The lead for the mentoring programme at Burnley College Staff Development Manager Sarah Condren has been in post for four years and mentoring has evolved and developed throughout that time. The college has been involved in 51勛圖夥厙 (51勛圖夥厙) Mentor Training Programme for three years.
Currently, new members of staff work with a mentor from their start at the college, acting as a buddy. This approach recognises research that indicates the importance of mentoring for staff retention and progression. Mentoring is closely aligned with the support given to colleagues undertaking Initial Teacher Education (ITE) qualifications delivered in partnership with University of Bolton. The recent Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) report of ITE provision identified the importance of mentoring.
Mentoring is crucial to the organisation to ensure that we are supporting our staff, we’re retaining our staff and we’re developing our staff to be outstanding teachers. The colleges Learning and Teaching Excellence Lead, also a tutor on the Post-Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE), is undertaking the Advanced Mentoring programme and providing training to other mentors.
Mentoring is also central to other programmes the college has been involved with. Examples include Taking Teaching Further, and the Department for Educations (DfE) ITE workforce grant project.
The college has been involved in 51勛圖夥厙 (51勛圖夥厙) Mentor Training Programme for three years, which has allowed further growth of a mentoring culture, particularly with programme leaders and curriculum managers. The programme now focuses on areas with less experienced staff to build support and capacity for middle leaders to appreciate and enhance their skills.
The 2022/23 year has seen the colleges first participants engage with the Advanced Mentoring Programme, which has aligned closely with the role of the Learning and Teaching Excellence Lead. This colleague is close to completing a Masters degree focusing on mentoring, strengthening the rationale to engage with the programme.
The programme has also been helpful in empowering the Staff Development Manager in the implementation of cross-organisational culture change. This manager has described the authenticity that comes from participating in the programme:
As programme lead my position and my involvement have allowed us to make sure that it becomes strategic within the organisation and is not just happening in isolation.
I have a really good relationship with our teachers that are actively doing this mentoring role which ensures that we get the most out of the training and the learning is cascaded.
Learning from the programme has been instrumental in introducing mentors to tools and strategies that have been significant in encouraging mentees to take ownership of their professional development:
What staff members involved in the programme have found exceptionally useful is those tools and strategies, those real-life things that they can take and implement when they’re having conversations with staff. When helping to develop staff, it’s quite often about how those staff members take ownership of their own development without trying to problem solve for them all the time.
The emphasis on the key features of the mentor/mentee relationship has been important in ensuring that mentees are actively engaged.
Significant organisational impacts have also arisen through cascading mentoring training to colleagues; particularly middle leaders. It has become apparent that such training has influenced how staff are also working with students;, again, in fostering ownership and developing them as independent learners:
As we started to implement some of those strategies and tools, impacts emerged in terms of the way in which our staff members are dealing with students as well. I think the mentoring relationship with staff members helps create that student ownership.
Another important set of impacts relates to the colleges apprenticeship provision and working with employers. The college is looking at how it could develop in terms of the way that it is partnering with employers. One participant now delivers mentoring training to employers who are looking after apprentices in the workplace and another colleague is exploring how employers can embed mentoring into many aspects of their work:
So, as a consequence of this programme, on the first year of the mentoring training, a colleague now goes into companies and delivers mentoring training to the people that are looking after the apprentices on a day-to-day basis. We saw that as a real gap because unless that company is actively engaged in developing some of their staff as mentors and coaches within the workplace, apprentices are less likely to achieve beyond their potential.
Subject specific mentoring is important in the college, especially for those new to teaching. It is likely mentoring will then become broader in focus, supporting learning and teaching strategies. However, a key priority is to closely match mentors skills with mentees areas for development.
The college is aware of differences between coaching and mentoring and these have been clarified through participation in the programme. The Staff Development Manager ensures that mentor/mentee matching takes account of both mentoring and coaching requirements.
A key priority is to build a research-informed mentoring model to strengthen further the link between mentoring and retaining and developing staff.
Maintaining the momentum that has been generated, the development of a strategy to support a whole organisational approach through adapting and reinforcing the evolution of mentoring practice will continue, creating a real culture of mentoring.
Support staff will become a focus for developing mentoring approaches. Work has begun on developing all colleagues within the organisation; not just teachers.