Julie McBrearty ECT Project manager

Introducing Julie McBrearty ECT Project Manager CPTSH

Julie joined the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Teaching School Hub (CPTSH) team in September 2024 as our ECT Project Manager. We deliver the DfE-funded provider-led Early Career Framework as a partner to Teach First to all schools, regardless of phase or type. Our two-year programme is delivered by a team of expert facilitators from our Hub area to ensure that we respond to our local contexts. We caught up with Julie to discuss her role, how the ECF is transforming the support and development offer for teachers at the start of their career, and her experiences as a Headteacher. 

Julie welcome to CPTSH. What attracted you to the role of ECT Project Manager? 

"I've been in teaching for many years and was a Headteacher for 11 years at a delightful 11-16 school in South Leicestershire. I retired from this role in 2023. As an NPQ facilitator with the CPTSH, the part-time ECT Project Manager post seemed like a good opportunity to utilise some of the skills and knowledge I've accrued over the years. I have developed a range of expertise; I can now share some of that with new members to our profession in addition to teachers becoming senior leaders. I've worked with ECTs as a Headteacher, and this was an opportunity to look at provisions through a different lens. I'm really enjoying welcoming some extremely talented people to a profession that I hold very dear. I've joined a well-established team of highly skilled and committed individuals at CPTSH to this whole programme. They had just made the transition to Teach First being the lead provider for ECF and NPQs, so this development and my professional experience naturally aligned."

What is the 'nub' of your role as CPTSH, as you see it?

"I think the role itself is an exciting development. It ensures a personalisation of provision and enhances the delivery of the DfE 'golden thread' at CPTSH. Considering the changes that are happening, the review of the ECF and the launch of the Early Career Teacher Entitlement (ECTe), this is an opportunity to optimise programme delivery, so teachers are involved, retained, and performing well in the classroom, It's a huge operation we have in terms of numbers of ECTs in the area. Together with an efficient team, I'm reconciling work between a lot of different stakeholders: ECTs, mentors, teachers, facilitators, and operational colleagues at CPTSH. The premise of the ECTe is to provide appropriate support for staff to enable them to be incorporated into the profession sucessfully. We have a passion for teacher development that, hopefully they will continue through NPQs or other professional development opportunities. We want our teachers to be research-informed, reflective practitioners, and studies indicate this leads to strong outcomes for students. Ultimately, whether it's a teacher, Head, or an ECT Project Manager, I feel strongly about ensuring we provide opportunities for our youngsters to develop better outcomes: both academically, and in terms of enhanced social/cultural capital."

What are the key issues and challenges in delivering the ECF?

“I think it’s managing it within what is already a demanding working day. New teachers have a lot to come to terms with and research confirms it takes years to become a good teacher. We talk about cognitive overload for students, and it can be the same for new teachers. The challenge is using the programme to deconstruct and make explicit good teaching. New teachers are still learning their craft and we must be mindful of ultimately managing workload and wellbeing with them. Another aspect is liaising with Teach First about how appropriate the material is that we’re covering in school. Teach First proactively seek feedback to ensure the programme material is current, applicable, and understandable. The introduction of the new combined Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) will be helpful – aligning them to make a three-year programme is sensible.’’

Tell us about your experience working with ECTs, and what you learned as a Headteacher that you can bring to this role.

“I was fortunate as a Headteacher to recruit several really good teachers through The Cambridge Partnership. The Cambridge Partnership, together with our own skilled mentors in school, helped us to develop new teachers through what would now be recognised as the apprenticeship route in Initial Teacher Education (ITE). Some of these trainee teachers currently occupy middle and senior leadership positions. A positive perception of this institution led me to explore opportunities with CPTSH. I consider it a privilege to work in a different area of education provision. What I can bring is operational fluency regarding the application of the programme, whether it is NPQs or the ECF. I know what it’s like for teachers in school and the myriad demands on their time. I have that understanding from a number of perspectives to include other stakeholders such as governors and school leaders.”

How does CPTSH’s model support that time aspect?

