Mentors will work closely with trainees on their iQTS journey by providing expert knowledge and shaping their professional learning.
Mentors play in essential role in the development of trainees. Their expertise, guidance, and modelling of good practice supports trainees in becoming effective practitioners. St Mary's aims to support expert colleagues in providing high quality mentoring to trainees and provides a range of training and professional learning opportunities to mentors.
Key dates
At the beginning of the programme, key dates will be provided to mentors. These will include:
- monitoring and quality assurance (M&QA) meetings
- progress reviews
- training sessions for mentors.
Weekly tasks
Mentors are provided with training plans for each phase of training, which outline a range of tasks for their trainee to complete in their context. These will be reviewed at a weekly training meeting and offer the opportunity to reflect on the trainee's areas of strength and focus on those for further development. SMART targets are set at these meetings to inform the following week's foci.
Working with St Mary's tutors
Each iQTS mentor will be supported by members of the teaching team at St Mary's. This will include an assigned link tutor and additional guidance from the iQTS course lead and partnership team. Regular meetings will be offered to review trainee progress and identify any training needs for those supporting trainees.
Mentor training
Mentors are required to engage in 20 hours of training in order to support any trainee working towards iQTS. This will include a combination of:
- mentor skills training
- St Mary's curriculum coverage
- intensive training and practice (ITAP) training.
Details of how to access this training will be provided ahead of the new academic year.
Lesson observations and feedback
Mentors are required to formally observe their trainee once a week, which will involve providing developmental feedback. Informal feedback is also provided for any other observed lessons and to support the development of wider professional practice. Lesson plans and feedback records will be uploaded to Abyasa by the trainee on a weekly basis.
Monitoring progress
Throughout the duration of the iQTS programme, trainees will use the Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework's areas of professional learning to monitor progress. These are recorded on a progress record, which will be reviewed at the end of each phase of training. Mentors are required to support trainees in completing their progress record and continuously monitoring their progress. They are also required to provide a reflection on the trainee's progress at the end of each phase, and contribute to the setting of developmental SMART targets for the next phase of training.
Assessment against the iQTS Teachers' Standards
In the final phase of training, evidence is collected against the Department for Education's iQTS Teachers' Standards. Training coordinators will need to be familiar with these as trainees will require the relevant experiences in order to evidence that they have met these professional standards by the end of their programme.
Abyasa
While working with a St Mary's trainee, mentors are required to engage with Abyasa. This is a platform used to record and monitor engagement and progress on the school-based training aspects of the iQTS programme. While trainees are largely responsible for the administration of Abyasa, mentors are required to sign off weekly training meeting records and support with the completion of progress and assessment records.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding in England is centred around Keeping Children Safe in Education. While each trainee will be required to follow the protocols in their contexts, we require all trainees and staff supporting them to be aware of this important policy. This will be included in course content and also used to inform discussion around local statutory frameworks for safeguarding children.
Monitoring trainee wellbeing and workload
Part of a mentor's role involves monitoring the wellbeing and workload of their trainee. As they engage with various aspects of the programme, their wellbeing will need to be monitored to ensure that they are able to meet the requirements of the course without causing undue stress. Mentors should seek support from their training coordinator and link tutor if they become concerned about a trainee's wellbeing or ability to meet the workload demands of the programme.