Leadership Lessons from the Fast Track Programme for Teachers in England

Abstract

The Fast Track Teaching (FTT) programme in England, developed and funded by central government, is an accelerated leadership development programme designed for teachers in the early years of their careers. It was intended to promote their retention and rapid promotion in the profession through advancing their leadership skills. It provides a highly personalized programme of coaching, mentoring and development activities for teachers. Since its inception in 2001 annual recruitment has grown substantially and there are currently around 2000 teachers on the programme. The future of the programme is currently under review. This article reports the findings of a small-scale evaluation study of the experiences of a small number of teachers on the FTT programme currently. It attempts to capture participants’ perspectives on the programme and to contribute to the current knowledge base on accelerated leadership development. Eleven teachers from the programme were interviewed. The semi-structured interview schedule covered all aspects of provision from recruitment, through assessment to conclusion of the participants’ programme.

The main findings from the research are as follows: (1) All the participants were overwhelmingly positive about their experience on the programme. They found it inspirational and highly motivating. They also found it extremely supportive, allowing them to make a strong positive difference to the schools they were in. (2) All the participants believed that the programme had led to their more rapid career progress than otherwise would have been the case. Almost half had taken the opportunity to take higher degree programmes as part of the FTT offer. (3) All agreed that the personalization of the programme, the work of the personal leadership tutors and the support of participating head teachers were significant factors in the success of the programme. (4) All those interviewed found it difficult to suggest improvements for the programme. Minor difficulties encountered were cast as isolated events and not reflective of structural limitations of the provision.