Ofsted report 2024
“Trainees are immensely well supported by knowledgeable and inspirational tutors and by highly skilled, committed mentors.”
At Edge Hill University, we believe professional practice mentors at schools and settings play a crucial role in developing the trainees’ knowledge, understanding and skills in teaching, as well as preparing them for their future careers in a variety of educational settings.
Within the minimum entitlement of the ITT ECF, trainees at all phases are entitled to receiving clear, consistent and effective mentoring and regular structured feedback from their mentor.
Mentor Curriculum 2024-25
As trainees spend a significant amount of their time in a school environment, the knowledge and expertise of the staff that support them while there, is clearly a critical factor in trainee development. Our mentor curriculum is therefore designed to prepare mentors for their role and responsibilities.
Our mentor curriculum is underpinned by evidenced-based approaches, including the principles of instructional coaching (Kraft et al., 2018), research-informed principles in dialogic processes of teacher improvement (Knight, 2007), the importance of mentors making accurate judgements about trainees’ performance, providing frequent and appropriate opportunities to rehearse effective teaching habits (Sims et al., 2021) and instructional coaching (Sherrington & Caviliogli, 2021).
Working with definitions of the mentor from the National Standards for School-based ITT mentors and the CCF and ITT Requirements for 2024 our curriculum will develop knowledge, understanding and skills in:
1. The specific knowledge, personal attributes and skills needed in mentoring ITTs
2. The techniques of observation, deconstruction and feedback from a range of mentoring and coaching approaches
3. The intent and key design principles of the EHU trainee curriculum
4. The core evidence base of the CCF, School-based ITT mentor Standards, and the EHU curriculum
5. Subject/phase specific mentoring
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Mentor Development Opportunities
When mentors are allocated a trainee, they will complete an Initial Mentor Development Audit form.
This form will generate an individual email and inform you of the mentor development DfE requirements for 2024-25 academic year, based on your responses.
All EHU mentors will complete the following, which will be recognised and recorded.
For schools in England these will be classed as hours for the DfE mentoring criteria:
Core Mentor Training Unit
This training is for all mentors across all phases.
NB If completed in 2023-24 this will not need to be repeated.
Phase Specific Briefing
Attend phase specific training online for your trainees’ phase or subject specific guidance. The online training will be delivered by the subject or mentoring team and will detail the professional practice expectations for your trainee.
Click here for times and dates and to register for your phase specific briefing(s)
QA checkpoints
Link Tutors will contact you to make arrangements for the QA 1-4 checkpoints.
Start here: Sign up and enrol
Bite-sized Mentor Development Units
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Edge Hill University mentors have high expectations of trainees and are committed to EHU’s vision of working together to transform life chances for children/young people. This will be underpinned by evidenced-based approaches, including the principles of instructional coaching (Kraft et al., 2018).
Mentors will be experienced classroom experts who draw on research-informed principles in dialogic processes of teacher improvement (Knight., 2007). Effective mentors will make accurate judgements about trainees’ performance, providing frequent and appropriate opportunities to rehearse effective teaching habits (Sims et al., 2021).
If the Initial Mentor Audit has suggested that you are on Path A as a mentor, those who have not yet completed NPQ, ECF or Masters qualifications, you can access the OMNIS units related to the EHU curriculum, which will be recognized as notional DfE hours and can be completed with Edge Hill University (or with another accredited provider).
- Supporting Trainees’ Workload and wellbeing (1 notional hour)
- Target setting and Feedback within the Weekly Development Summary (WDS) (1 notional hour)
- An Introduction to the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) (1 notional hour)
- Behaviour Management for Mentors (1 notional hour)
- Assessing trainee progress (1 notional hour)
- Supporting Inclusive Mentoring: with a choice of optional units ADHD, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, EDI (2 notional hours)
- Intensive training and practice (1 notional hour)
DfE Funding for Schools
Funding guidance for schools is here (Conditions of grant- initial teacher training reform funding) and gives school partners the information they will require for understanding the funding conditions and how to claim in Spring 2025.
Conditions of funding Guidance (click on title)
For a school to claim this funding, the mentor must:
- Undertake up to 20 hours of initial mentor training.
- Mentor at least one trainee in the academic year.
A school cannot claim funding if a mentor completed their training but does not work with a trainee.
Payments
For each mentor that completes the full 20 hours of training:
- The school can claim £876 (£43.80 per hour).
- The school must submit their claims by the end of July 2025.
- Payment will be paid in arrears from September 2025.
Mentor Hours Update EHU November 2024
While there is no longer a minimum training time requirement, requirements relating to the quality, content and coverage of mentor training have not changed, and mentors will still need to have the same knowledge, skills and abilities as previously detailed in the ITT Criteria and Supporting Advice. As we have received positive feedback on our mentor development and support strategy, we will continue with our expectation for all mentors to complete the light touch mentor audit, core and phase mentor training (as with previous years) with the option to complete further professional development units on our Omnis platform at the mentor’s discretion.
Schools in England will still be able to claim up to 20 hours of funding per mentor per provider for this academic year and we will continue to track your mentor’s engagement with training materials and mentoring activities. This will enable us to provide you with a detailed and accurate breakdown of hours prior to your claim submission date.
Thank you for your continued support and expertise, we know how critical your role is in supporting and shaping tomorrow’s teachers. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you require any further information. [email protected]
OMNIS – Further Guidance
To access the Core Mentor Training and bite sized mentor development units you will initially need to Sign-up for an account with the online learning platform OMNIS.
Please ensure you use your professional email address to sign up – the same one you use to contact the University, as this will be linked to your mentoring record and provide a record for DfE.
During the Sign-up process, if you don’t receive the validation token code, you will need to ask your IT administrators to allow the [email protected] email address.
Alternatively, contact the team and we can help you.
Supportive Strategies
We have several additional packages available to help you in your support of students with specific needs. These are included within the Core Mentor Training course where you can achieve a certificate when completed but if you simply wish to view the resources and packages, you can do so here: