If you are mentoring one of our trainees this page will provide you with some of the information you will need. 

Firstly we would like to say a massive THANK YOU for taking the time to mentor one of our trainees, it is essential excellent teachers within our schools pass on their knowledge and skills to new teachers. As your trainee develops their teaching style and makes progress towards the teaching standards we hope you find it as rewarding as we do.

Mentoring a trainee during host time:

During host time trainees are not on placement and are therefore not being assessed, they will attend school  Monday - Wednesday while also attending taught sessions on Thursdays and Fridays . Trainees need to be fully inducted to your school which includes giving them the relevant policies and informing them of important information about your setting. The following induction activities have been highlighted as good practice by our trainees:

  • Receiving a welcome email prior to starting.
  • Receiving information on parking, the dress code and lunch facilities.
  • Meeting with mentor on the first day.
  • Receiving a temporary badge and fobs.
  • Receiving the Safeguarding and Behaviour policies.
  • Tour of the school (some schools use Year 6 pupils to do this)

The expectations during host time is that our trainees observe good practice while also getting involved supporting pupils, undertaking classroom duties and extra curricular activities in school. It is also expected that trainees will attend staff training and INSET days. Trainees are encouraged, during this time, to move around the school observing other teachers, classes and subjects. Each week the course lead will inform mentors of what the trainees have studied in their taught sessions allowing this to be followed up in school the following week. For example, once the trainees studied 'teaching primary maths' they are then encouraged to observe maths lessons within your school. Trainees may also be given tasks to complete such as reading a story to their class or undertaking some marking of books. During host time you are there to facilitate the trainees development by revising their timetable and supporting them to observe and access the resources they need.

We want our trainees to be fully immersed into school life and treated like one of your staff team.

Mentoring during placement:

While on placement trainees need to be placed within one consistent class where they will develop and be assessed on their teaching. As a mentor you will need to give regular informal feedback to the trainees, modelling and coaching the them in order for them to reflect and improve. Trainees need to have weekly meetings in which they formally discuss their progress and you support them to set targets against the staged expectations/ teaching standards. Trainees also need to have formal lesson observations, one of which will be with a programme lead as part of a QA visit. It is the mentors responsibility to flag up any concerns about a trainee as early as possible with both the trainee and the programme lead. At the end of the placement the mentor will need to write an end of placement report which informs the trainee of their strengths and areas for development.