Mentor Training at St Mary's University
Mentors to students commencing their ITE programme in 2024-25 are required to complete 20 hours of DfE funded training when hosting a St Mary's trainee in their school. This training is split into distinct categories:
- St Mary's curriculum training (delivered in person and online throughout the academic year)
- NASBTT mentor skills training (accessed online and shared across PLITEN network)
- Intensive training and practice (ITaP) training (delivered by expert colleagues from St Mary's).
St Mary's curriculum training
Our CPD UK accredited curriculum training has been carefully designed to meet the DfE requirements for the new academic year while simultaneously offering professional development for mentors. Delivered in distinct sessions focusing on key topics, this training promotes a research-informed approach to pedagogy and practice by offering expert colleagues the opportunity to reflect on how concepts apply to their context before exploring how they would effectively mentor a trainee teacher in their setting.
St Mary's University delivers its curriculum training in whole day sessions both on campus and online. While further training dates will be made available throughout the year, the current dates for the new academic year are:
- Thursday 19th September (online)
- Friday 27th September (St Mary's University)
- Thursday 14th November (online)
- Tuesday 7th January (online).
Please note this training should be completed prior to hosting a trainee or during the early stages of a placement. Therefore, it will also be available to mentors asynchronously through Abyasa to engage with in a way that suits them.
These training sessions will include content on mentoring at St Mary’s, classroom pedagogy, and your role in supporting trainees’ practice while in school. Sessions will be led by colleagues passionate about the areas of professional learning covered and aim to offer training in both the theory and application of these topics.
NASBTT mentor skills training
This suite of professional development is made available to complete essential mentor skills training. These are shared modules across the PLITEN network, which means mentors to trainees from other providers will not have to repeat this portion of the training. The required modules are:
- Reflective practice
- Understanding the CCF
- Mentees and metacognition
- Observing your mentee
- Mentoring or coaching
- Deliberate practice
- Difficult conversations
- Mental health awareness.
These modules can be accessed asynchronously at a time that suits mentors using the NASBTT platform.
Intensive training and practice (ITaP)
ITaP offers trainees and mentors an opportunity to consider granular pedagogical concepts in detail. This training will include a combination of a recorded introduction from expert colleagues and a range of further resources to support mentors in working with trainees. As these differ for each trainee based on their phase of training, ITaP resources will be made available through Abyasa using the 'Documents' tab.
Frequently asked questions
Mentors with other qualifications (such as the NPQLTD or ECF mentor training) may be exempt from aspects of our training. In addition, mentors who are also working with other providers in the London area (e.g. Kingston University, University of Roehampton, and UCL) may already have completed elements of our training. Please contact the Partnership team if you would like to discuss this further.
English schools who host a trainee starting their training in 2024/25 can claim funding from the DfE to cover the cost of mentors completing the required 20 hours of training. This can be claimed at the end of the academic year for each mentor in the school.
Please note Welsh schools are not able to claim this funding.
Schools can claim funding directly from the Department for Education following the fulfillment of the training requirements.
Following the completion of the required training, mentors will not be required to repeat the 20 hours should they mentor again. The DfE has stipulated that mentors will need to engage in 6 hours of refresher training in subsequent academic years.