Thought I’d capture my thoughts on the how the mentor meeting went this May. In the past I have left Andy and Alan to run this session – so it was the first time I engaged with the content.
The session was aimed around getting the mentors to moderate across the schools (slightly false as they weren’t going to watch students teach – just compare their observations and interim reports. At first the session got dominated by mentors that had issues with tie trainees. On reflection – you can see that the mentors who are having issues nearly always attend (as they want a forum to moan – but you could also see its cause their often stumbling (not had a trainee like this before) and want some support). By getting the mentors to identify what level of student they had and then resetting them with comparative trainees – this was really good for letting the mentors with strong trainees escape from the moaners.
The mentors gave very positive feedback about sharing ideas with other mentors and having the time to discuss the different levels. issues that were raised discussed inconsistency in trainees having the opportunity to trial theri own scheme of work. and that assessment comes at th end of the practice.
Need to consider further how to support mentors with improvmnt lanning. Paul pointed the use of the TDA guidance booklet on meeting the dstandards which is also avaialble as a website.
http://www.tda.gov.uk/partners/ittstandards/guidance_08/qts.aspx
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