How mentoring in school trusts can boost professional development

For our recent report ‘Grow your own: Best practice for developing teaching talent in school trusts’ we surveyed trusts across England and had in-depth conversations with multi-academy trust (MAT) leaders. 

When we asked trusts what they’d like to see in future teacher training and continued professional development (CPD), more than half said high-quality coaching and mentoring.

But how does mentoring lead to more effective teacher development? Here's what trusts told us about mentoring, why it matters and how you can implement a successful mentoring system across your trust. 

Benefits of mentoring in school trusts 

We found that teachers who have the support of a mentor alongside their usual professional learning are more positive about their professional development experiences. 

This is reinforced by the fact that the majority of trusts we surveyed highlighted mentoring as an area they’d like to see in future. 

Having a mentor supports: 

• Improved confidence 

• Better classroom practice 

• Continuous learning 

• Reflection and self-evaluation 

Trainee teachers especially have a lot to gain from being mentored by experienced teachers, who can help them understand how their learning will apply in the classroom. 

However, mentoring doesn’t only benefit the mentee: it creates a positive feedback loop in a school. 

It enables more experienced teachers to develop through mentoring others – cementing their learning, building confidence and encouraging self-reflection. And it facilitates sharing of best practice which helps everyone to develop. 

At a trust level, mentoring: 

• Builds confidence 

• Creates reflective practitioners 

• Builds a sense of shared accountability 

• Distributes leadership capacity 

Developing a mentoring culture 

Embedding the practice of mentoring within and across schools is key to properly developing a mentoring culture in your trust. 

Creating a mentoring culture includes: 

• Creating peer networks 

• Developing mentoring programmes 

• Encouraging continuous learning 

• Focusing on reflective practice 

What trusts should do 

Here are the best ways we found to create a culture of mentoring in your trust: 

Train experienced teachers as mentors 

It's one thing to select experienced teachers to mentor – but it’s also key that they are trained. 

Proper training for mentors creates a shared understanding of best practice that ensures consistency across schools and your whole trust. 

Training also benefits mentors and mentees by building mentors’ confidence and ensuring they understand what’s being asked of them, so they know the commitment that’s required to properly support their mentee. 

Hear from two of our partners about their experience of mentoring in partnership with Tes Institute:

At Tes Institute, we offer Level 1 and 2 M-TED accredited training for mentors to support those working with trainee teachers. Our courses explore the latest statutory requirements for ITT and the most up to date research in mentor practice.

Facilitate peer observation 

Peer observation is key to giving learning a practical basis and helping learners understand how their learning applies to their everyday reality. 

For example, having a mentor observe a lesson is an opportunity to provide feedback to the mentee and have a richer discussion about their classroom practice.  

It’s important that those being observed understand it as an opportunity for growth and learning, not judgement. 

Implement regular feedback cycles 

With any kind of professional learning, regular feedback is essential to ensure that content and delivery are as effective as possible, as well as that any changes implemented are working. 

Feedback from both mentors and mentees is important – and it’s not only about the learning that has taken place. Fostering a strong mentoring culture can also be measured through feedback – for example, the impact on teacher confidence. 

Integrate mentoring into performance management 

Building a mentoring culture across your trust means embedding it in your professional growth practices. 

Performance management is essential at both school and trust level for ensuring all staff meet your expected standards. 

Integrating mentoring into performance management ensures staff are growing continually, rather than just complying with policy, as well as increasing their confidence and ability to reflect on and evaluate their practice – ultimately, leading to better classroom practice and outcomes for students. 

You can do this by:

• Recognising mentoring as professional development in its own right 

• Allocating time for mentoring in performance management processes 

• Working with a trusted provider to establish a strong mentoring system 

The potential challenges 

Trusts face a potential challenge in ensuring they establish – and communicate – a clear, shared understanding of what high-quality mentoring looks like. 

Trusts can do this by: 

• Working with a trusted provider 

• Creating feedback loops to share best practice 

• Facilitating peer learning 

Trust leaders also told us that recognising mentoring as professional development in its own right – and allowing time for it – is another challenge. 

One way to address this is to include the importance of setting aside time for mentoring in your trust-wide understanding of what good looks like. When there’s support for allocating time for mentoring at a trust and school level, embedding a mentoring culture is much more likely to be successful. 

Student success starts with great teachers 

Our ‘Grow your own’ report explores the link between professional development and improved recruitment and retention. 

It focuses on teacher development in UK trusts, drawing on real examples from trust leaders to help your trust ‘grow your own’ and stabilise your future. 

Read the report to learn how your trust can create classrooms where every teacher and student thrives.

Download report