Mentoring in schools: The key to retaining early career teachers?

Mentoring is a must for early career teachers. Great mentoring propels new teachers forward in their careers - whereas poor mentoring can crush confidence and cause them to leave the profession. In this blog I share insights and advice for school leaders about how to make mentoring in your school most effective. 

“New teachers most benefit from being offered space to grow, reflect, continue to observe others, and to work collaboratively with colleagues. Mentoring is at its most powerful when it is built on positive personal relationships between novice teachers and those with more experience.”

- Professor Rachel Lofthouse in ‘Mentoring in Schools’ by Haili Hughes

The need for mentoring

One in five teachers leave school before they have served two years in the classroom (Weale, 2019). This is a frightening statistic. 

There is no doubt that teaching is a difficult job. But how many of those early career teachers would have stayed in the classroom if they had been given the support of a highly skilled mentor? Somebody who was given the time and training to support and nurture them through what can be one of the toughest times of their career. 

Now more than ever, in an uncertain educational landscape, where early career teachers are often working in isolation, having supportive mentors and experienced colleagues to support can make a huge difference.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring can be defined in many different ways. Merriam-Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1983) defines it as someone who is a wise and trusted teacher or counsellor. Mentor Scout (2020) describes a mentor as someone who is willing to use their time and expertise to develop and guide another person who may be less experienced than them. 

What makes a good mentor?

Mentors need to have certain qualities that can help their mentees to develop and flourish. But what are these qualities? Kerry and Mayes (1995) outline some of these as:

• The ability to nurture
• To be a role model
• To encourage and counsel
• To focus on the mentee’s professional development 
• To sustain a caring relationship over time. 

While writing my book for Crown House, ‘Mentoring in Schools,’ I conducted a series of qualitative focus groups and individual interviews with over a hundred early career teachers. I asked them about their experiences of being mentored during this crucial stage of their career. 

Many of them had enjoyed positive, professional relationships with their mentors and felt that this support had been instrumental in helping them develop. 

One of the most common threads that came up during the interviews, in addition to mentors being approachable, was that they need to be able to have a thorough knowledge of where the trainee is at in terms of their development, And, they need to have the ability to work collaboratively with them to recognise what their next steps should be, guiding them towards possible strategies they can trial and and then reflect on their success.

Mentoring as part of a coaching model

This collaborative and reflective process, which is the true essence of mentoring, fits well into an Instructional Coaching model. 

Instructional coaching has been in the spotlight recently, as it has shown promising results in schools. A recent meta-analysis by Kraft et al. (2018) revealed positive effects of coaching on instructional practice. Furthermore, Gregory et al.’s (2016) qualitative evaluations revealed that it can help teachers to connect faraway, standards-based policy with their day-to-day teaching strategies. 

There is no standard coaching model for this approach, but Jim Knight’s model is particularly useful. He shares ideas about teachers needing to collaborate with their mentors and learn from their expertise. It follows the principle that coaching is a cycle, with student engagement and learning at the centre of it. There needs to be time for planning and observations, as well as time to enact change and reflect at the end of it. In addition, success factors need to be specific, which is why this model of coaching and mentoring works so well with the Department for Education’s ‘Early Career Framework.’ 

Instructional coaches must also be knowledgeable. They should bring what Knight (2016) refers to as a research-based ‘instructional playbook’, so they can be the expert colleagues, who bring the best practice pedagogy into their schools and pass their expertise onto their mentees.

Mentoring within the Early Career Framework

The Early Career Framework (ECF) is one of the most exciting developments in education for many years. It promises a quality of support and provision for all early career teachers that is sorely needed. 

The framework aims to improve the support package for new teachers by extending their funded training entitlement to a structured two-year package of high quality professional development. 

As part of the government’s drive to recruit and retain teachers, the framework aims to increase the resources and improve the opportunities that are open to early career teachers. It creates a comprehensive entitlement to what new teachers will need to learn about and how to learn about it during those first crucial years. 

The ECF contains sections on behaviour management, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and professional behaviours, and is underpinned by academic research. In addition to the training materials and opportunities, new teachers will also be entitled to 5% of their time away from their classrooms to focus on their professional development, for which schools will receive funding. 

Perhaps most significant, is the allocation of a dedicated mentor to advise, support and guide the new teacher. These mentors will also receive training and professional development to complete their role successfully. 

In 2019, I was lucky enough to be invited to one of the Department for Education’s round tables by Professor Sam Twiselton, when the policy was being refined and formulated. I was inspired by the hard work, research and dedication which had gone into its creation. 

What became clear during this experience was how important mentors would be in supporting new teachers. More so than ever before, school leaders would need to acknowledge this and give them the necessary time to dedicate themselves fully to the role. 

Furthermore, an instructional coaching model suits the ECF perfectly. It is based around the idea of a teacher working with another trained expert to help them learn, adopt new teaching practices and provide feedback, while also combining teaching and content expertise. 

Effects of poor mentors

Clearly, ensuring that there is a core content requirement and minimum expectation of school-based provision that all newly qualified teachers must receive, can only be a positive thing. 

The quality of mentors and support can vary widely from school to school and having a negative experience with a mentor can make it much more difficult to flourish as an inexperienced teacher. I speak from personal experience. In my second training school, my mentor belittled me and declared that my Northern accent wasn’t good enough to be an English teacher and that I needed elocution lessons. 

With the wisdom of fifteen years in the classroom, I now understand that it was her own issues which caused her to treat me in this way. But, at the time, it destroyed my self-confidence and it very nearly forced me to quit my PGCE. 

Unfortunately, negative experiences with mentors can be common. Some participants in my study recalled situations where they felt un-supported as their mentors lacked the time or experience to best advise them. Hopefully, the Early Career Framework and the training and time it brings for mentors will mean that this is a thing of the past. 

4 key tips how SLT can support early career teachers 

1. Choose your mentors wisely.

   Often, the keenest mentors are early career teachers themselves. They may have more time to support others than their more experienced colleagues, who could have extra teaching and learning responsibilities. 

   Some inexperienced teachers have an amazing amount to offer and are often at the forefront of new innovations in teaching and learning as they are still refining their own craft. However, there is so much more that experienced colleagues can offer when mentoring new teachers in terms of providing a range of tried and tested methods and strategies to support. 

   In essence, a new soldier in a battle may provide the boost an army needs but it is those soldiers who have been in battle before who have weapons in their arsenal they can draw upon to help the fight. 

   Your best teachers should be mentors, as they need to model the excellent practice that new teachers are striving for. If there are inexperienced colleagues who are keen to mentor, that is great news. Just ensure that the mentors themselves have experienced colleagues to support them if they are unsure of how to best mentor their ECT. 
   
   

2. Give them time.

   Mentoring is a difficult job. Previously colleagues who have volunteered have given up their time generously. They often shoe-horn mentor meetings and provide an open door to early career teachers in their PPA or even at break and lunch times. 

   To be an effective mentor, time needs to be given for them to have professional discussions with their mentees and reflect on their progress. 

   Time should also be allocated for the mentor and new teacher to do some team teaching together or jointly observe other teachers in the school and look at best practice. 

   As a mentor, it is key that you are aware of the best educational research on aspects of pedagogy that link to the ECT standards. Doing the reading and research for this takes time. SLTneed to recognise this and give mentors the opportunity to do this as part of your CPD provision. 
   
   

3. Check in with your early career teachers.

   I recently interviewed a number of newly qualified teachers who had their first year in the classroom cut short due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Suddenly, they found themselves adrift and alone, doing their best to know what to do in a brave new world of online teaching. Many of them acknowledged that their mentors had tried to keep in touch and still support, but that not feeling part of the wider school family and connected to other colleagues was really difficult. 

   Of course, now more than ever, senior leadership teams are overworked and stressed at the sheer volume of work they are having to complete. So remembering to check in on early career teachers on top of all of this can fall to the bottom of the to do list in favour of more pressing issues. However, a quick message to see if they are okay can mean the world to a struggling ECT and after all, we are in the business of people in schools. As we so often say, relationships mean everything – including with colleagues. Making them feel part of a school family can make all the difference. 
   
   

4. Dovetail your CPD provision.

   New teachers are bombarded with information and they need to see what the bigger picture is when it comes to best practice in teaching. 

   It can be difficult if the training they have received in initial teacher training is vastly different or contradictory from what they are being shown in CPD sessions. This can lead to confusion about how they can best incorporate and adapt strategies in their own teaching. 

   It is vital that your CPD lead works with ITT providers to understand what knowledge base an ECT is coming to the school possessing, so that this can then be built on in a school setting. The same applies for the mentor training that mentors will now be receiving as part of the ECF roll out. Explore how this fits in with your whole school priorities in terms of training and empower mentors to get involved in delivering this training to other colleagues. If it fits in with other training sessions, such as on cognitive learning or behaviour management practice, then there will be a greater clarity on what the direction of the school is for people to get on board.

Key takeaways

If you want to support the professional development for new teachers and create an atmosphere of support which will hopefully foster better job satisfaction and retention, please ensure that you have the best possible teachers acting as mentors. These colleagues will be a vital support to new teachers and they will need to be given the time to do this job well and gain the expertise required to be a quality mentor. 

Haili Hughes’ book ‘Mentoring in Schools’ is out now with Crown House Publishing. 

Twitter @HughesHaili

References

• Gregory, A., Hafen, C.A., Ruzek, E., Mikami, A.Y., Allen, J.P and Pianta, R.C. (2016) ‘Closing the racial discipline gap in classrooms by changing teacher practice.’ School Psychological Review, 45(2): 171-191.
• Kerry, T. and Mayes, A.S. (1995) Issues in Mentoring. London: Psychology Press.
• Knight, J. (2016) ‘Teach to win: seven success factors for instructional coaching programs.’ Education Digest, 81(5): 27-32.
• Kraft, M.A., Blazar, D. and Hogan, D. (2018) ‘The effect of teacher coaching on instruction and achievement: a meta-analysis of the causal evidence.’ Review of Educational Research, 88(4): 547-588.
• Mentor Scout (2020) ‘What is a mentor?’ Available online at: https://mentorscout.com/mentor.cfm
• Merriam-Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1983) Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
• Weale, S. (2019) ‘Fifth of teachers plan to leave profession within two years.’ in The Guardian, available online at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/apr/16/fifth-of-teachers-plan-to-leave-profession-within-two-years