Mentor Welcome

 Thank you for agreeing to be Subject Mentor to our trainee teacher this year. They are very much ready and excited to come and join you and the department next week. Attached to this email is the trainee profile and their welcome video from your Professional Mentor. This provides an overview of the trainee teacher’s subject specialism as well as a brief piece of information about them personally.

Attached to this email are some useful documents and starting points for you to refer to. These include:

• Key dates found here. 

• Student Topic Plan with hand in dates for uni work here.

• The Placement Timetable shows the days on placement and at university

• Induction - students spend the first 3 weeks on placement Monday - Wednesday only and these days should be scheduled in advance of the trainee arrival completing tasks such as safeguarding and other college procedure training, observing a variety of lessons, tour of the college and completing all induction tasks as per their Induction Checklist which is due completed on 6th October 2023. 

• Course handbook – this is the key point of reference for all trainee teachers as it provides them with their university/placement timetable and details of assessment deadlines including their teaching practice deadlines.

• Observation - trainees should observe a variety of teaching, teachers, subjects, levels and qualifications. The timetable should be designed in conjunction with the trainee and mentor and the professional mentor may need to help facilitate wider observation than the department the trainee/mentor are in. 

• Teaching - Trainees must complete 100 hours of teaching throughout the course as a minimum. Extra hours for practice and development should be undertaken, but not to the detriment of observation and lesson planning time. A trainee should be in the classroom for a maximum of 12 hours per week, with teaching hours and observation hours included in this. An outline of suggested teaching and observation hours are provided here Suggested Teaching Hours.

• Mentors should undertake weekly support meetings to discuss trainee Professional Development Review and give advice and guidance for development needs. Here is a guide to how to conduct these meetings. You should also undertake observations and paperwork in a timely manner. This will be covered further in mentor training (dates and information to follow) and further details about Subject Mentor Requirements and Course Contect can be found on the Mentor Information Centre and following to Further Education and then Full Time information for specifics  https://sites.google.com/port.ac.uk/uop-fhss-pgce-mic/home  

• Trainees should attend placement at the times required, attend meetings and perform other duties including planning and marking in a timely manner. They should  provide paperwork as required, act professionally, follow procedures, reflect on practice, and make progress in their areas for development.

• I also refer you to this page of the Mentor Information Centre which details the mentor year guide which gives you a month by month breakdown of what the students are doing at university and what they should be doing on placement.

We have been working really hard at uni for the last three weeks and have covered most of the content shown here on this document. Obviously, this is just the basics and we will be coming back to this again to reiterate and strengthen the schema, but please have a look at what they have learned so far and discuss this with them when they arrive on placement.

If at any point on the course you have any questions or concerns, in the first instance please discuss them with your college’s Professional Mentor. If you and the Professional Mentor feel the university needs to be made aware of any teaching, course based or pastoral concerns, please feel free to contact me at any time as the Course Leader and Personal Tutor to the trainee. My email address is jo.elliott@port.ac.uk. 

I wish you a wonderful year with your trainee, and thank you again for agreeing to support them. I look forward to seeing you at training and on the first joint observation in November.