Mentor Training at St Mary's University
St Mary's mentor training programme has been designed to support all mentors to be able to deliver the St Mary's ITT curriculum during school experience placements. As part of our commitment to high quality and comprehensive training, our provision for mentors will consist of the following:
- St Mary's curriculum training (mandatory for all mentors)*
- Intensive training and practice (ITaP) training (mandatory for all mentors hosting a training during an ITAP period)
- NASBTT mentor skills training (mandatory for iQTS mentors).
Curriculum Training
Our CPD UK accredited curriculum training has been carefully designed to meet the DfE requirements for the new academic year while simultaneously offering professional development for mentors. Delivered in distinct modules focusing on key topics, this training promotes a research-informed approach to pedagogy and practice by offering expert colleagues the opportunity to reflect on how concepts apply to their context before exploring how they would effectively mentor a trainee teacher in their setting. Sessions will be led by colleagues passionate about the areas of professional learning covered and aim to offer training in both the theory and application of these topics.
The curriculum training programme consists of the following modules:
- Mentoring at St Mary's university
- Professional Behaviours and the mentoring dynamic
- How Pupils Learn: Planning for progress and Assessment
- How Pupils Learn: Cognitive Science
- Adaptive Teaching: Supporting trainees in adapting for SEND
- Adaptive Teaching: Supporting trainees in adapting for EAL/multilingual learners
Mentors may opt to engage with this curriculum training either by attending an in person training day at St Mary’s, or asynchronously via your Abyasa platform.
The next in-person training dates are:
Fri 26th Sep 2025, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Register for this training at https://forms.office.com/e/aVaa8TFpYa
Fri 9th Jan 2026 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Register for this training at https://forms.office.com/e/pyT5V7pgTW
Thu 26th Feb 2026 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Register for this training at https://forms.office.com/e/pyT5V7pgTW
*Mentors that have completed the curriculum training in 2024/25 do not need to repeat the full programme. We ask that you engage with the Mentoring at St Mary’s module only, which will serve as refresher training for the upcoming year.
Intensive training and practice (ITaP)
ITaP offers trainees and mentors an opportunity to consider granular pedagogical concepts in detail. This training will include a combination of a short, recorded introduction from expert colleagues and a range of further resources to support mentors in working with trainees. ITaP resources will be available to mentors via Abyasa.
NASBTT mentor skills training
This suite of professional development allows mentors to develop some of the skills key to effective mentoring and can be accessed via the NASBTT Learn platform. While this training is mandatory for iQTS mentors, some UK mentors may be eligible to access this training for free. If you are interested, please contact the Partnerships office.
Frequently asked questions
English schools who host a trainee starting their training after Sept 2025 may be able to claim funding from the DfE to cover the cost of mentors completing up to 16 hours of training. This can be claimed at the end of the academic year for each mentor in the school.
Please note schools outside of England are not able to claim this funding.
Schools can claim funding directly from the Department for Education following the fulfillment of the training requirements.
Following the completion of the required training, mentors will not be required to repeat any completed training should they mentor again in the following year.
Mentors are strongly encouraged to complete mentor skills training as complimentary CPD. For academic year 25/26, we will continue to offer this free of charge to mentors who wish to engage with this and schools hosting trainees that started their course in 25/26 can claim funding for mentors that complete modules this year.