Teachers’ Confidence Improved Through Induction & EPD Funding

8 November 2007

Ysgol John Bright in Llandudno is a large secondary school with over 1,220 pupils. The School is supporting 9 newly qualified teachers through their statutory Induction year and a further 15 teachers in years 2 and 3 with their Early Professional Development (EPD).

John Bagnall, Induction and EPD coordinator and fellow teachers from the school share their experiences with “Teaching Wales”.

The coordinator
John Bagnall is a Geography teacher at Ysgol John Bright and is responsible for all newly qualified teachers who join the school as well as trainee teachers who undertake their teaching practice in the school. John told Teaching Wales “I am a strong advocate of CPD for teachers and believe that it should be available to all teachers from the outset of their career. In this regard, I welcome the support that is available from both Conwy LEA and GTCW for teachers in their first 3 years following teacher training.

Induction
Emma Jones, who has just completed her induction year at the school said “The first year of teaching can be a nerve-wracking time, meeting classes for the first time and realising what a large workload you suddenly have. Knowing there is support behind you and the money to help you develop your skills and build your confidence makes a huge difference to what can be a stressful time. The assistance I received and the courses I attended helped my first year run smoothly, keeping me motivated and relatively stress free!”

Having attended two training courses on motivating pupils and delivering inspirational lessons, Emma has also been able to take time out from her own lessons to observe her colleagues’ teaching. She explains “Seeing other people teach also reassured me that I was doing things in the right way and it gave me ideas of how best to structure my lessons and deal with challenging behaviour. Watching a lesson taking place allows you to observe things you might not normally notice if you were teaching the class. These activities have helped me develop my skills within the classroom and realise what I need to work on. This in turn has improved my confidence and has made me keen to keep on developing my teaching.”

EPD
Christopher Wright, is in his second year of teaching. He comments: “The EPD funding entitlement of £1,000 per year from GTCW is enabling me to actively seek courses that will be beneficial to me in furthering my development as a teacher. As someone who had a brief spell in England, I think we are really fortunate in Wales to have two extra years of professional development funding after Induction.

“Using my £1,000, I recently attended a course in Solihull which involved ‘high impact’ teaching in order to encourage more disaffected pupils into learning. I was also able to accompany a senior member of my department to a meeting organised by the WJEC regarding the new applied Science syllabus.”

David Sweet, who has just completed two years of EPD at the school, agrees with his colleagues’ views on the benefits of guaranteed funding for professional development in Wales in the early years of a teacher’s career. He explains “During my first year of EPD I was able to attend a course specifically designed at improving GCSE exam results. I found the course totally worthwhile and as a result, I arranged in my second year to go on a different course run by the same person. Now I feel far more confident when delivering lessons to exam classes.”

He added: “By attending relevant courses and taking on board ideas from colleagues, I have realised that there are a number of ways in which pupils can learn not only new facts but ways in which they can remember them in order to do well.”

Elfed Morgan Morris, teacher of Welsh at the school and in his second year of EPD concluded: “The advantages of EPD are immense. The GTCW funding, the support of mentors within the school and the advice from LEA advisory staff has made me feel at home in the world of education and helped me develop in my first 3 years. The EPD has made me realise that I will be forever learning, changing and developing for the better in the interest of our childrens’ education.”