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Effective mentors help trainees develop their teaching skills, increase their confidence and resilience, support trainees to nurture their own teacher identity and ultimately, they can make the difference to whether a trainee stays in the profession or leaves. There is also growing evidence to suggest that ‘ineffective’ mentoring can be more detrimental to trainees than no mentoring at all, so it is essential that mentors understand the skills and attributes of an effective mentor and how to build effective mentoring relationships.

Having completed a self-evaluation of your skills and attributes () you are already aware that mentoring is complex role. Both research, and experience, tell us that effective mentors need to be able to build positive relationships, conduct non-judgmental mentoring conversations, act as a role model, have high-quality teaching knowledge and be able to adapt their support to meet the individual needs of the trainee.

Download and read the (Link opens in a new windowadapted from CUREE’s National Framework for Mentoring and Coachingand drawing from research informed by our trainees and evaluation data).

Consider:

• What actions will you undertake to ensure you can model expert practice and good character?

• How will you facilitate access to research to support the development of pedagogic practice?

Modelling expert practice and facilitating access to the latest pedagogical research are important elements of your mentoring role, however, addressing your trainee’s wellbeing is also essential if we want to keep our trainees in the teaching profession.

Trainees need both the knowledge and confidence to look after their own wellbeing, for their own benefit, and that of their pupils. The realities of teaching will require trainees to develop their stamina and resilience, as well as gain an awareness of their stress trigger points, and how and when to seek support in order to maintain a healthy work life balance.

Consider:

• In your weekly mentoring meetings, how will you ensure that the wellbeing of your trainee is given a focus?

• How you will model / support your trainee to develop and maintain a healthy work life balance?

Take 10 minutes to visit the Education Support Charity, and have a look at the resources and guides that it offeres to support teacher wellbeing. Take note of these resources for future reference.

If this is an area of mentoring that is of particular interest, please note that there is a workshop on 'mentoring to support wellbeing' in Tier 3.