We mentor because it is needed for the very survival of the profession. It is an intrinsic active part of a reflective practitioner and a good form of CPD to which we are entitled. As mentors we also fulfill some of the expectations of conduct and practice for registered teachers. We put the wellbeing, development and progress of children first by using appropriate channels to raise concerns about practice early on in teacher’s careers. We take responsibility for ourselves by practicing and promoting subject and pedagogic knowledge and improve our understanding and awareness of the standards. We reflect by having to ‘walk the talk’, promoting high expectations, equality and respect. We work collaboratively developing productive and supportive relationships in accordance with standards, uphold policies and procedures raising concerns appropriately and of course provide honest and accurate feedback in assessing trainee teacher performance. We act within our own competence and responsibility as mentors to promote joint working through constructive relationships with other colleagues outside the academy.
We are transparent and honest, and demonstrate integrity representing our professional status without taking advantage.
As we know mentoring when it is done properly requires dedication, patience, reflection and of course time. Good mentors are usually experienced and therefore in a position to provide the benefit of hindsight and confidence in their judgments. Therefore most of us also have other responsibilities within the academy and therefore can sometimes inevitably fall behind. We sometimes need time to catch up on things. It is therefore always the decision of mentors as to whether they can accommodate students or not at any time, and many make decisions from time to time not to do so (e.g.: English department).
There are some who will argue about the payback from a ‘good student’ taking and planning our lessons, but that’s assuming we have a good student. We must remember that mentoring is very much specific and bespoke, and therefore comes with a varying degree of need and need for support. The University for this Reason recommends a progressive collaborative approach. Although mentors may get time in school whilst the trainee is teaching they have to remain present in lessons or very close by at all times for the safety of our pupils and general H&S etc (advised by SMC). This of course bring limits to the nature and amount of any meaningful work requiring thought and concentration possible in this time whilst supervising, and as the trainee is usually using the laptop we can’t use it. Lesson planning time which may be short for us may take considerably longer for trainees, and quite often collaborative

planning and assessment activities may also take up a considerable amount of time, after school or early morning. The myth of an hourly meeting to fulfill the mentoring role is of course just that!
SHU requires a minimum of five formal observations, but this does not take into account the many informal observations, interventions and feedback good mentors provide as part of developing the student. Weekly mentor meetings, informal chats, paperwork, reports, formative and summative assessment, file checks; audits eat into any of our PPA time during teaching practices. There is some time available for marking whilst students teach, however good mentors are often always supervising during lessons. We provide meaningful and focused specific tasks, set targets for development, assess impact and be ready to intervene as necessary or teach collaboratively. Lessons times are therefore not free if you are a good mentor.
We have agreed again last year that we should continue to be able to take (if feel needed) up to two days for each teaching placement (NOT each student we mentor as before) to catch up on other tasks
(so one OR two students in a placement = 2 days) from home or in school. If two mentors, mentor TWO trainees in any given placement then each is allowed 1.5 days (total 3 days) not 2 days each. We now take regular paired placements in math’s and science. The academy receives £500 per student, and given that we took 14 students (4 Math’s/ English pairs) in total for last year this amounted to £7000 in revenue; which quite clearly covered any cover costs given only ONE mentor of FIVE took it. The rest of the money goes to benefit mentors departments which we prefer. Any SHU money used for cover will of course be deducted from department share. Money is also used in semester two to pay for our mentor celebration and training event at SHU, allowing active mentors to prepare, share, reflect and brush up ready for future years.
As mentors we only take the time if we need it anyway. We feel this is professionally quite reasonable, as we always consider cover and student impact when taking any time. We always consider where possible taking afternoons or mornings (and incorporating our own PPA) to work around difficult times when cover is very heavy. We plan any cover needed in advance using the usual cover rules and try to reduce impact to teaching and learning of exam classes. In light of flexible working and managing staff wellbeing we sometimes choose to work from home. Where this is the case we will phone in as normal or ask night before to check that the cover remains manageable as well as leaving a contactable number for an emergency. You can of course work in school if you wish or the nature of the work demands.
We feel this arrangement shows an appreciation for the WONDERFUL but time consuming work that mentoring involves. The non economic benefits for the school of course are obvious (see below: from PDS work done by us and departmental feedback). We also attach quantitative data for last years showing details of lesson impact from ITT contact, QA systems, brief context of our involvement and relevant success stories.

