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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Geoff Baker is a Professor of Education and Craig Lomas a Senior Lecturer in Education, both at the University of Bolton, and both former senior secondary school leaders news regarding the topics you’re engaging with, will help ensure that your disciplinary knowledge remains up to date, and that you retain your passion for the content you’re teaching. Cast your net wide Building professional networks both within and beyond your setting is another important facet of thriving as an ECT. Surrounding yourself with supportive and positive colleagues can be beneficial in both a professional and personal sense, and significantly contribute to your success as a teacher. Colleagues are a valuable source of information and advice, and are naturally essential for any collaborative approaches to work. Developing these kinds of professional working relationships early on will provide you with a support network that can generate positivity across the profession at large, and help to reduce any sense of isolation youmay be feeling. Every teacher has bad days. Having colleagues you can turn to for moral support and advice when you’re struggling can be key to staying in teaching for the long-term. There is, however, a caveat here. Positive networks can be hugely empowering, but do be mindful how insidious toxic relationships can be. Should you ever find yourself in a group whose members are all jaded with respect to the profession and see everything through a lens of negativity, it may be worth challenging them, or else moving on to a different group altogether. Invest inyour wellbeing Finally, the most potentially important piece of advice we’d offer is to develop your own ‘reset button’. Teaching is a demanding profession, and can be all-consuming if you’re not careful. Investing in yourself professionally is important – but so too is investing in your wellbeing. Setting clear boundaries between work and personal time is a routine that we’d recommend you establish as soon as possible. A teacher’s workload is never-ending. And yes, while you do need to ensure deadlines are being met, it’s just as vital that you feel capable of flicking the ‘off’ switch, without feeling guilty. The ability to practice self care is an important element of your overall wellbeing. You’ll be more effective in the classroom if you ensure that you look after yourself, both physically and mentally. Maintaining regular exercise, a healthy diet and ensuring you get sufficient sleep each night are all important for ensuring your students get the best of you in the classroom. It’s also crucial to actively seek out support and advice whenever youmight need it. Through those strong professional relationships you’ve already established, you’ll have a support network that’s ready and willing to help. One certainty in teaching is that things will go wrong from time to time – so when they do, talk things through and come up with new approaches and solutions. You can then embark on the next day knowing that this is normal, and that each day can be an opportunity for you to refine your practice and grow professionally. Thriving in the early years of your teaching career requires willing and balance. Through sharing good practice, grounding your pedagogy in research, prioritising subject knowledge development, building positive relationships and creating a reset button for your wellbeing, you can create the foundations for a successful teaching career. Teaching is a journey that requires continuous growth. There will be challenges along the way, but embracing and learning from them– whilst not forgetting to also celebrate the successes – will lead to a career where you’re not just surviving, but thriving. 29 teachwire.net/secondary C P D TEACH SECONDARY SPECIAL CPD