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The clear credential

On the recommendation of the induction programme the Commission issues the clear credential, which authorises exactly the same teaching as the preliminary one did, runs for a term the Commission publishes, and, unlike the preliminary credential, can be renewed at the end of it.

Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.

What it is for

A teacher who finished induction expected a promotion and found that her authorisation had not changed at all: same subject, same grades, same classroom. What changed was that she was no longer on a clock with one exit. That is the whole difference, and it is worth having, because the alternative was running out.

How to think about it

Read the clear credential when it arrives and check that the field and the grades on it are the ones you expect, because this is the document you will be renewing for the rest of your career. Then write down its end date the same day, in the same place you write the other one, and set the reminder before you forget what an unrenewed credential costs.

Worked example

Same field, same grades, same authorisation as before
Clearing changes the term, not what you may teach.
Term of years as the Commission publishes, and this one has a way forward
The difference that matters: the road no longer has a single exit.
Field and grades checked against what I expected on the day it arrives
Errors on a credential are fixed quickly and only if somebody notices them.
End date written down beside the old one
The same habit, for a document you will hold for decades.

Your turn

Name what a clear credential can do at the end of its term that a preliminary one cannot.

A clear credential authorises the same teaching, and at the end of its term it can be

The trap

Expecting the clear credential to authorise more. It does not authorise a single additional subject or grade. Adding a subject or a grade is a separate application with its own evidence, and clearing is not that application.

Practise the clear credential on HoneA question on it now, a real problem where there is one, and it is remembered for review. Free, no email needed.