Summer week 2

Mentor materials

Building trusting relationships with parents

Intended outcomes

The intended outcomes of this topic are for Early Career Teachers to:

Learn that:

• Building effective relationships with parents, carers and families can improve pupils’ motivation, behaviour and academic success

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

Learn how to build effective working relationships, by:

• Communicating with parents/carers proactively and making effective use of parents’ evenings to engage parents/carers in their children’s schooling.

Activities

Reflecting on learning (20 minutes)

Reflect on the progress the ECT has made throughout Year 1 in terms of relationships with parents, carers and families. Before starting the discussion, it may be useful to cover some guidelines to help frame the conversation:

• This is a great opportunity to unpick what worked well in building relationships with parents, carers and families throughout the first year.
• It is also a good opportunity to reflect on what was less effective.
• Remember why this is important: effective relationships with parents/carers can improve pupils’ motivation, behaviour and academic success.
• The conversation should be purposeful and focused on improvement. If something did not go very well, the mentor and ECT can work together to really unpick why it didn’t work.
• The emphasis should be on the steps the ECT took, rather than on the parent or carer.
• Focus on actions the ECT can take in the future.

Questions to ask:

• How would you describe the relationships you have made with parents, carers and families this year?
• Describe your communications with parents, carers and families. What have you done? What are the characteristics of the communications?
• How was your first parents’ evening? How did you prepare? Were any of the meetings particularly successful/difficult?
• Tell me about a difficult situation with a parent/carer and how that made you feel. Would you handle it differently if the same thing happened again?
• What has been your favourite piece of feedback from a parent, carer or family member?
• How will you build on these experiences in future? Is there anything you would do differently, start doing or stop doing?

If the ECT has had negative experiences with parents, carers or families this year, this is an opportunity to support them in reflecting on these and planning for what they will do differently in future.

The mentor should remind the ECT that:

• All teachers have difficult experiences with parents/carers sometimes.
• It is important to focus on the actions of the pupil rather than make comments about the pupil, e.g. ‘Taylor’s work here lacks focus – as you can see he does not complete tasks,’ not ‘Taylor is lazy and doesn’t finish his work.’
• Parents, carers and families want what is best for their child; although they may be saying something that is difficult to hear, behind this is likely to be a message that can help the ECT to better understand the pupil’s individual circumstances and how to support their needs.
• Parents, carers and families may feel frustrated at having to discuss their children’s learning needs with multiple professionals; teachers may wish to check with colleagues and school communication records before contacting them if appropriate.
• Maintaining a positive, polite, respectful approach throughout is key.
• It is all right to draw a conversation to a close and say that you will be back in touch at a later date.
• Support is always available from colleagues, e.g. to join conversations with the ECT.

Building effective working relationships with parents (30 mins)

Guidance for mentors:

This task is around reinforcing the importance of engaging parents in their child’s learning. The ECT might find it difficult to communicate with parents: the idea is that this is a safe space to practise in. These tasks build on the learning from the self-directed study materials. The mentor may want to recap the learning from this, in particular Activity 6.2.

Together, read the example script for a positive phone call home:

Hello, Mrs Brierly, it is Ms Smith here calling about Jonah’s English lessons. I just wanted to quickly phone you to say how pleased I am with the progress Jonah has made in the last half term. He has shown excellent focus and I can tell how much effort he is putting in. In the lesson yesterday all pupils answered an essay question on Mr Birling in ‘An Inspector Calls’ and I was extremely impressed with the way Jonah used quotations as evidence to support his points. This showed a real improvement from the last essay Jonah handed in.

Together, discuss what is said in the script, for example:

• The specific praise given
• The sort of language used
• What the impact of the positive phone call might be.

Together, identify a pupil whose parents/carers the ECT is planning to contact with positive praise or any other common scenario that would be helpful to the ECT. If they do not have one in mind, select one here (and re-emphasise the importance of this proactive communication). Prepare a script for this conversation, identifying:

• What praise they will give
• What they are hoping to achieve with this
• What sort of language they will use.

