Band 5 Meeting - Competencies Advice by fatima abdi

2025-05-20 15:31:38 UTC

Shadowing opportunities across teams/specialisms

2025-05-20 15:33:28 UTC

It can be hard to dedicate time to competencies! One idea is to dedicate the last 30 mins of your day a couple of times a week where you focus on competencies

2025-05-21 07:26:41 UTC

Making time to look at your competencies, as when newly qualified and starting a new job, it's hard to prioritise this. Spend some time looking at the competencies, writing notes, as this can help see areas to focus on.

2025-05-21 07:27:37 UTC

Talk to other band 5s and other NQPs, for tips and discuss ideas.

Don’t wait until you feel “ready”, start gathering evidence early, even if it feels basic. A lot of what you’re already doing counts, so don’t underestimate your everyday work.

2025-05-21 10:27:23 UTC

What helped me:

Having regular check-ins with my supervisor to review progress and get specific feedback.

Asking colleagues (band 6s) if I could look at theirs and share what might be already around

2025-05-21 10:59:24 UTC

speak to your supervisor - if you want, they can bring it up as part of the supervision offering reminders or spend part of your supervision time looking at the notes you have already made

2025-05-27 11:32:49 UTC

Familiarize yourself with the competencies and work towards gathering evidence for each competency as you achieve them.

Speak to other b5’s to gain insight on how they worked towards theirs

Have regular check in’s with your supervisor if you are worried about not achieving some of your competencies. You can achieve competencies through shadowing opportunities through shadowing opportunities as well.

2025-05-27 15:36:24 UTC

Go through competencies systematically (one section at a time). It really helps when you do this as a group/pair so you can brainstorm what you can put into each section.

-have a think about what you could put into each section e.g. cpd opportunities, discussions, supervision etc (the rcslt also has an nqp competency doc that breaks down everything into sections with ideas on what to put in each)

-ask b6's for their competency document if they're happy to share! It's sometimes good to see the expectationhelps to feel less daunting :)

Good luck!!

2025-05-28 08:21:12 UTC

I know it looks overwhelming but you will definitely already be doing a lot, the competencies doc is just how you prove it.
Carve out specific time in your timetable so you can get little chunks done.
Highlight any sections you are unsure about and ask people (colleagues, supervisor etc!). Some of the competencies might be worded weird.
Initially, I found it useful to jot down pupils' initials and a few words in all the sections that I could, just to reassure myself how much I had already done- and then I went back and wrote it up in real words later.

Good luck!