11 Jul 2025ECF - Early Career Framework
VITT are working with the Kent Teaching School Hub for our ECT Programme which is delivered by Ambition Institute.
The Early Career Framework provides an entitlement to two years of evidence-based development for teachers at the start of their career.
Through the framework we have developed our carefully sequenced and evidence-informed curriculum for teachers and mentors focuses on how teachers learn as well as what they learn. We use instructional coaching, one of the best-evidenced forms of professional development, meaning your early career teachers will benefit from bite-sized content and tailored, observational feedback to help them to keep getting better over time.
ECTs will also benefit from our innovative Steplab platform, designed by teachers, for teachers. An accessible learning platform designed to provide carefully structured support, to ensure that mentors can provide high-quality mentoring without adding to their workload.
We’ve been perfecting our programme for early career teachers since our early pilot in 2019, funded by the Education Endowment Foundation. We use what we learned to further develop our programme offer for schools across England.
Through the framework, early career teachers are entitled to additional support and training, including one-to-one mentoring from an experienced colleague. Mentors are similarly offered support and guidance on how to get the most from their role and their early career teachers.
Curriculum
Each term ECTs will focus on a different strand of effective practice: behaviour, instruction and subject. They will also develop understanding of how pupils learn.
The key learning from the three strands is outlined below:
What they'll learn
Behaviour
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Using routines to support behaviour management.
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Creating a positive learning environment.
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Support with overcoming low-level disruption.
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Support with creating high expectations in the classroom.
Instruction
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Supporting pupils through instruction based strategies such as questioning, scaffolding and modelling.
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The importance that prior knowledge plays learning.
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How to adapt classroom practice to meet the needs of all pupils.
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How to use feedback effectively.
Subject
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Creating good planning habits to support learning goals.
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Strategies for examining and addressing the gaps and misconceptions pupils may have.
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Considering how literacy can be developed across all subjects.
How they'll learn
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3 full-day conferences (focused on deepening their understanding of how pupils learn, the principles of adaptive teaching, and effective implementation).
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6 one-hour virtual clinics to support early career teachers to address a typical teaching problem faced by most teachers, based on their study materials and key areas from the Early Career Framework (ECF).
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Regular modules of online learning. Self-study modules help early career teachers engage with the latest research and ideas for practical classroom implementation in a manageable and accessible way.
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Regular instructional coaching sessions designed to support early career teachers to apply insights from the study materials into their classroom practice. Mentors will provide teachers with a specific, bite-sized step to practice each week that responds to their own classroom context and practice.