We hope to improve our already very successful partnership and close link with SHU. There are so many schools to which we have contributed informally but rarely had the chance to be truly collaborative and in partnership. The ITT work has been responsible for the training, recruitment and induction of 40% of all current teachers in the academy.
SK has a privileged role in providing a sound springboard for the development for others, and a key strategic understanding of career progression ITT and beyond. He is part of the strategic heads steering group with SHU, acts as a consultant, has secured ‘Partnership Development School’ status with the TDA in the past(national recognition by TDA) working with clusters of senior leaders, developing high quality training materials; including trial paired placement projects, an exemplification of standards
(used with over 800 students and their mentors and possibly nationally by TDA) and developed specific mentor training programme to promote good practice and consistency.
We now have secured ‘Consultancy School’ status (only 10 of 162 secondaries) and the coveted
‘Partnership Leadership School’ status to help improve ITT regionally.
This has allowed greater collaborative reflection in helping other schools to build on our success without having to ‘reinvent the wheel’; as well as raising our ITT profile. SK continues to develop and facilitate CPD for a variety of audiences, to promote good practice and consistency, and has presented his work both in Sheffield and regionally. Other mentors including DP/AL have delivered sessions at SHU and others have been involved in selection and interviews at SHU. SHU continues to share our work through SHU partnership portal regionally.
We are increasingly trying to take on more students and particularly the number of paired placements in and out of shortage subject areas. We hope to improve the mentoring strategy and organisation of this in maths and ICT through co-coaching. Being a consultancy school has provided an excellent opportunity for us to work together with other schools in developing coaching and mentoring models for ITT paired placements, without added classroom contact impact.
We would hope to promote involvement and reflective mentor accreditation (initial and advanced) for staff and link any findings with the consultancy team as well as we continue our mentor celebration and training events this year using SHU support. We would continue to recruit and retain SHU ITT students continuing professional development toward M level accreditation through our existing MTL partnership with SHU.

For School
- Financial: funding received per student taken
- More new ideas
- Support of off-site/extra-curricular activities, e.g. trips
- Support of intervention strategies for Key Stage 3 and GCSE
- CPD opportunities/development of coaching skills
- Greater opportunities for networking between departments
For Department/mentor
- Less impact on timetable, as fewer classes are needed
- More efficient use of mentoring time (two students to one mentor)
- Better quality and variety of resources produced
- Students become more mutually supportive and less dependent on members of department
- Class teachers have increased opportunity for other tasks
- Encouraging collaborative learning/coaching can make more efficient use of mentor time
- Mentor meetings can become a three way dialogue
- Students are less likely to see Mentor as first port of call – they tend to help each other first
- Can get non-lead student to focus more clearly on specific targets
For Trainee
- Support for each other and sharing of ideas
- Encourages self-evaluation
- More opportunity for professional discussion
- Increases confidence
- More effective development through observation
- More likely be innovative/take risks within supportive environment
- Develop professional relationships
- More feedback and peer evaluation
- More time for quality planning
- Improves organisational skills
- Encourages collaborative coaching
- Support for each other
- Can see lesson from different perspectives
- Shared Planning
- Each add their own strength to the relationship
- Supporting student is able to focus on assessment of pupil learning
- Increased confidence
- More likely to take risks
For Pupils
- More adults in classroom
- Stronger teaching
- More regular and immediate feedback
- More individual attention
- More varied learning experiences
- Less disruptive behaviour
- Extra support in the classroom – more personal attention
- Students more likely to be adventurous in the lessons – enhanced pupil experience
- Better behaviour management
- Marking of work is usually better kept up to date, and can be done with pupils in lesson