Our Partnerships

Principles of Mentoring

The following document sets out the cross-phase principles of mentoring that underpin teacher training provision at Liverpool Hope University. Mentors play a pivotal role within the Liverpool Hope ITE Partnership and are responsible for overseeing the day to day training, development and pastoral care of students during professional placements. The final report National Standards for school-based initial teacher training (ITT) mentors (DFE 2016) defines a mentor as “... 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”. At Liverpool Hope University we have extended this definition to encompass all practitioners with appropriate professional status who are supporting our trainees working towards QTS and QTLS.

Mentoring should recognise that learners’ progress is at the heart of the Liverpool Hope University ITE Partnership.

• Mentoring is focussed on supporting their trainee to identify learner progress and to enable the trainee’s practice to impact on the progress and outcome of learners over time. Mentoring recognises that all aspects of teaching impact learner progress.

Mentoring should be developed in line with the National Standards for school-based initial teacher training (ITT) mentors to ensure a consistent approach across the Liverpool Hope University ITE Partnership.

• There are National Standards for school based initial teacher training mentors. These standards were developed to foster greater consistency in the practice of mentors by identifying the effective characteristics of mentoring, leading, in turn, to an improved and more coherent experience for trainees, so that they develop into effective teachers.

Mentoring should be framed as a structured conversation in which evidence from the trainee’s professional practice is used to inform critical reflection.

• Mentoring should support trainees to analyse and evaluate their developing professional practice within an effective relationship. Mentors should be willing to hear and address the concerns of the trainee regarding the trainee’s own progress and their impact on learners. Mentors should also guide and model evidence-informed reflection through purposeful dialogue, and together the mentor and trainee should set clear goals for further progress and identify setting-based training opportunities.

Mentoring should acknowledge that trainee teachers are individuals who arrive in placement settings with a wide range of knowledge, skills, and experience as well as preconceptions and anxieties.

• Mentoring is therefore about shaping these into the teacher’s professional identity rather than moulding him/her to perform in a specific context.

Mentoring should be underpinned by a mutually respectful relationship that requires mentors and mentees to treat each other fairly.

• Mentoring should be conducted within a locally agreed framework of ground rules and boundaries that acknowledge imbalances of power and accountability within the setting. Both mentor and trainee should strive to follow the guidelines and requirements developed as part of the partnership agreement. High standards of professional behaviour, including effective communication, should be a cornerstone of the relationship between mentor and trainee.

Mentoring should support the trainee in developing the highest standards of professional and personal conduct and provide opportunities to observe best practice. 

• As outlined in the National Standards for school-based initial teacher training (ITT) mentors (2016) it is expected that a mentor will model professional behaviour and support the trainee in developing the same. The guidance states “The mentor should: encourage the trainee to participate in the life of the school and understand its role within the wider community; support the trainee in developing the highest standards of professional and personal conduct; support the trainee in promoting equality and diversity; ensure the trainee understands and complies with relevant legislation, including that related to the safeguarding of children; and support the trainee to develop skills to manage time effectively.”

Mentoring should provide opportunities for the mentee to set challenging and personalised professional goals within a supportive and enabling environment.

• In order to create an enabling environment, the mentor and trainee will need to establish timetables and considered workloads conducive to the trainee taking part in the full range of activities and responsibilities of a practitioner, supported in a way that is appropriate to their level of development. Feedback from the mentor regarding the trainee’s practice during these activities should be timely and constructive.

Mentoring should be a mutually beneficial opportunity for professional learning for both the mentor and the mentee. 

• The professional programme being studied by the trainee gives them access to wider reading and theoretical underpinning which can enhance the mentor’s own continuing professional development. The trainee may also bring new pedagogies into the setting from their other experiences. An open and professional relationship developed between mentor and trainee, focused on evaluating professional practice, allows both to engage with educational research. Mentoring provides the mentor with an opportunity to review and reflect on their own practice, as much as it enhances the practice of the trainee.

Mentoring should encompass a range of roles including pastoral, social, educational, interpersonal, as well as assessment.

• Some of this may be explicitly delegated to other members in the education setting (e.g. SENCos, Safeguarding Leads, Subject Co-ordinators etc.) and includes building a wide-ranging network of support around the trainee from the entire setting.

Mentoring should appreciate the bespoke nature of each education setting experience.

• It is important that the mentor recognises that some trainees may require additional support in gaining evidence towards a specific teaching standard due to the uniqueness of each placement. However, the additional level of support should support the trainee to consistently meet the standards rather than be viewed as negating their previous experience in meeting those standards.

Vision for Excellence

At Liverpool Hope University we are dedicated to training teachers who are research informed, creative, and reflective. Hope Teachers will have a moral purpose and an enthusiastic, ambitious and flexible approach to teaching the next generation. The Hope Teacher sees their career as a vocation, a way of changing the lives of children and the opportunity to make a real difference in terms of social justice by improving educational outcomes. Our teacher education equips trainees with the depth of knowledge, skills and understanding required to engage, motivate and inspire young learners across the diverse range of settings and age phases.

Principles of Hope Teacher Programmes

Principle 1: Learning about teaching involves understanding the contested nature of knowledge and having opportunities to compare, contrast and critique ideas, issues and debates about practice.

Principle 2: Learning about teaching requires an understanding of the diverse needs of learners and their perspectives and contexts.

Principle 3: Learning about teaching requires good knowledge, skills and understanding of curriculum, subject and pedagogy that is constantly reviewed and developed.

Principle 4: Learning about teaching is enhanced through dialogue and critical reflection, and informed by research and the learner context.

Principle 5: Learning about teaching requires an emphasis on those learning to teach working collaboratively with their peers and more experienced colleagues. 

Principle 6: Learning about teaching requires meaningful relationships between schools, universities and student teachers with their peers.

Principle 7: Learning about teaching is enhanced when the teaching and learning approaches advocated in the programme are explicitly modelled by the teacher educators in their own practice and take account of the contextual learning environment relevant to the wider world.

Principle 8: Learning about teaching requires opportunities to plan, rehearse, teach and analyse across a range of diverse contexts.

Adapted from Korthagen, Loughran & Russell (2006)

The Benefits of Partnership

Enhancing Pupil Progress: Liverpool Hope University trainees can make a positive impact on pupil progress in your school by providing additional support in the classroom. Introducing trainee teachers to your pupils provides a wider range of role models for pupils to relate to; and by exposure to new teaching and learning strategies a pupil’s imagination and motivation can be broadened. Our trainees can inject a new level of enthusiasm into your classrooms and that is what we seek during our recruitment process.

Recruitment Opportunities: Our Partner Schools are actively involved in the recruitment and selection of trainees. They are given the opportunity to take a lead during the interviewing process and to take an equal responsibility for the selection of the most promising candidates.

School Staff Development: Mentoring trainees can provide an excellent tool for professional development for emerging or experienced teachers. By observing, evaluating, making judgements and coaching trainee teachers this can encourage reflection and development of their own practice. The University also offers the chance for teachers to enhance their skills and continue their own professional development by attending mentor training and development courses, delivering training for trainees and other colleagues.

Joint Research Support Activities: There are also opportunities to get involved with school-based research at the University, throughout the Hope Challenge suite of projects. This should, in turn, provide increased confidence for your teaching colleagues who have expertise to share as a researcher.

Additional Resource: Partner Schools also benefit from placement trainees by receiving financial remuneration from the University. The fee that you receive depends on how many trainees you are supporting and is agreed with you prior to each placement. Schools will also have the chance to share ideas and network with other schools who work with the University through mentor training and CPD events organised by the University.