Newsletter: One Cumbria Update 12

By 14 September 2021November 16th, 2021No Comments
Good morning everyone and welcome to the latest One Cumbria update at the start of another busy term for everyone.
ECF
Last week saw the final ECT and mentor conferences held across the county. Feedback from attendees was very positive and I hope will make starting these programmes in schools straightforward and effective. I am looking forward to visiting ECTs and mentors in schools over the next few weeks to see how it is going. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with myself or Tina if you have any questions or concerns. A big thank you to Heads for allowing staff out to attend at the beginning of term. And of course, thank you to our fantastic facilitators who did a sterling job!

 

There were some questions from mentors and ECF leads concerning funding and I have attached the guidance again for your information. ECTs with part time contracts can be confusing and require a programme adjustment to make sure schools provide the correct support. We hosted a webinar last week on how to set these up, and the PowerPoint and programme adjustment guide are on the website. Tina is available to help steer you through with a 1:1 phone call – please just email to arrange a time.

 

My Teach First log ins: All ECTs and mentors that Teach First have registered through the DfE Portal should have been sent an email giving them access to My TeachFirst (which takes them into Brightspace). If any programme members have not received a login e-mail, then please ask them to us this  Contact Us  link for assistance.

 

One Cumbria has committed to funding membership of the Chartered College of Teaching for all ECTs and their mentors and this is coming soon. This will give them access to a wide range of research materials which will support their learning and development.
NPQs

 

Hot on the heels of the ECF launch comes the new suite of NPQs, and applications are coming in now well in advance of the 30th September deadline. Our assessors are busy blind screening the applications, and applicants should expect to hear from us at the beginning of October.

 

Our NPQ facilitators start their training with Teach First this week, attending a series of twilight sessions preparing them to deliver the programmes in November.

 

As soon as the application round for the November cohort ends, we will open up the next application round for the February cohort. If you or any of your colleagues have not been able to make the September deadline, all is not lost! Please remember, Early Career Mentors would benefit enormously from the NPQ Leading Teacher Development, and all schools are eligible for scholarship funding for this course.

 

We have also been asked if experienced mentors without an ECT this year can take part in mentor training; while the Teach First materials are only available to those who are registered, all schools can put forward colleagues for the fully funded NPQLTD. Our aim is to have someone in every school, or cluster of small schools, with this qualification and we welcome applications from as many schools as possible.

 

Some colleagues attended the NPQ awareness session held on September 8th. If you or any colleagues missed the session, they can find out the key information they need from the attached presentation. Please do forward the information to anyone you think would be interested in any of the new suite. Alison is very happy to respond to individual queries via phone or video calls to discuss any aspect of NPQs – please do encourage your staff to get in touch.

 

And finally, you can now follow One Cumbria on both Instagram and Twitter – ECTs and mentors will be reporting regularly on their progress, so do look us up.

 

As always, we are very keen to hear from you with questions or comments, so please let us know what you are thinking.

Judith Schafer
Director, One Cumbria Teaching School Hub