Structuring professional mentoring sessions Professional mentoring depends on participation by the mentor and the trainee teacher and it takes place across three time zones: past, present and future. There is a parallel process in learning to teach and learning to mentor. You should begin with planning, thoroughly and meticulously and as you become more confident and skilled use the plan as a springboard for your creativity. One of the reasons that mentors are so short of time is that senior management often does not recognise the need for planning time. One hour per week cannot be sufficient unless some of it is allocated to the mentor's own planning and reflection in preparation for and following mentoring sessions. The most proactive phase of mentoring is in the early days and so a case might be made for allocating more time at the outset of the year and less as the trainee becomes more self-sufficient. Mentor and trainee will come to know one another better and mentoring usually shifts productively to a form of co-enquiry and away from a more coaching focused model.

Structuring each mentoring session (extracts from Mentoring in Schools, 2000, p.22) The three main sections of each mentoring session - and you may initially decide to allocate some of your designated time to each - are feedback, present considerations and planning. Feedback Begin by putting your trainee teacher at ease, explain your objectives for the session and listen carefully (and take on board) your trainee's objectives too - mentoring sessions are whenever possible a form of constructed co-enquiry where mentor and trainee teachers are looking for suitable solutions and positive professional dialogue. There will be crises and time must be allocated to deal with these but they should be addressed in relation to the three components of structured mentoring sessions - feedback, present considerations and planning. Plan the order, whenever possible, for th three constituents and use targtetted questioning to draw out your trainee's ideas. Present considerations Look at the issues that relate to both school- and university based aspect ts of the teacher training programme and undertake a mini audit - where are we - what are the salient issues being discussed (or not discussed) at present between all personnel involved in teacher training. It's not a question of theory being given out in university-based sessions and then applied in the school context - there should be an integration of theory and practice with regard to classroom realities in both locations so the programme is dovetailed between providing factions. The mentor needs to know what is covered in university sessions and the university needs to know what is covered in school-based sessions each time they occur - a training log is not a luxury - it is a necessity. Planning Planning for future discussions and activities needs to be predicated upon the feedback and review of status quo. The objective here is not to give broad rhetorical leaps in practice but systematic plans that can be bench-marked and carefully (self) monitored by the trainee with the mentor's assistance. Assessment as a basis for planing is a collaborative activity as it is essential for a trainee to feel not only aware of what the goals are but owning the process of achieving these goals. The planning stage should set out how to meet any targets relating to QTS - achieving QTS needs to be at the heart of planning as does a clear understanding of how evidence will be gathered. This third part of the cyclical construct of a mentoring session should be appropriately challenging as well as supportive.

Observing lessons Fletcher, S. (2000) Mentoring in Schools, London, RoutledgeFalmer, Chapter 5 Observing lessons (Fletcher, 2000)

Giving Feedback to Your Trainee Teacher Fletcher, S. (2000) Mentoring in Schools, London, RoutledgeFalmer, Chapter 6

Planning Lessons with your Trainee Teacher Fletcher, S. (2000) Mentoring in Schools, London, RoutledgeFalmer, Chapter 7 http://www.MentorResearch.net By clicking on this link you can gain access to a website dedicated to research for and by school-based mentors. The review of Mentoring in Schools on http://www.amazon.co.uk reads: 'Having recently become a studnt mentor in my school, for students enterng the profession through School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) I have found this guide invaluable. It has given me relevant advice about observation of lessons, how to give good feedback to my mentee, how to go about planning lessons with my menteee and other important information ad advice needed throughout the placement year. I thoroughly recommend it.