“CPTSH have sought and responded to feedback. They have tried to minimise the impact on youngsters of teacher absence from the classroom. Through liaising and consulting with different stakeholders, we offer a hybrid model where there are some face-to-face and some online seminars. To me that seems to be the optimum delivery model, it’s wonderful to see our ECTs in person and for them to see each other, but equally as a Headteacher you don’t want them to be out of school too often. We offer some twilight sessions as well, which they can access as a recording if they can’t attend at the scheduled time. Within the seminars there are opportunities for networking and sharing good practice. This is where shared strategies can provide time-saving ideas.”

What impact are we seeing in specialist training, across secondary and primary?

“Part of the reason we moved to Teach First was because that afforded us the opportunity to specialise. The model we operate is that the ECTs in secondary are in a mixed group in the first year, across aspects from the curriculum, which gives them different perspectives. Then in the second year, they are in discrete groups relative to their subject. All the scientists will be together, all the RE teachers will be together, and they will then be with a specialist facilitator. Feedback from those teachers is they want practical, applicable ideas that they can deliver through their own specialist areas. Do you want a facilitator who will understand that and be able to deliver you the latest research-informed thinking? Yes, because it affords that niche subject, and that niche set of ideas for delivery through your own specialist areas. However, our primary colleagues get that as well. In their second year, they also specialise in phase or in a particular year with their facilitators. Additionally, our colleagues in Early Years or Special Schools work in specialist groups for the full two years of the ECF. Our facilitators are experienced practitioners, and a number are specialists across Meridian Trust.”

How do you work with mentors in schools?

“They have their own mentor training programme as well. There has been a recent change to this because the DfE have removed the statutory mentor requirements in ITE. I think that is going to cause us to think more deeply about exactly what we offer with Teach First. There is only one year of training now for mentors of ECTs. I was in a school recently where the mentor said to me the ECF had been great teaching for her as a teacher, in addition to mentor training. She had learnt a lot by covering the ECF with her ECT, and what she could do then was contextualise it and use her experience to discuss that with her ECT. I really value the ECF – when I started there was nothing like this – but the contextualisation and the expertise that the mentors offer is really valued by the ECTs.”

What attracted you into teaching, and why have you dedicated your career to it?

“It wasn’t something I considered initially. It was a suggestion from my career's advisor at school about keeping my options open at degree level, and then the degree I picked had that as an opportunity. I tried it, and I absolutely loved it. I was teaching A level quite early on and really appreciated the demands of that. For me, it’s a life-affirming profession. It’s not without its challenges, it’s not without its time and emotional demands, but progress is often secured after you’ve really had to cognitively wrestle with something and work problems out. I think when you support people, be that youngsters, early career staff or middle leaders, to actually realise their own potential, you’ve walked with them a bit on that journey, that is a quite a life-affirming experience. I find it fulfilling and welcome the opportunity to continue making a contribution within the profession.”

What do you see as the place of CPTSH in the region?

“It’s affording a personal approach to what is a large-scale provision. It’s a group of colleagues who have been working together successfully for some time; this can be unusual in education. They provide a good organisational memory for what has happened, and how the vision for teacher development may be adapted and rolled out in the future. The team are local, they bring personal knowledge about all the schools, which is helpful. The value is they are very invested both locally and nationally, provide a personal interface to all stakeholders when delivering the provision. When you’re delivering large scale and especially online, it can feel quite disconnected particularly initially. If the people leading, organising and delivering ensure continuity of personnel, you start to build those relationships. We’re interspersing our online provision with face-to-face opportunities, which deepens a relationship and makes you feel more connected and valued.”

Finally, what does success look like from this work?

“Through the work of the Teaching School Hub, it really is developing the DfE’s vision of the ‘golden thread’ running smoothly throughout the whole of the teaching development journey. Ultimately, what we want is to keep good teachers in schools, as that will lead to the best outcomes for youngsters. That was a challenge as a Headteacher, trying to make sure you were constantly recruiting and retaining high-calibre teachers. If we can get that right at the start and then encourage those people to carry on training, and provide them with stimulating material which will want them to keep engaging with the research and keep them passionate about their roles, then that for me would be the success of work to execute the vision.”