Welcoming and integrating new teachers into our schools

No headteacher wants obstacles in the way of new teachers (NTs) becoming integral and valuable members of staff. Experiencing team membership is an important factor in developing identities as competent professionals. It is, therefore, worthwhile for headteachers to ask how well the intention to support the integration of NTs is actually achieved. We hope this article will help in those reflections.

The main questions driving our project are: ‘How do new teachers learn?’ and ‘How is the process best supported – by competence-based models or otherwise?’ The team has developed a number of instruments and procedures to explore these issues and the findings will be disseminated in various ways.

However, a major part of our role has been interviewing and interacting with NTs, both in our own schools and others. We draw on this experience in asking, ‘What actually helps new teachers feel welcome and find their identity as teachers in a school?’ As schools and circumstances vary widely, we cannot give a universal answer but can only point to the factors that need to be considered as you strive to welcome and integrate NTs.

Much of what follows might seem common sense but we have been surprised that common sense has not always prevailed, though this seems to be due to systems and events rather than being deliberate.
For convenience, we have divided our observations into four. However, they are not really ‘stand-alone categories’ but a shorthand way of teasing out complex interactions so that the practicalities of facilitating the development of teaching identity can be recognised.  Thus, ‘welcoming’, ‘integration’ and ‘teaching identity’ will be discussed in relation to navigation of:

1. The school building and environs.
2. The school’s systems and policies.
3. The formal and informal social relations in the school.
4. The delivery of lessons.

This article will discuss 1 and 2. A following article will deal with 3 and 4.

1) Navigation of the school buildings and environs

Many schools organised tours of the schools as well as their catchments and this was generally welcomed by NTs. However, not all schools did both.

‘The first time I went to try and find the base I got lost, so…  I could have done with a wee tour round the school I have to say. They were very good in so far as they took us round the catchment area and showed us all the schemes and towns that most of the kids come from, which was good, it gave us a history of the area… If only… they [had] done the same for the building.’ (William)

Also, the building tour may have been some time before the new teachers joined the school, with the result that much of the layout was forgotten. If the tour was not repeated, then its effect was largely lost. Also, NTs may remain uncertain about the school layout for a surprisingly long time. This may be worst for those who join the school at unusual times.

‘Well… this is now October and I have been here since February and I still don’t know where some departments are, but I have never been shown an actual tour of the school because when I came in February, it was rushed (and) I had to get into my classes. So, I just kind of vaguely know where departments are and it is quite confusing.’ (Kat)

Certainly, time to get to know the place before being ‘thrown into’ actual teaching was welcomed.

‘Obviously it was nerve-racking. I think any new job would be to be quite honest but it was helpful that it was an in-service day so it wasn’t like trying to get to meet staff and classes at the same time. It was just a day finding my way round the school and around the department, working out where things were, just getting to know… getting a feel for the job really.’ (Lewis)

Clearly, Lewis was further on the road to feeling physically integrated into the school than William or Kat. However, for others the physical proximity of people they could call on for help seems a more immediate priority. Lizzie worked in an art department that was largely open plan (a way of working she did not like for herself) but where she had been allocated one of two classrooms.

‘People are easily accessible when you need them and I’ve also got the benefit of having my own classroom… And they’ve obviously done a lot of work to make it that way, I think… In fact, since I’ve been here, I’ve probably strayed no further than the main corridor in my department but I’m hoping that will change… I think it’s good to go out and see other areas, but at the moment I would say I’m quite blinkered because I’m focusing so much on what I’m doing.’ (Lizzie)

However, not all NTs find the support they need as easily.

‘Sometimes trying to find my way somewhere or, you know, like, if I need to speak to somebody for guidance, it’s like, “How do I get there?”’ (Gordon)

Others operate on a need-to-know basis.

‘I think in the first few weeks you are trying to get used to your own department rather than going too far afield. I know the PE department, the lunch hall, reprographics, where SMT is and staff bases and, at the moment, that is all I need to know.’ (Mark)

So, what are the issues that this section raises for headteachers? Obviously, the answers will be different for different schools with different layouts but the above suggests the following interrelated questions need to be dealt with when considering how to help NTs to navigate the school.

