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Mentoring at a primary school

Case study

An aspiring deputy at Chuter Ede Primary school has been supported by in-school mentors, including the head, at different stages of her career.

Summary

Anna Reed has progressed since joining the school as a newly-qualified teacher and has her sights set on deputy headship. Her development has been supported by mentoring at different stages.

Key learning and outcomes

  • Mentoring by senior leaders helps staff to grasp the realities of leadership
  • Mentoring can help teachers make the transition from one role to another
  • Open, frank dialogue in key to exploring problem areas and finding solutions

Background

Chuter Ede is a large 4-11 primary school in Nottinghamshire. Anna Reed is the year 3 and 4 leader and Senco (special needs co-ordinator).

Key challenges and issues

  • Helping talented staff to develop within school
  • Providing mentoring support at different career stages

Solution or approach

Anna received a range of support from the school. It included:

  • Dialogue with the headteacher, Bob Hattersley around career aspirations and leadership opportunities that would contribute to their realisation. Discussions were frank with the knowledge on both sides that Bob would look to push her beyond her comfort zone but not pressure her into making a decision.
  • Mentorship at key points. For example, when moving from being a year 1 to year 6 teacher, mentoring by the other year 6 teacher gave Anna assurance that she “was doing things right”.
  • When becoming a NQT mentor she was mentored through informal dialogue by another NQT mentor within the school.
  • When she was appointed as Senco, Anna was mentored by Bob once a week. He gave verbal and written feedback on topics such as her handling of parents in meetings. As Anna grew into the role, meetings were more ad hoc.
  • When she became a department leader as well as Senco, there were informal opportunities to discuss balancing the demands of both roles with Bob.
  • Anna also undertook external training and development, including the College’s Leading from the Middle programme.

Next steps

To help Anna prepare for deputy headship, Bob has agreed with her that she will shadow him for a day and subsequently take responsibility for managing the school on a specified day he is out. Anna will deal with some leadership and management tasks plus any issues that arise during the day. Next day, they will talk about issues that arose, how Anna dealt with them and then Bob will share how he would have tackled them.

Further information