Year 1 ECTs – January 2024 Cohort – March 2024 Update

The Spring Term is racing by and you have already completed your first half term in school – we hope that you had an enjoyable half term break with the opportunity to refresh and recharge.

Now that your induction training has been completed, we trust that you have been meeting with your mentor in school to build on the learning and resources. Your weekly mentoring interactions will give you the opportunity to discuss your ECF learning, any contextual issues and to engage in developing your practice in a low stakes environment.

We would love to know how you are settling in so do get in touch!

Avoiding working memory overload

Your ECF seminars for this month have been designed in conjunction with Teach First subject matter experts – Benjamin Riley and Jim Heal from Deans for Impact. You may have been introduced to this organisation during your induction.

Their aim is to shape teacher training and development to improve student outcomes. Their training is rooted in understanding the role that memory plays in learning, and subsequently how teachers can support the retention of knowledge. Find out more https://www.deansforimpact.org/

“The key is to try to get students to think about what we want them to remember” Benjamin Riley

In your first seminar, you will build further on your understanding of working and long-term memory and develop key strategies to use in the classroom to ensure you are managing the cognitive load of your pupils.

You’ll consider the use of combining verbal and graphical representations and, along with worked and partially worked examples. Take a moment to reflect…

• Do you use these already?
• How effective are they?

It can be easy to present too much information to pupils so that what we really want them to remember gets lost in the processing of everything else. Definitely food for thought!

For any questions about your training or the ECF offer from Generate Teaching Hub please contact ecf@wpat.uk.