Mentor materials
Setting the scene and effective professional relationships
Intended outcomes
The intended outcomes of this topic are for Early Career Teachers to:
Learn that:
- A culture of mutual trust and respect supports effective relationships
- Teachers can make valuable contributions to the wider life of the school in a broad range of ways, including by supporting and developing effective professional relationships with colleagues
Learn how to build trusting relationships, by:
- Liaising with parents, carers and colleagues to better understand pupils’ individual circumstances and how they can be supported to meet high academic and behavioural expectations
Activities
Reflecting on learning (10 minutes)
In this first topic, the mentor should explain to the ECT the importance of beginning the mentor topics with a shared understanding of this module.
Ask the ECT to:
- Explain their understanding of the learning in the self-directed study materials.
- Explain the big ideas the materials covered.
Make sure the following key points are covered in the discussion:
- It is important to work with parents/carers and colleagues to support the best interests of pupils.
- Establishing a culture of mutual trust and respect will support the ECT to build positive relationships with parents/carers and families.
- Positive relationships can be used to improve pupils’ motivation, behaviour and academic success.
- The ECT should seek to engage parents in their child’s learning through contacting home and carefully planning how you will use parents’ evening.
- Sharing successes can help build successful relationships. - Teaching assistants (TAs), when deployed effectively, can have a huge impact on pupils.
- The role of the SENCO and when to seek their support.
If the ECT has not looked at the self-study materials yet, the mentor could work through the first activity with them now.
Building professional relationships (35 minutes)
Guidance for mentors:
- This topic will focus on how the ECT has developed relationships with colleagues and other professionals in their first year, and how they have supported others and been supported themselves.
- An aspect of their practice the ECT should look to continue to develop over time is how they work with colleagues for mutual support and to achieve the best outcomes for their pupils.
- It is important to recognise the challenges that may have arisen in building relationships and identify actions taken that have secured good relationships.
- The ECT should understand that supporting each other is key to building a feeling of shared responsibility for all pupils in the school.
Pose the question: What are the three most important things you have learned about professional relationships over the year, including from the self-directed study materials?
The mentor should give their answers to the following questions and the ECT should ask any questions they have around this.
- What advice would you give your NQT self about building relationships with staff when you first started in your first school?
- Who was the first person you went to for advice when you began teaching?
- What do you wish you’d known about working with parents when you started teaching?
- How do you work with colleagues to both contribute to the wider life of the school and to better understand and meet pupils’ individual needs?
Together, answer the following questions:
- How would you define ’school Community’? Who makes up that community?
- When has support from colleagues made a positive impact on your well-being?
Pose the following questions:
- Where has the ECT benefited most from support from colleagues and what factors contributed to this success? For example, was it due to shared interest, shared areas of work/subjects etc.?
- What guidance has the ECT gained from colleagues about pupils’ individual circumstances and how they can be supported to meet high academic and behavioural expectations?
- When and how has the ECT been able to support colleagues? Are there other staff colleagues whom they could work with further to offer support?
Together, read the following scenario. Plan the conversation the ECT would have with a pastoral head. What information or support would be useful? How will the ECT respond to different responses from the pastoral head?
Pupil X has consistently been misbehaving in your lessons. She has been talking over you, not getting started with her work and yesterday she was rude to you when you asked her to pick her pen up and make a start.
When you have made an outline of the information you would like to gain, roleplay this with the mentor playing the pastoral head the following ways:
- Being helpful and supportive and offering useful advice/assistance.
- Being resistant to help and questioning the ECT about what they are doing.
Planning for action
The next mentor topic (6.2) is about working with parents/carers to support pupils’ success. To prepare for this, the ECT should pair up with the mentor to roleplay an interaction with a parent/carer. Each of the pair should take a turn as the parent/carer. The specifics of the interaction will depend on context. It could be, for example:
- Interactions with parents as children enter or leave school.
- A pre-arranged meeting with a parent who has contacted the teacher to raise a concern.
- A scheduled meeting regarding a pupil’s specific needs.
- A parents’ evening exchange.
Example script for a pre-arranged meeting with a parent who has contacted the teacher to raise a concern:
Teacher:
Hello, Mrs Hannen, thank you so much for coming in to see me. Let’s sit down here. OK, so on the phone you said you were concerned that Muri’s report wasn’t as good as you expected it to be.
Mrs Hannen:
Yes. Last term he was doing so well in Science and now he doesn’t seem to be at all.
Teacher:
So, let me start by saying that you are right to pick up on the fact that his efforts have slipped slightly as I stated in his report. He is still making progress, but I think we can work together to get him back on track. I am sure you understand why I have really high expectations of Muri; he has the potential to be really successful in Science. I have his book here, let’s take a look at it together and then we can make an action plan. As you can see, in the last couple of lessons he has not put in the effort I would expect from him. I have spoken to Muri and he is going to re-do this particular piece of work. Would you agree with this course of action?
Support the ECT in scripting what they will say. Cover the key points the ECT will communicate. What form will the conversation take? When will the conversation take place?
Ask the ECT to annotate the script with how they will present the information. For example:
Teacher:
So, let me start by saying that you are right to pick up on the fact that his efforts have slipped slightly as I stated in his report. He is still making progress, but I think we can work together to get him back on track. (Make eye contact, warm tone of voice)
Look back at Activity 6.2 in the self-study materials to support this. Keep in mind:
- The aim is to build a positive relationship so the teacher should keep the interaction as positive as possible.
- Keep the pupil learning as the focus. Both teacher and parent/carer want to support the pupil, and this should be at the forefront of the discussion.
- Avoid unnecessary education jargon.
- Be warm, friendly and courteous.
The ECT should then be able to practise delivering their script in role play with either their colleague or mentor. The mentor should offer feedback around:
- Their intention for the conversation and how well this was conveyed
- Specific language used by the ECT that will have supported the parent to engage in this conversation
- How well the conversation focused on the pupil’s strengths
- Any difficult aspects of the conversation where the ECT felt uncomfortable, if at all
- Which part of the conversation was most helpful in supporting the pupil’s academic performance or behaviour.