Mentor Training
Introduction
At the University of Chichester, we believe that mentors are a vital part of our partnership
They work closely with trainees on a daily basis. As stated in the National Standards for school-based initial teacher training mentors, “A mentor is a suitably-experienced teacher who has formal responsibility to work collaboratively within the ITT partnership to help ensure the trainee receives the highest-quality training.” This collaboration supports trainees to become good and outstanding teachers.
The following resources and updates are designed to support mentors in their role and to share good practice.
DfE requirements for initial training for mentors
As with the recent introduction of the ECF training programme, those colleagues mentoring trainee teachers will require more training than is currently in place. These changes will apply to mentors supporting trainees starting in September, i.e. new Year One undergraduates or PGCE students. It does not affect mentors supporting undergraduate Year 2, 3 or 4 students. To complete their initial training, mentors must complete 20 hours of training. They can start this training at any point in the year and study at their own pace until they have completed the 20 hours required. ITE providers will not expect mentors to repeat training they have already undertaken. Where specific material has already been covered, this will reduce the total hours of training required.
We will ask all mentors to complete an audit of prior training in order to identify how many of the 20 hours of training they have already covered and how much they will need to complete.
The 20 hours of general mentor training consists of:
- An audit of previous training10 hours of core mentor development training.
- This will be available online and we will continue to offer our 2-day face-to-face mentor training days for those who prefer this.
- 10 hours of curriculum and subject-specific mentor training
South Coast Providers - Mentor Development Audit
South Coast ITE providers have worked together to ensure that the ten hours of Core Mentor Development Training with any provider is transferable and that mentors are not required to repeat any content.
At Chichester, mentors will complete the audit and log any on-going training through the Abyasa e-portfolio system (full training will be provided on how to do this in September). If you have completed the audit with another provider, we will accept this instead.
This document details the content of the online audit so that mentors can see what they will be able to record as evidence of training already undertaken. Mentors will not be asked to repeat content that they have indicated they have already covered.
Recognition of prior learning
We are able to consider any previous mentor training from the last 3 years. For example, you might use the following:
- The 2-day mentor training course from the University of Chichester
- Mentor training from any other ITE provider
- Mentor training as part of an ECT programme
- Mentor training from the Chartered College
- Completion of NASBTT Mentor Training Modules
In the online audit, we ask mentors to indicate which of the following topics they have already covered and how they have covered these
Core mentor development training (10 hours)
You will be able to access the audit and following materials from September 2024 via https://placements.chi.ac.uk/
Curriculum and Subject-Specific Mentor Training (10 hours)
This aspect of the training will support mentors to work with our ITE curriculum and understand the specific requirements of the students they are working with. Unlike the Core Mentor Development Training, it will be specific to the programme that the students being mentored are studying on.
The activities contributing to these 10 hours are:
As you can see, many of these activities are similar to the briefings and other activities that mentors are already familiar with. Typically, mentors will complete the 10 hours while supporting different cohorts of trainees over time.
DfE mentor funding
As detailed in the initial teacher training reform guidance in the 2024/25 academic year (between 1 September 2024 and 31 August 2025), mentors working in schools in England that offer initial teacher training (ITT) placements will need to complete up to 20 hours of initial mentor training with an accredited training provider.
Schools can claim for the actual hours of training undertaken by the mentor to a maximum of 20 hours, per accredited provider. Guidance explaining the general mentor training, in addition to the lead mentor and intensive training and practice element of the ITT curriculum was updated in March 2024.
DfE Payments
Payments will be made in arrears from September 2025. Placement schools will be able to submit a claim via a new GOV.UK service. The service will open in Spring 2025 and schools will be able to submit their claims once their mentors have completed their training.
Schools must complete their claims by the end of July to receive payment from the Educational and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) in late September/early October. If schools miss the payment window, they will be able to submit a claim in September, with payment being made in December 2025.
DfE will begin communicating details of this new service to schools and providers from September 2024.
