ABSTRACT
By the end of your initial teacher education course you had a fair idea what 'being effective' in your school-experience school meant. As well as the pupils, in your new school the teaching programme and the resources available to you are probably different from those in your school-experience schools. So what does it mean to be effective in these new circumstances? This chapter asks you to reflect on the effectiveness of your practice in your new post. You should be relating your performance not only to the DFE competences for NQTs (DFE, 1992b and Appendix 1) but looking to progress beyond those competences. The use of competences to develop your teaching is discussed in Chapter 3 'Working with your mentor'.
