Ambition April 2026

This session is an introduction to the programme and covers part of the content from ECT conference 1, Your welcome email directs you to the recording for the remainder of the event.

This session explores the principles and features of adaptive teaching, including some suggested tools to support pupil learning and adapt teaching where necessary.

This session explores the importance of working with others for pupil wellbeing, progress and motivation, and exemplifies key principles of high-quality conversations with a range of stakeholders in the scenarios. 

Before the session:

• Download or make a copy of the workbook

• Use your own device with a working camera and microphone

• Speak to your induction tutor if you need tech support

• Please see our guidance on professional conduct

Clinic focus; 

This clinic explores the importance of timely and effective feedback that both supports pupil progress and is considerate of workload, and exemplifies key principles of high-quality feedback through a range of scenarios. 

Before the session:

• Download or make a copy of the workbook

• Use your own device with a working camera and microphone

• Speak to your induction tutor if you need tech support

• Please see our guidance on professional conduct

This session explores the importance of setting up and maintaining high expectations as a way to prevent and respond to low-level disruption, and exemplifies key principles of high-quality practice through a range of scenarios.

Arrival time: From  9:00am

Session time: 09:30 am - 3:30 pm

This session explores the principles of effective literacy and numeracy teaching across subjects, phases and contexts, and the positive impact this can have on progress in all subjects, as well as wider outcomes, for all pupils.

This session explores the importance of pupils thinking hard during paired, group and whole-class discussions, and exemplifies key principles of supporting pupils to think hard in these contexts through a range of scenarios.

This session explores the importance of high-quality classroom talk, and how teachers can integrate it into lessons to support pupils to articulate key ideas, consolidate understanding and extend their vocabulary.

This session explores the importance of supporting all pupils, and, building on the knowledge participants have built over the course of the two years, how they can continue to provide additional, adapted and specialist support to meet a range of pupils' needs.

This session explores the fundamentals that will underpin mentors' success as an effective mentor and the success of ECTs on the programme. It includes sections on:

- What the ITTECF is, and how Ambition Institute’s programme is structured around this to provide ECTs with a high-quality training programme.

- The research and international best practice that the ECT programme is informed by, including an overview on the science of learning and why instructional coaching is a ‘best bet’ for teacher improvement.

- The instructional coaching model, how this is an essential tool for mentoring, and how it can be used for both performance and task based modelling. This section breaks down the model into stages; mentors practise each of these stages and receive feedback. 

Conference content:

Building from mentor conference 1, this session explores how mentors can further develop their instructional coaching practice, through adapting the coaching model in response to ECTs’ growing expertise. It includes sections on:

- The research around flexible knowledge and adaptive expertise

- The ways the instructional coaching model can be adapted in order to support ECTs to build flexible knowledge and adaptive expertise. This section highlights a range of strategies mentors could use, depending on ECT need; mentors practise a selection of these strategies and receive feedback. 

This session builds from mentor conference 2, which introduced a range of strategies mentors could use to adapt the coaching model in response to ECTs’ growing expertise. In this session, mentors make sense of their knowledge around adaptive expertise and are introduced to a further strategy they may choose to use. Mentors have the opportunity to practise and receive feedback on this strategy.

Coaching for mentors is a training offer exclusively aimed at mentors on the ECTP (Early Career Teacher Programme)

Structure & Content 

The basic structure of CFM is a 1:1, 45 minutes to 1 hour long (or less) meeting between a mentor and a coach arranged at a time that is convenient to the mentor.

The session aims to support and develop the mentor's ability to coach their ECT in their weekly/fortnightly feedback meetings or to support the mentor in any way with anything at all. The focus might be related to the following areas of instructional coaching (but can be about anything else): 

• Selecting appropriate steps

 • Sharing the model 

• Sharing the step 

• Deliberate practice 

• Analysing the gap

Coaching for mentors is an ‘optional’ strand of the ECT programme.