Samen Sterk van Start: supporting early-career teachers to stay in education
The teacher shortage in the Netherlands has been a persistent problem for years. Schools with more complex student populations in particular struggle to recruit enough qualified teachers. At the same time, as many as one in four early-career teachers leave the profession within a few years of graduating. The LerarenLab aims to change this with Samen Sterk van Start (Starting Stronger Together): a programme in which early-career teachers receive intensive support from an external mentor.
According to project leader and researcher Nienke Ruijs, the initiative is part of the LerarenLab’s broader mission: to develop promising solutions and rigorously evaluate them in order to help reduce the teacher shortage. “The first years in the classroom are incredibly demanding. Research shows that good support can make a real difference.”
Intensive support from day one
While the quality of support varies from school to school and is sometimes only introduced when problems arise, Samen Sterk van Start takes a preventive approach. At the start of the school year, beginning teachers are paired with an experienced mentor. The mentor also teaches, but at a different school. Over the course of a year, the beginning teacher receives around sixty hours of support, including fortnightly coaching sessions and monthly lesson observations. These observations are explicitly not intended as assessments, but as an opportunity to coach and support the beginning teacher.
Schools also support one another. Mentors from schools that are less affected by teacher shortages support beginning teachers at schools where the shortages are most severe. These schools often face more complex challenges and have the greatest need for support. In this way, the project also fosters greater solidarity between schools.
Ruijs emphasises that the programme is not only intended to help beginning teachers perform better, but above all to retain them in the teaching profession. “It’s about making sure we don’t lose qualified teachers.”
Finding out what really works
A key component of the project is its scientific research. Unlike many educational interventions, Samen Sterk van Start is being evaluated through a randomised controlled trial (RCT). More early-career teachers are recruited than there are mentors available. Participants are then randomly assigned either to receive mentoring or to a control group receiving the usual support. Both groups will be followed over several years.
The initial small-scale pilot, involving 16 schools and 25 early-career teachers receiving mentoring, showed that both mentors and teachers responded positively to the approach. However, according to Ruijs, it is still too early to draw conclusions about its actual impact. A larger study population is needed for that. The ambition is to expand the project over the coming years to around 300 teachers receiving mentoring and an equally sized control group, particularly in major Dutch cities.
“Through rigorous research, we can ultimately say with confidence whether this approach really works,” says Ruijs. “This will not only provide valuable knowledge for schools, but also give policymakers a stronger basis for investing in effective support.”
A listening ear and a fresh perspective
One of the mentors involved in the project is Els Voorend, who has 20 years of experience in primary education. During the past school year, she supported two early-career teachers: one teaching Reception and another teaching Year 4. Every two weeks, they had coaching sessions, alternating with classroom observations and follow-up discussions.
According to Els, the challenges vary from one teacher to another. “One struggles with classroom management, while another needs more support with teaching and learning. On top of that, almost everyone faces the same practical challenge: everything is new. As a result, everything simply takes more time.”
During the mentoring programme, she aims not only to provide practical tools, but also to help teachers build their confidence. One of the early-career teachers struggled to maintain a calm classroom environment. Together, they worked on setting clear expectations, being more consistent and using their voice effectively. With the other teacher, the focus was on developing effective lessons and setting clear learning objectives.
By the end of the programme, Els saw clear progress in both teachers. “They became more confident, and you could see that they were actually putting the tips into practice. But perhaps even more importantly, they said it was helpful to have someone who simply listened. Early-career teachers have an enormous amount on their plate.”
Her position as an external mentor plays an important role in this. Because she is not a direct colleague, early-career teachers may feel more comfortable speaking openly about the challenges they face.
Investing in retention
According to both Nienke Ruijs and Els Voorend, supporting early-career teachers should become much more standard practice. Els argues that new teachers should be given fewer additional responsibilities, such as committee work, during their first years, and that they should routinely have someone alongside them who checks in regularly and asks what support they need.
“We still hear too often that colleagues simply don’t have the time,” she says. “As an early-career teacher, that can make you feel quite alone. Problems can pile up and take a huge amount of energy.”
The initial experiences with Samen Sterk van Start have been encouraging for both interviewees. What began as a small-scale initiative in Amsterdam is now being expanded to four major cities across the Netherlands. Ultimately, they hope that intensive mentoring will become a standard part of the education system.
If the research shows in the coming years that the approach genuinely reduces attrition among early-career teachers, Samen Sterk van Start could become an important part of tackling the teacher shortage in the Netherlands. By giving new teachers a strong start, the programme can help increase the likelihood that they will continue teaching with confidence and enjoyment in the long term.