The Effective Induction of Newly Qualified Primary Teachers

An Induction Tutor's Handbook

Sara Bubb, Peter Mortimore

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781134121052
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First Published in 2000. As this book illustrates, the processes of induction are particularly tricky in today's schools where colleagues with responsibility for supporting new entrants to the profession are also charged with judging their capabilities and monitoring their progress. The author has drawn on her experience as a teacher, a teacher-trainer and an inspector to analyse exactly what needs to be done in order to maximise the value of the induction process for new teachers and to guide the work of experienced tutors so that their role is both rigorous and gratifying. She has tested her understanding of induction by running courses for tutors and by interrogating the latest research findings on the subject. The result is a comprehensive handbook packed with information, a set of useful forms and a series of related activities with which induction tutors can test their own understanding of the most pertinent issues.

1	The statutory induction arrangements

Background

The induction of newly qualified teachers has been an issue for many years. In 1972 the James Report on Teacher Education and Training highlighted the importance of a structured programme of induction for new teachers. HMI (1988) found that the quality of provision for NQTs was highly variable. They found that secondary schools were more likely to be able to support new teachers than primary schools, but that neither built well on initial teacher training. There was a feeling that one could forget what had been learned in college once the real job of teaching began. HMI also felt that the assessment of teachers was often impressionistic, and based too rarely on evidence. Significantly, they found that a high proportion of weak teachers had had poor induction.

Before September 1999 many NQTs did not have:

– a permanent contract

– release time

– the chance to go on LEA induction programmes

– the opportunity to observe other teachers

– feedback on how they were doing

– someone to observe them

– a mentor with time for the job

– a mentor trained in the skills for the job

– account taken of their training and previous experience.

In 1992 the probationary year was abolished. Between then and the arrangements for a statutory induction period for newly qualified teachers which started in September 1999, there was no requirement for schools to provide induction. As Kevan Bleach says,

There was little more than the professional integrity of heads, teachers and advisers to sustain and encourage good practice.

(1999b, p.12)

NQTs experienced even more variable support during these seven years, than when the probationary year was in place. Some LEAs continued with an extensive induction programme and training for mentors, but many found this hard to maintain. Some schools supported and monitored NQTs well but others treated them as cannon fodder, giving only short-term contracts and no help. Figure 1.1 shows a group of NQTs’ feelings about the support they had during their first year of teaching. The survey was conducted at the end of the 1998–99 academic year, just before induction was made statutory. The teachers were from primary schools in an inner London borough which had run a successful induction and mentoring programme. The variability even within a small geographical area is striking. The quarter of respondents who did not feel supported in their induction year wrote passionately about what had gone wrong, or rather what had not happened at all.

Before Circular 5/99, the only way that schools could get rid of ineffective teachers was to go through lengthy competency procedures. This led many to give temporary contracts, usually for one year, but sometimes for one term or less. This was clearly unsatisfactory for all concerned. People without permanent contracts found it very difficult to get loans or mortgages, and justifiably questioned the point of giving one hundred per cent to a school which they might only be in for a short time.

Figure 1.1 NQTs’ feelings about their school induction programme, July 1999

The DfEE Circular

In May 1999, the DfEE published Circular 5/99 The Induction Period for Newly Qualified Teachers. This described induction as ‘a bridge from initial teacher training to effective professional practice’ (para. 1). The expectation was that supporting people well at the start of their career would ‘help them to give of their best to pupils and to make a real and sustained contribution to school improvement and to raising classroom Standards’ (para. 1).

The circular put into place a hurdle to be crossed before complete entry into the profession is guaranteed. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) (1999) sums up the different interpretations of this in the title of its publication Induction: Bridge or Barrier? NQTs have to meet demanding Standards at the end of the induction period before being allowed to continue to teach.

NQTs must demonstrate that they have continued to meet the Standards for the award of QTS on a consistent basis in an employment context and met all the Induction Standards to satisfactorily complete the induction period. (DfEE 1999, para. 5)

How is induction funded?

At the time of writing, maintained schools are given money for induction through Grant 1 of the Standards Fund. The TTA says

The assumption is that LEAs will identify and delegate to their schools funds that are at least sufficient to secure the 10% reduction in NQTs’ timetables and to cover the costs of training for inductees, line managers, head teachers and mentors. (TTA 1999b, p. 31)

However, Grant 1 is for many other school improvement initiatives. The whole amount is devolved by LEAs in the way that they see fit – ‘there will inevitably be winners and losers’ as one official said. This means, in practice, that some schools have barely enough to cover the NQT’s 10 per cent release time, let alone money to send induction tutors and NQTs on courses. I have met many NQTs who have suffered because of confusion over funding. They have, for instance, not had a reduced timetable until the second term.

