Mentor Training

The Leeds Beckett Partnership – roles and terminology

High quality mentoring remains at the heart of our ITE partnership. Moving forward, we recognise two school roles:

• School-based Mentor – (often the school’s ITT Coordinator) who has overall responsibility for the development of our student whilst they are on placement and undertakes the weekly meeting with the student.
• Supporting teacher - this could be another teacher whose lessons our student teaches some of, but who is not the school-based Mentor. They may support the student with informal feedback, observations, and by reviewing planning and resources.

There will also be the university Lead Mentor who is responsible for liaising with partner schools throughout a student’s placement to ensure the quality of the student experience, to support and develop school-based Mentors in their role and to help build a stronger and deeper ITE partnership.

School-based Mentor training at LBU

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. Supporting teachers may also choose to work towards completing the full 20 hours of training that school-based Mentors undertake, but there is no expectation for supporting teachers to attend any in-person conferences.