At the start of the year, early career teachers were significantly more likely than experienced colleagues to report behaviour disrupting their lessons – a gap of 22 percentage points in December. By April, that gap has narrowed to just 10 points. It’s one of the most encouraging findings from our ongoing ECT tracking this year: new teachers are getting better at managing behaviour, and quickly.
Stress levels are shifting too. In October, 66% of ECTs said student behaviour had been a source of stress. By April, that had dropped to 59%. Still high, but the direction is clear.
There are nuances worth noting for those designing ECT support. Lunchtimes remain a pressure point: only 8% of ECTs feel refreshed after their break, more than a third have their lunch interrupted by pupils, and over half say they had to work through it. And on AI: ECTs use it at similar overall rates to non-ECTs, but are more likely to use it specifically for lesson planning (27% vs 20%), a distinction that some mentors have flagged as a concern, given that the planning process itself is part of the professional learning ECTs need.
Read the full Teacher Tapp: ECT spring term update