Who must complete the statutory induction period?

People who were awarded Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) after 7 May 1999 have had to complete an induction period of a school year (or equivalent) if they are to work in maintained primary or secondary schools, or in non-maintained special schools in England. Those who qualified before May 1999 do not have to go through statutory induction, even if they do not take up their first post until after September 1999.

NQTs who are awarded QTS, but who do not satisfactorily complete a statutory induction period, will not be eligible for employment as a teacher in a maintained school or non-maintained special school. However, their QTS cannot be taken away from them.

Only teachers with QTS are entitled to induction. Those who have teaching qualifications outside the European Union have to gain QTS in England through, for instance, the Graduate Teacher Scheme.

Teachers do not, by law, have to complete an induction year if they work in the independent sector, though they would need to if they moved to the state sector. However, they can complete their induction period in an independent school if it teaches the National Curriculum. The Independent Schools Council recommends that their members provide induction.

Supply teachers can only start their induction period if they are employed for a full term to teach the same class. NQTs can only work as supply teachers for four terms after their first appointment, before taking a settled job in which to do their induction period. This should benefit teachers because they will get the support and further training that they need.

Where can NQTs complete their induction period?

Schools which can provide an induction period are:

(a)	maintained schools;
(b)	non-maintained special schools;
(c)	independent primary schools, if they teach National Curriculum Key Stages 1 and 2.

Schools that cannot provide induction include:

(a)	pupil referral units;
(b)	schools requiring special measures unless one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors certifies in writing that the school is suitable for providing induction;
(c)	independent schools that do not teach the National Curriculum.

At the time of writing, teachers are not allowed to complete their induction year abroad, even if they are working in British schools. This is because there is no Appropriate Body for these schools.

The Appropriate Body

The school needs to have an Appropriate Body to which they send reports and which has a quality assurance role. All LEAs act as Appropriate Bodies. In independent schools, the appropriate body will be either the LEA for the area in which the school is situated or the Independent Schools Council Teacher Induction Panel (ISCTIP).

The Appropriate Body has two key responsibilities:

• to assure itself that schools understand, and are able to meet, their responsibilities for monitoring, support and guidance and for undertaking a rigorous and equitable assessment of the NQT; and

• to decide, in the light of the head teacher’s recommendation, whether an NQT has satisfactorily completed the induction period, and to communicate this decision to the NQT, the head teacher, the General Teaching Council (GTC), and the DfEE. It may, in exceptional circumstances, offer an NQT the opportunity of an extension to the induction period. (Circular Annex C, 15–21) (TTA 1999b, p.113)

It must also identify a named contact on induction matters, with whom NQTs may raise issues about their induction programme where they cannot be resolved satisfactorily within the school.

The components of the induction period

Circular 5/99 states that

The induction period will combine an individualised programme of monitoring and support, which provides opportunities for NQTs to develop further their knowledge, skills and achievements in relation to the Standards for the award of QTS, with an assessment of their performance. (DfEE 1999, para. 4)

The key words are monitoring, support, assessment.

In practice this means that there is an entitlement for NQTs that should last throughout their induction period. This is three terms or the equivalent. Thus if an NQT only works two and a half days a week their induction period will last for six terms.

NQTs are entitled to the following:

1. A job description that does not make unreasonable demands (see below).

2. An induction tutor.

3. Meetings with the induction tutor.

4. The Career Entry Profile (CEP) discussed by NQT and induction tutor.

5. Objectives, informed by the strengths and areas for development identified in the CEP, to help NQTs improve so that they meet the Standards for the induction period.

6. A 10 per cent reduction in timetable – this will be half a day off a week or the equivalent.

7. A planned programme of how to spend that time, such as observing other teachers.

8. At least one observation each half term with oral and written feedback, meaning a total of at least six a year.

9. An assessment meeting towards the end of each term.

10. An assessment report at the end of each term. This will u...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword by Professor Peter Mortimore
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 The statutory induction arrangements
• Chapter 2 Being an induction tutor
• Chapter 3 The Induction Standards
• Chapter 4 The Career Entry Profile
• Chapter 5 Setting objectives and drawing up an action plan
• Chapter 6 Solving problems with planning
• Chapter 7 The individualised induction programme
• Chapter 8 Ways to record evidence of progress
• Chapter 9 Assessment meetings and reports
• Chapter 10 Developing a school policy for induction
• Appendix 1 Standards for the Award of Qualified Teacher Status (DfEE Circular 4/98)
• Appendix 2 The NQT Induction Assessment Form (DfEE Circular 5/99)
• Bibliography
• Index