Using Coaching Techniques in Mentoring If you imagine a triangle of professional values, professional knowledge and understanding and professional skills (which is at the heart of the Scottish Standard for Initial Teacher Training) then coaching pertains to improving skills. One of the most effective ways of enabling a trainee to see where they might improve their practice is to encourage them to video record their lessons or to offer to video record sections or entire lessons for them. Correspondingly, a mentor should never ask a trainee to do something they would not be prepared to do - so inviting a trainee to video your lessons seems a fair equation. In this photograph a PGCE tutor (Sarah Fletcher) and a novice teacher (James Turney) are watching a video clip of James' lesson. James is choosing where he sees his teaching is working well and also identifying where he (and his mentor) feel he needs to improve now. In this case, James wants to ensure that all of his class are on task and he has noticed that one pupil is not quite paying attention. he discusses various strategies as he watches and sets out an action plan for the next lesson, The lesson is to be video recored and discussed afterwards to see if/where James has improved his techniques. Th effect is stunning as James zeroes in on the pupil who was not paying attention and has video evidence to support his claim (in his professional development portfolio) that he is now addressing a former area of concern. A mentor can assist a trainee in collecting evidence of improvement by annotating lesson observation notes with the time displayed on the video film when a particular skill is engaged with and improved. The Scottish Standard for Initial Teacher Training

Form Tutor Mentoring Initial Teacher Training should prepare the trainee not only for subject teaching (where appropriate) but also for form tutoring - for taking responsibility for the development of a tutor group of students in a particular year and seeing to their pastoral as well as their curricular needs. Form tutors working with trainees and assisting them in understanding the complex and sometimes difficult as well as enormously rewarding work as a form tutor need support in mentoring just as subject mentors do. A form tutor mentor needs to be in contact with the subject mentor (where appropriate) as well as the visiting PGCE tutor who visits the trainee three times or more per year. Fletcher, 2000, Form Tutor Mentoring

Stimulating Trainee Teachers' Reflective Practice In this photograph you can see Jack Whitehead, James Turney and Sarah Fletcher. James has been asked by Jack how far the mentoring and tutoring he has received has influenced his work as a teacher. James is addressing his response to Sarah and giving her feedback about her own tutoring and mentoring. By probing yet empathetic questioning a trainee teacher can be encouraged to stand back from their own concerns about learning to teach and helped to see the 'bigger picture' of teacher training. This is essential if trainees are not to become over preoccupied about their own strengths and weaknesses and supported and challenged to realise that as a teacher they are intimately part of a team - just as the mentor, tutor and trainee are a teach endeavouring to assist the trainee to gain qualified teacher status. Questioning as well as listening are essential skills in mentoring - open ended questions with no one 'correct' answer work well a does asking the trainee to ask the mentor questions about the lessons the trainee observes. Opening yourself up as a mentor may feel uncomfortable at first but if mentor and mentee are to develop professionally collaborative enquiry into improving teaching is the key. Communal mentoring can be highly productive in terms of stimulating reflection b y all concerned - communal in the sense that a group of colleagues each take responsibility with the trainee for offering an opportunity for educational discourse. Encourage your trainee to use action research approaches to meeting the standards for QTS. You can find out about how Emma Kirby has used action research for her development. Click on this link. Action Research and Mentoring

Stimulating Your Own Reflective Practice If you approach mentoring as action enquiry not only in support of your trainee seeking qualified teacher status but in pursuit of your own professional development, you find yourself in a context that demands reflective practice. This so where your own creativity can be channeled and refined and where you can feel the benefits of being a mentor to the full. You are playing a key part in ensuring that our Profession is peopled by thinking and caring teachers who resist the high attrition rates that bedevil so many young and more experienced school teachers. You may be able to obtain funding and research mentoring to enable you to gain accreditation for your own action enquiry. Opportunities for Mentor Research Did you know that you can gain accreditation as a mentor - it's easier than you might think! Click on this link to Bath Spa University. Email Sarah Fletcher at [email protected]

Assessing Trainee Teachers' Readiness for QTS As this photograph is intended to show, monitoring and assessing trainee teachers' progress towards the award of Qualified Teacher Status is a collaborative activity between the trainee, the school-based mentor (and professional tutor) and the university-based tutor. Assessment should never be something 'done to' the trainee but rather done which in a supportive and democratic way. Reaching decisions about readiness for QTS should be based on evidence and for this reason if no other a trainee should be encouraged to create professional development portfolio showing aspects of their own 'best practice' and recording the targets set and achieved throughout the training programme. There should be a clear paper trail (and ideally - video trail) between the beginning of the training process and the achievement of QTS and most of all there should be NO surprises where the trainee suddenly discovers that they have not made sufficient progress for the award of QTS. Reports on teaching should be drawn from the observation notes and (minuted) discussions of regular mentor meetings. Targets fro improvement should be realistic and regularly monitored and areas of concern flagged up early so that trainee and mentor work together to address each one, where possible, using an action research approach. Qualifying to Teach Ths is the website for the Teacher Training Agency in the UK.

