your induction tutor, using transition point two of the new Career Entry and Development Profile. This is when you can think about what your professional development actually needs. You can also expect to be observed very early on. You certainly shouldn’t be left to your own devices, even if the intention behind this is to see how you settle in.

As John Carr explains, ‘At one extreme the most confident NQTs don’t want to be left alone, they want to be getting on with their development right away, and at the other extreme if you’ve got someone who’s in trouble, being left alone to settle in is not a good idea as by the time somebody comes along to observe and work with them you may find that it’s remedial. An NQT who finds that they are being left alone at the start of their induction period should certainly feel empowered to go and find out why that is and to start seeking help.’ 

Making the relationship work

There’s no single aspect of the NQT-mentor relationship that can help it to work best. It’s a professional relationship and there are as many ways of developing and nurturing those as there are new teachers and induction tutors!

Jeff Cull feels that one problem that can sometimes arise occurs when newly qualified teachers who have gone through the traditional school-college-school route find it difficult to change their attitude to accommodate somebody who’s working with them on their learning and development.

‘They tend to regard that person still as a tutor in the college sense, although that’s less of a problem for someone who has gone through a graduate-teacher programme, for example, where they’ve been having a different sort of relationship’, Jeff Cull explains.

John Carr agrees. ‘What really makes it work,’ he says, ‘is when both the NQT and their induction tutor see this as a relationship between two qualified teachers, one clearly with a bit more experience and very often a bit more awareness of what’s going on in that particular school. But fundamentally, they are discussing somebody’s professional learning and development on that shared basis. That’s important on both sides of the relationship. It’s clearly important for the induction tutor to recognise that this is now a qualified colleague they’re talking to. OK, it’s someone at the beginning of their career with less experience in the classroom, but somebody who has got QTS and who is probably able to engage with them on a different level from a trainee teacher on a placement.’

Encouraging effective mentoring

As an NQT, you can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the mentoring you receive. The Newly Qualified Teacher’s Handbook suggests that the following can help greatly:

• Get to know the Induction Standards and the Standards for Qualified Teacher Status.
• Attend all the induction sessions you are offered.
• Work hard at building a solid relationship with your induction tutor or mentor.
• Be aware of the time constraints your induction tutor or mentor may be facing but don’t let that put you off asking any questions or raising any concerns.
• Be receptive to new ideas that may be different from those you have encountered in the past.
• Express your needs related to your workload as early as possible – be honest about this, as seemingly confident and capable NQTs can miss out on support.
• Put forward your ideas for your induction and think carefully about how challenging you want your targets to be
• Get to know last year's NQTs and draw on them for additional support.
• Get to know the areas of expertise of your colleagues.
• Do regular evaluations of your work and acknowledge your progress.
• Keep records of incidents that have happened in your classroom to use as a basis for discussion.
• When possible, give feedback on the quality of the mentoring you are receiving.
• Facilitate constructive discussions by displaying good listening skills and asking for clarification on anything you don’t understand or don’t agree with.
• Aim to integrate what you learn from colleagues on a daily basis.   

Seeking help

The great majority of new teachers pass their induction period successfully. But for some, this success is ensured by the timely intervention of their induction tutor in arranging for additional and appropriate support. One of the messages that the TTA is keen that new teachers should hear is that seeking help is a strength and not a sign of weakness. You should take an active role in your own development and part of that is recognising when you need some support and seeking that out.

Once you have requested help, your induction tutor and colleagues have the task of ensuring that you get a supportive response. But it’s important for you to have the confidence to contribute to that process.

What if things go wrong?

For most new teachers, induction runs without hitch, but if you do find yourself struggling with your relationship with your induction tutor or mentor, there are several steps you can take:

• Initially, it is usually best to discuss things face to face with the person involved.
• If this doesn’t help, or if you feel that to do so would be unwise then there may be somebody within your school who looks after professional development generally (a continuing professional development coordinator or even an induction coordinator in a large school).
• Your school may also have arrangements for raising professional concerns.
• If you are still not satisfied that the situation is being handled effectively, it can be diplomatically worthwhile to raise the issue with the head.
• There will be a named contact at your LEA who can support you from outside your school. Your professional association will also be able to offer support and advice.

If there’s one message to take from any advice regarding your induction and how you can encourage effective mentoring, it's 'Don’t Panic!' When you’ve only recently completed initial teacher training and are just starting induction, it’s understandable to regard it as another hoop to get through. But remember, nearly all NQTs are successful. Think less of the assessment factor and more of the professional learning opportunities. Approach it with this attitude and all aspects of induction will become far easier.

Further information

The Newly Qualified Teacher’s Handbook by Elizabeth Holmes is published by RoutledgeFalmer.

The TTA website carries downloadable support materials for NQTs.