Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Information for mentors
The role of the school-based Mentor
School-based Mentors play a crucial role in the development of student teachers as expert professionals and role models. School-based Mentors knowingly pass on their skills by modelling and sharing feedback with students but perhaps as importantly, they pass on their tacit knowledge about what being a teacher means in a broader sense.
The skills of Mentoring were described in the 2016 National Standards for Mentoring as:
- Personal qualities – establishing trusting relationships, modelling high standards of practice, and empathising with the challenges a student faces.
- Teaching – supporting students to develop their teaching practice in order to set high expectations and to meet the needs of all pupils.
- Professionalism – inducting the student into professional norms and values, helping them to understand the importance of the role and responsibilities of teachers in society.
- Self-development and working in partnership – continuing to develop their own professional knowledge, skills and understanding and invest time in developing a good working relationship within relevant ITT partnerships.
In the Leeds Beckett Partnership, we ask school-based to:
- With the support of the university Lead Mentor, assess our students accurately using the framework on PebblePad, and in their final placement against the Teachers' Standards.
- Support your student in continually reviewing and extending their subject knowledge. On PebblePad, there are subject overviews that will help you to understand what your student is taught at the university and how your role can fit with this.
- Maintain records as required in PebblePad. Your student and university Lead Mentor will help you in this.
- Make sure your student understands the procedures and policies of the school and you have agreed with your student on a broad structure for the placement including when the student is expected to arrive and leave and how they should spend their time when not teaching.
Support as a school-based Mentor
As a partnership we have consistently been able to access high quality, rich and contrasting school-based experiences that build on students’ previous experience. Our goal is to continue to make an impact on teacher supply and quality across all our region. We know that high quality mentoring is at the heart of teacher education, and we will ensure all our school-based Mentors receive the support and training that they need.
While there is no longer a mandatory minimum training time requirement from the DfE, we are still required to ensure that all school-based mentors receive sufficient high-quality training to ensure they can effectively support student teachers to obtain the knowledge and skills they need to successfully complete their ITE school placement. 
With this in mind, our training offer has continued to be developed, and we will provide school-based Mentors with the knowledge and skills they need to undertake the role through:
- Clear and detailed operational guidance of what is required of school-based Mentors across the placement (e.g. weekly meetings, progress review visits, final reviews etc).
- Ongoing support and development for school-based Mentors on effectively supporting the learning and improvement of student teachers (e.g. assessing student progress, giving effective feedback).
- Knowledge and understanding of the Initial Teaching Education and Early Career Framework (previously the ITT core content framework) and its underpinning evidence, and of the ITE curriculum which the student teacher will be following.
This will continue to be delivered through: 
- Three face-to-face, in person conferences – dates tbc.  These will be a fantastic opportunity to develop your practice in a supportive environment.
- Asynchronous online training through our brand-new ESTEEM (Establishing Specialism in Teacher Education as Expert Mentors) learning platform.
We will also offer:
- Online drop-in sessions for:
- Training that benefits from input and discussion from school-based Mentors
- Any questions, queries or help you may need with any aspect of mentoring our students on placement in your school.
Training requirements
We consider the ‘gold standard’ of best practice for school-based Mentor training to be:
- New school-based Mentors to work towards completing an initial 20 hours training across two years.
- Existing school-based Mentors to complete 6 hours of ongoing training each year.
We do recognise prior learning (RPL). Any new school-based Mentors with whom we can RPL, will only be required to complete the 6 hours of essential training as detailed below. Of course, the full suite of training will be available to school-based Mentors with RPL should they wish to undertake it.
For all new school-based Mentors, the 20 hours of training will be made up of:
- 6 hours of essential training comprising:
- 2-hour pre-recorded presentation covering the logistics of being a school-based Mentor
- 1-hour pre-recorded presentation covering the Initial teacher training and early career framework (ITTECF)
- 3 hours made up of either
- modules delivered asynchronously training via our ESTEEM learning platform
- Attendance at one of our conferences.
- 14 hours of training can comprise any of the following to suit your needs:
- modules delivered asynchronously training via our ESTEEM learning platform (from January 2026)
- attendance at one of the drop-in training sessions (our monthly online support sessions do not count)
- attendance at further conferences.
For all existing school-based Mentors, the 6 hours of ongoing/refresher training each year will be made up of:
- 2-hour pre-recorded presentation covering the logistics of being a school-based Mentor
- 1-hour pre-recorded presentation covering the Initial teacher training and early career framework (ITTECF)
- 3 hours made up of either
- modules delivered asynchronously training via our ESTEEM learning platform (from January 2026)
- attendance at one of the drop-in training sessions (our monthly online support sessions do not count)
- attendance at further conferences.
We have designed this training to be as flexible as possible to help you fit it around your teaching commitments. If you need any support with this, please do contact us and let us know how we can help.
It is important to note that:
- We do not allow ECT1 Early Career Teachers (ECTs) to be school-based Mentors. We do allow ECT2 teachers to be mentors if the teacher is strong and both school and ECT2 agree to this.
- Senior Leaders, or part-time, job share, or supply teachers might not be suitable to be school-based Mentors unless they have sufficient time and resources to carry out the requirements of the school-based Mentor role as per the Partnership Agreement.
Whilst on placement, each student is assigned a university Lead Mentor who will make regular contact with your student and you and be a source of support. They will complete an in-person visit* to your school roughly halfway through placement to moderate a Progress Review and meet with your student and you at the end of the placement for a Final Review to sign off the placement.
*Except UG phase 1 which will be a virtual visit via Microsoft Teams.
Leeds Beckett Mentoring Principles
The development of school-based colleagues is an important part of delivering high quality early career teacher development. We draw on key areas of the research evidence and practitioner literature base including the CCF, ECF and DfE 2016 Mentor Standards. Our principles have been informed by: Knight’s work on instructional coaching (2017), Billett’s framework for supporting workplace learning (2015), the work of Hobson et al. on ONSIDE mentoring and Lofthouse’s work on professional learning (2018). This is combined with our experience of over 100 years of working with teachers in schools supporting students and delivering mentor training across our 500-strong school partnership.
Our mentor training curriculum is developed by experienced research-active university staff, ITE colleagues and partnership schools with knowledge in phase-specific and subject-specific approaches to high-quality teacher training ensuring high-quality mentor training.
Our trained mentors will know what is essential to support student teachers to succeed. They will understand how to bridge the students’ taught curriculum and school placement learning requirements. Our sequenced and coherent mentor training curriculum is designed with our students’ curriculum at its heart.
Open dialogue, post-training mentor feedback, quality assurance visits and dialogue with students and mentors will keep our delivery high-quality, comprehensive and fit-for-purpose.
The aims of our mentor training:
- Ensure that all students are supported by mentors with appropriate training, understanding and skills to support phase specific and subject specific development.
- Ensure that all mentors have a strong understanding of the student curriculum and can support student needs and step-by-step progression.
- Ensure that high-quality mentor provision can be sustained as a key component of effective ITT partnership.
- Develop mentors who engage in self-reflective practice and personal growth and have necessary mentoring skills, understand and build effective relationships with students and support the development of other mentors.
