Are you an ECT entering into year 2 of your ECT programme?

Are you a teacher in your 3rd or 4th year of teaching and have some areas of your teaching which you still want to develop?

Are you looking to continue to develop your practice and challenge your thinking?

Our FDTL programme is a collection of engaging face-to-face sessions developed for teachers in the early stages of their teaching career. It provides an opportunity to challenge thinking, evaluate current practice and develop as better practitioners through a research-led, evidence-based approach. 

The programme is run in a number of ways:

1. Internally within our trust allowing neighbouring school staff to buy in and participate.

2. Bespoke - Developing/tailoring the programme and delivering this for your organisation in other areas.

Generally, the programme is split across 12 half-day sessions. Six of these focus on looking at the strands within the ECTE framework; these are designed specifically for those teachers who are year 2 ECTs. The other six sessions cover a range of topics within teaching and learning which allow us to consider and develop our current practice; these sessions are open to all!

• All sessions are led by two trained and accredited facilitators based within our Training Hub
• For ECTs attending all the 12 sessions, this will cover many of the requirements for the year 2 programme as well as leading your own self-study project.
• There is full flexibility in this programme – sign up for all, or pick and choose those you would like to attend!

If you would like to be part of this exciting opportunity, our Training Hub Director is more than happy to provide you with more information so please get in touch. For 2025-26 we are only offering this programme as an external bespoke option and it will return internally in 2026-27. Our flyer below is an example of the course details from the previous year.

Do contact us if you wish us to help you with developing less experienced teachers!

Recent Feedback from delivery to the Sigma Trust base in Essex:

These sessions have impacted me as a teacher and made me reflect on the way that I teach. It was good to start with behaviour and mental health since in term one, these are the things that are having the biggest impact on us as teachers. I have enjoyed all the sessions but feel for me personally, reflecting and planning direct to learning objectives (including prior knowledge), adapting teaching so that all children can be successful has been a real goal this term. This has included being mindful of scaffolding, adults and engagement during lessons. As a teacher reflecting on my subject knowledge and thinking about what I enjoy teaching and have more confidence in teaching has also made me think about whereby gaps are in my knowledge and how I can better myself as a teacher.

The most impactful session for me was the engaging teaching strategies session as some of the strategies given are now standard practice in my classroom and have increased participation within the class. I also found the behaviour and mental health session a great way to start the course, as it allowed us to gain an understanding of where other people were with their classes, making us feel more secure in our own practice.