Celebrating the Second Year of our ECT Summer Development Programme
After the hugely successful launch of our first programme last year, we are incredibly proud to have brought the two-week programme back for a second year.
The programme is exclusive to ECTs who will be joining Watergrove Trust schools in September, providing incoming teachers with a thorough and nuanced understanding of the local contexts of their schools so that they can better apply their professional practice to meet the needs of young people in Rochdale. This facilitates a granular knowledge base that can only be gained through guidance from experienced practitioners in the area and we are proud of the programme’s positive impact.
Our dedicated Teaching and Learning Team led the programme with a number of training sessions also conducted by our Trust colleagues including our CEO, COO, Director of People, Strategic IT Director, Marketing Manager, Deputy Headteacher and DSL at Wardle Academy and Primary Inclusion Lead.
Workshops spanned every aspect of high quality learning design, including meeting the needs of learners with SEND without lowering expectations and tailored AI training with strategies and tools to improve planning efficiency to sustain their work-life balance.
The programme also featured substantial and explicit instruction on classroom management and how to develop young peoples’ sense of belonging to their schools and community.
We were also joined by Educational Transactional Analyst, Cat Cornthwaite, who led colleagues through the official introduction to Transactional Analysis, TA101, providing our ECTs with the necessary skills for effective classroom leadership, forming part of the Trust’s commitment to “Provide More” to their statutory ECT offer.
As well as preparing ECTs for life in the classroom, the Summer Development Programme allows the 2025 cohort to come together to connect, forge friendships and share their experiences across Early Years, primary and secondary settings.
The programme ended with a tour of our nine Watergrove Trust schools, and the Watergrove Reservoir, led by our CEO, Mark Moorhouse, to reaffirm the Trust’s community values and to highlight our charter that Everyone belongs.
We received some wonderful feedback from this year’s ECT cohort who highlighted the opportunity to connect with their fellow ECTs, gain evidence-informed teaching insights and contextualise their learning to the local community.
Watch the video to view the lovely feedback from our ECTs.