Trouble Shooting in Action with Trainee Teachers How does a professional mentor assist a trainee who is not going to achieve the award of QTS? There are some guidelines that might prove useful - based on the experience of a PGCE tutor and school-based mentor who has had to (occasionally) break the news to a trainee that they will not be furthering their career as a teacher (as yet?). One of the most difficult situations is knowing how to tell a trainee who has set their heart ion becoming a teacher that they are not going to make it. Always stick to the facts and use the Standards for QTS as basis for counselling a trainee off the training programme. If you have been honest and straightforward with your trainee chances are that he or she will already realise that a teaching career is not for them. To protect yourself as a mentor as well as protecting the interests of a trainee always ensure that decisions about ending training are made in full consultation between school-based mentoring staff and university-based tutors if the problem arises in e.g a PGCE course. The interests of the pupils have to come first and if a trainee is endangering the well-being of a group of pupils through neglect or (very occasionally) malice be sure that you have given regular and appropriate feedback. If you know your trainee is failing do NOT expect someone else to tell them while you maintain your mentoring relationship as if nothing untoward has happened. You owe it to your pupils, trainee and university-based colleagues to flag up problems early - perhaps telephoning your university-based colleagues each week or at least once per fortnight if only to say that all is well - alternatively send an email. Good communication is essential. Letting someone know they are failing does not reflect badly on your mentoring - it shows you have integrity.

OfSTED Inspections in Initial Teacher Training There are two very different and distinct perspectives on visits by inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education (OfSTED). On the one hand some schools feel very strongly that trainee teachers should not be involved or even on the premises. The solution is to dispatch the trainee to another school to further a different aspect of their professional development. It is far better, in my opinion, for trainee teachers to be om site and included in the inspection process. If a school and therefore a mentor is (justifiably) proud of the systematic training programme they offer there is no reasons for trying to hide it in practice. Trainee teachers can bring very real benefits to schools in terms of offering additional help (so long as they are not overloaded) with ICT, with school visits and with a host of other school-based activities. It is ESSENTIAL to remember that a trainee cannot be accorded full responsibility for teaching prior to gaining QTS and should NEVER be placed in compromising situations. Using a trainee as an unpaid supply teacher is going to come out during inspection. It is unacceptable, from alegal and from a professional point of view. So far as training programme are concerned inspections are concerned it is important to remember that training relies on partnership. The school has a duty to assist with OfSTED inspections of training programmes and to ensure that university-based tutors have been briefed about trainees' progress throughout the ITT programme. Ensuring that arrangements for OfSTED have been made known across the subject department or year group prior to the inspectors' arrival is a must as is a united and well organised front when the inspection gets underway. Ensure that colleagues have soe underatdnsing about the training programme and have a best practice file ready to evidence claims that the school-based programme is well executed.

Moving on in Mentoring Relationships Many mentors find that over the course of the training programme the trainee becomes a personal and professional friend. This is very special and valuable friendship for both parties. The only blot on the horizon at the end of a formal mentoring relationship is that it may end without trace. Letting go is a must if a trainee is to grow into a professional colleague and not a clone. It is wise to enable the trainee to work in an increasingly autonomous way, aware of the responsibility that is becoming their as a professional gatekeeper as well as pioneer of teaching. Each mentoring relationship is different. Even if a mentoring relationship doesn't lead to the trainee achieving QTS it is is nonetheless valuable. Why not research your own practice as a teacher (see Emma Kirby's work on the link below) Teacher Research.net