The ECT should deliver their script with the mentor acting as the parent. The mentor should provide feedback on the following:

• Are the points the ECT is making clear?
• Is the intention evident?
• What specific language does the ECT use? Can they improve this at all?

In the self-directed study materials, the ECT also considered the importance of parents’ evening conversations. The mentor may want to use the handout from Activity 6.2:

• Take into account, and plan for, any parents/carers whose first language is not English.
• Use plain English and avoid education jargon with all parents/carers.
• Have the points you will make planned out for each pupil in advance.
• Highlight a success the pupil has had (this could be to do with progress, behaviour, homework, organisation etc.).
• Give precise evidence for pupil achievement and progress.
• Address room for improvement – be precise about what you mean and why you are saying this.
• If there are issues or concerns with a particular pupil that have been ongoing for a while, they should have been discussed with parents/carers prior to parent’s evening. Parents’ evening is a chance to continue the discussion. You may also seek support from more senior colleagues.
• As far as you can, keep the discussion positive and keep the emphasis on moving forward.
• Work with the pupil and parent/carer to agree targets moving forward.
• Give the parents/carers opportunities to ask questions.
• Ensure that you follow up with parents/carers if and when you see improvements or otherwise.

Together, read the following example script from a parents’ evening conversation:

Hello, Mr Jackson, thank you so much for coming here tonight. I just wanted to begin by saying that Amir has shown an improvement in his written work. He has been using full stops and capital letters much more regularly recently, which is really great to see. I have an example here if you would like to take a look. As we spoke about last week, I am still concerned about Amir’s lack of focus in paired and group tasks. He often gets distracted and loses focus too easily. Moving forward I would like to see him making a real effort to engage with the task he is given. Amir, can I ask you what you think might help you stay on task? Together, discuss the script. The following points could be discussed:

• What praise was given
• What improvement points were given
• How the feedback was structured
• The fact that parents’ evening wasn’t the first time Amir’s father had been told about the issue with his behaviour.

With a particular pupil in mind, script a conversation for parents’ evening. Before beginning to write, decide:

• Key points of information to be shared in the conversation
• What the ECT hopes to gain from the conversation (i.e. as well as sharing information, what information could they gain that would help them)
• How they will manage if the conversation becomes difficult.

The ECT should practise delivering the script to their mentor. The mentor should provide feedback on the following:

• Are the points the ECT is making clear?
• Is the intention evident?
• What specific language does the ECT use? Can they improve this at all?

If the ECT struggles with this the mentor could volunteer an appropriate conversation of their own for the ECT to listen to.

Planning for action

Before the next topic the ECT will carry out a short observation in a colleague’s classroom. The observation will focus on how pupils respond to teachers’ behaviours. See Handout 6.1 for information on this and a proforma for the ECT to record their reflections.

Agree who they will observe and when. As with all observations it is important that the ECT thinks about how they will approach this task in terms of building and maintaining professional relationships. Ask the ECT to consider the perspective of the colleague whose lesson is being observed:

• How will they explain to their colleague what it is they are focusing on?
• Will they share their focus questions ahead of the observation?
• How will they agree when the best time for this observation will be? This observation will take 20 minutes, probably the last 20 minutes of a lesson, so they will need to take this into account.
• What if the lesson goes less well than expected? How can they handle this well?

This will link to the next topic as the ECT will be thinking about how they can build trusting relationships with pupils.

Building trusting relationships with pupils

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

Learn how to build trusting relationships, by:

• Responding consistently to pupil behaviour

Activities

Reflecting on learning (15 minutes)

The ECT should reflect on their first year of teaching and what they have learned so far about building trusting relationships with pupils.

Questions to ask:

• When has this worked well?
• When have they found it hard?
• What do they feel constitutes a trusting relationship?

Guidance for mentors

This activity builds on module 1, so the mentor should identify how the ECT has developed their skills since the start of the year. It can be hard for new teachers to find the right balance between being ‘the teacher’ and being a person who builds a culture of mutual respect and trust with pupils.