• When to organise tours of the school and catchment area? Should there be a ‘refresher’ when the NT starts work for real?
• Are there particular circumstances (eg extra time for the NT due to a relatively unstructured inservice day or arriving at an unusual date in the school calendar) that will help or hinder the NT in learning to physically navigate the school?
• Does the location of the NT’s teaching space enable all the support and resources they need to be physically close and accessible? If not, what is the minimum number of locations they need to know and how do we ensure that they can find them easily?

Clearly, as some of the above NTs’ comments indicate, answers to these questions also affect other aspects of integration and identity. There are also other building issues that need to be taken into account when asking how best to help NTs settle in. These include, immediate issuing of cards for entering the school or buying lunch, issuing of keys and passwords for access to the school or its relevant parts, and the way distance from the main staffroom inhibits networking. Being able to navigate the school supports other aspects of forming a teaching identity and we should not underestimate the importance of the above questions.

2) Navigation of the school’s systems and policies

NTs talked generally of experiencing a steep learning curve here. 

 ‘The systems is a big thing eh? There’s so many things, there’s so many… you know all the emails…’ (Ailidh)

This learning can be left to trial and error.

‘I think the most sort of things I’ve learned just basic school policies and school ways of doing things, you know like lateness and like everything, sort of things connected with form classes and stuff. Just all the kind of admin stuff has certainly been something that I’ve had to learn and get to grips with and find out, discipline procedures and all that. Which has basically been trial and error, find out for myself and check with faculty heads if that’s right and…. constant asking of questions… And just reading up stuff like the staff handbook…’ (Linda)

On reading Linda’s words, one feels that this trial and error process cannot be the most efficient way for her or the faculty heads. What would happen if the NT did not ask so many questions?

Problems may occur from giving information without sufficient explanation.

‘We have several different passwords for the computers and it wasn’t really explained what they were for and there were certain things like the Phoenix system and you are new and you don’t know.’ (Garibaldi)

One cause of concern is that NTs experience a relationship between systems and how others evaluate their performance.

‘Particularly at first… your real anxieties are reporting to parents and dealing with disruption, those kinds of things, those things that are right there and now and, you know, you feel you are going to be judged on.’ (Lynne)

Commenting on some inservice support she had, Lynne goes on to emphasise the need for early information and reminders.

‘[There was] a bit on disruption and there was a bit on reporting to parents and also a bit on child protection which was useful child protection information because it was about dealing with children that perhaps abuse, and not to touch the children, all those kind of… common sense but…’ (Lynne)

‘Good reminders.’ (Interviewer)

‘Yes, particularly early on’. (Lynne)

However, sketchy guidelines are not always enough. NTs may need detailed guidance on systems and policies – not be left to learn them as they go along, particularly when the pupils are experts.

‘The most issues that I have is actually with my register class, that was one issue that I don’t think was well enough explained at the beginning… I have a very challenging third year class who know how to bend every rule in the book and so the simple guidelines that I was given, just don’t apply… a few of them are on special discipline and guidance strategies, so they have different rules and I mean, the house head is generally very good at popping in, but to be honest I need somebody everyday. I have always got a question because the class are, they know how to play the system... I feel that there wasn’t enough information but it sounds silly to ask for it because it is such a simple part of the day, you just give them a tick if they are here…  but it is not, you know, there is a million other little things and forms that need to be filled in and, on the face of it, it is simple, but when… the kids know how to play it, you don’t have a hope. So I could do with, to be honest, a good session on that.’ (Vonnie)

As Vonnie is also pointing out, we should not assume that things that are simple for more experienced teachers are simple for NTs.

So the issues to consider here are:

• How to minimise the amount of trial and error the NT has to use to navigate the school’s systems and policies?
• How to ensure that NTs feel comfortable asking questions, however trivial these may seem?
• How to get information on systems and policies to the NTs early enough, including what may be useful reminders of what may seem common sense?
• How to support information with explanations, when necessary?
• How best to provide information to NTs who are faced with additional challenges?