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  • Support for early career teachers
  • UCL
  • Year 1: First half-term: enabling pupil learning
    • Autumn week 7

    Mentor materials

    Exploring yourself as a role model

    Learning intentions

    Your ECT will learn how to:

    • put into practice learning from this module and receive feedback on their practice from their mentor

    Topic introduction

    In your ECT mentor meeting last week, you worked with your mentee to plan a developmental observation of aspects of their practice relating to Module 1. In this final ECT mentor session of the module, you will carry out a 20-minute observation of your mentee teaching, then use this to discuss your mentee’s progress to date and next steps.

    Research and practice summary

    There is no separate research and practice summary for this week, which is an opportunity for you and your mentee to review content from across Module 1 in the context of your mentee’s practice. You may wish to revisit one or more of the research and practice summaries from earlier sessions if this is helpful in preparing you for your planned observation and the discussion that will follow it.

    Meeting activities

    You may wish to organise this week’s ECT mentor meeting in two parts: first, observing your mentee teaching for 20 minutes, as planned in last week’s ECT mentor meeting, and later working through the remaining elements of this week’s session.

    Review: 5 mins

    Clarify the Learning Intentions for this session with your mentee. As appropriate, revisit the agreed observation focus and success criteria for this week’s planned observation.

    Plan: 20 mins

    Carry out a 20-minute observation of your mentee teaching, as agreed in last week’s ECT mentor meeting.

    To make the most of this observation you should:

    • focus your observation on the Early Career Framework statements that you identified with your mentee when planning the observation and on the specific strategies that you co-planned for them to use in the lesson
    • make notes that will support the discussions that follow (see below). This should include describing what was happening at key points in the lesson, the decisions that your mentee had to make in response to what was happening, actions your mentee took and how pupils responded
    • make notes on strengths in your mentee’s practice as well as areas for further improvement

    Remember that this observation is separate from your school’s formal NQT induction process and school performance management processes. It is recommended that you do not use formal school paperwork for this observation to help make clear the supportive and developmental nature of this activity.

    Theory to Practice 30 mins

    1. Reflection Ask your mentee to reflect on the lesson that you observed. This is an opportunity for you to support the development of their reflective capacity with good judgement, and in relation to evidence and best practice, and to set appropriate targets for their ongoing development. To support your mentee’s reflection you could prompt them to:
      • identify strengths in their teaching in relation to the strategies they planned to use in the session – in enacting the strategies as planned and in adapting these to the requirements of the lesson
      • identify areas for development, as above
      • consider any aspects of the lesson which surprised them and how this will help them to plan more effective teaching in the future
      • connect their practice in the lesson to research and practice summaries in this module. Where did they demonstrate particular strategies from these summaries? How can they further embed these strategies in their practice over time? Use your judgment to support and shape your mentee’s reflections, as appropriate.
    2. Discuss with mentor –share your feedback on your mentee’s lesson. To make productive use of this discussion, you could:
      • use your notes from the observation to highlight strengths in your mentee’s practice – both in enacting the strategies that were planned and in responding to what happened in the lesson as it progressed
      • use your notes to highlight opportunities for further development in your mentee’s practice, as above
      • build on relevant points arising from your mentee’s reflections in the previous activity
      • connect your feedback explicitly to the contents of the research and practice summaries from this module
    3. Reflection Return to the module audit that your mentee completed at the beginning of this module. Invite your mentee to complete this audit again, having worked through the module. You could:
      • note and celebrate those areas in which your mentee has made progress
      • recognise those areas in which your mentee is finding it more difficult to make progress and discuss how you will continue to support your mentee to do this over time
      • acknowledge with your mentee that they will continue to develop their competence and confidence in relation to Module 1 contents as they gain experience. Remind them that they can return to module materials at a later stage if they experience particular challenges related to setting high expectations and managing behaviour effectively

    Next Steps: 5 mins

    Agree with your mentee how they will now put their learning from this week’s session(s) into practice in their teaching. Help your mentee to clarify:

    1. the action(s) they will take and how these action(s) are expected to contribute to improved pupil learning
    2. what success will ‘look like’ in relation to these action(s)
    3. how they will evaluate their success in taking these action(s)

    There are no further sessions in this module. Module 1 is now complete.