The mentor should think back to their early years of teaching and share their own experiences of this. For example, they might reflect on:

• Times when relationships with pupils did not work well
• The specific steps they took to improve them
• The benefits of this.

Some key points for the conversation include:

• The importance of consistency, e.g. in managing behaviour
• Understanding pupils’ individual circumstances
• Proactively highlighting successes to parents/carers (rather than only communicating negatives)
• Providing opportunities for all pupils to succeed.

Building trusting relationships with pupils (15 minutes)

The ECT should feed back their reflections from the lesson observation agreed in the last topic and identify two or three strategies used by the teacher that they can use in their own practice, focusing on:

• The routines used in the classroom environment, such as lesson beginnings and ends
• The ways in which they learn about and build on pupils’ prior knowledge and experiences
• Their approaches to managing behaviour
• Evidence of mutual trust and respect between pupil and teacher.

Consistent responses to behaviour (15 minutes)

Thinking back to module 1, the ECT should:

• Identify the strategies they have used in managing behaviour that have worked well
• Reflect on occasions when strategies have been less successful
• Consider how they can manage these better.

The ECT should be reminded that a consistent approach to behaviour is key to creating a trusting relationship with pupils: they notice when teachers are not consistent and respond accordingly. It is likely that the ECT will have found consistent management of behaviour difficult. They may be reluctant to discuss this if they feel it will appear that they have not been following school rules or processes or that their mentor may judge them harshly. Therefore, to encourage an honest conversation, mentors should share with the ECT occasions when they have found it difficult to maintain a consistent approach to behaviour, such as when under stress and/or trying to give pupils opportunities for success. The conversation could also focus on the ECT’s consistent responses to good behaviour first.

Use the following list as prompts:

• Establishing a supportive and inclusive environment with a predictable system of reward and sanction
• Working alongside colleagues as part of a wider system of behaviour management
• Giving manageable and sequential instructions
• Checking pupils’ understanding of instructions before a task begins
• Using consistent language and non-verbal signals for common classroom directions
• Using early and least-intrusive interventions as an initial response to low-level disruption
• Responding quickly to any behaviour or bullying that threatens emotional safety.

The conversation could also focus on the ECT’s consistent responses to good behaviour first. Some reminders for the ECT:

• For difficult conversations, prepare, even if this is ‘in the moment’ during the lesson: the ECT should give themselves time to think before speaking. It can be helpful to script responses to common issues.
• Teachers should respond quickly to any behaviour or bullying that threatens emotional safety.
• Follow the school policy.
• Keep on learning from colleagues.
• Taking time to build positive relationships with pupils and their parents, carers and families will be paid back in improved behaviour.

For more detail around this, look back at Activity 1.4 in the self-directed study materials from module 1.

Building trusting relationships with pupils (10 minutes)

In advance of next topic, the ECT and the mentor should agree a time when the ECT will collect evidence from pupils to learn about their views of what characterises a positive relationship with teachers. This information can be recorded using the adaptable handout on pupil voice prompts, asking pupils to write down three words that characterise effective relationships of a teacher with their pupils, adapting the question appropriately for pupils’ ages. The intention is for the ECT to learn about what works well for pupils in building a relationship of trust and mutual respect, so the focus is on all teachers, not on themselves.

The ECT might find it helpful, therefore, to ask this question of pupils in a different class (perhaps the mentor’s) rather than their own. Decide together who the ECT will ask. The information gained will be used in the next mentor topic and could also be useful for Training topic 6.2.

Planning for action

The next two topics will look at how the ECT works effectively with other specialist staff in school. The ECT should prepare for this by engaging in the relevant self-directed study materials, and particularly, in advance of the next topic, Activity 6.4: Working with the SENCO.

In the next topic a colleague (careers advisor or pastoral leader) will be invited along and there will be an opportunity to ask questions and get support with a specific class.

Ask the ECT to:

• Choose a class they would like support with
• Note down any questions they plan to ask the colleague about their role and about how the colleague’s work relates to the chosen class group.