Setting the stage for success: The role of mentorship in teacher retention

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.” 

If, to borrow from William Shakespeare, the classroom is our stage, then it is no surprise that some teachers seem to feel naturally comfortable the second they enter.

For many others, it takes months (or years) before they feel in their stride and comfortable in their role. Fresh from their ITT year which, if mine was anything to go by, was characterised by endless lectures –– all beginning with “This will be the hardest year of your life”! – it is little wonder that the ECT years can feel so conflicting.

Is the pressure now over?

When you become an ECT, does the job become easier now that you don’t have your mentor in the room?

I think many of us ask ourselves: Am I a “proper” teacher now I don’t have to have my lesson plans submitted 24 hours before I teach them?

Adding to this is the constant barrage of conflicting advice from well-meaning colleagues who simultaneously talk about how much the job has changed while also assuring you that it gets better the longer you do it.

And, of course, the unspoken truth is that the first five years of your career are those during which you are most likely to quit.

So how do we ensure that we retain our new teachers and give them the support they need?

Mentorship helped me stay in teaching

I am speaking from personal experience. As a disorganised PGCE student who never got beyond a “Good” for my observations; as an ITT who was constantly under scrutiny and being offered what was euphemistically referred to as “support” (so much so I often felt I was being gently eased towards the door).

The turning point came in my NQT+1 year (now referred to as ECT2), which is generally accepted to be the hardest year as for the first time you’re on your own with no mentor meetings and so on.

Narrowly avoiding a two-week “Support Plan”, I was put under the guidance of an experienced teacher who was an exceptional mentor with an uncanny ability to tease out the best practice in those under her tutelage.

We agreed that she would do a series of observations and that the feedback she provided would be formative but not necessarily easy to read. She was right on both counts.

Using what could best be described as “challenging with praise” she picked out the best points of my teaching while also unpicking the issues with me.

Within two weeks, I went from averaging requires improvement leaning towards inadequate in some areas to averaging outstanding (yes, these were the days when lesson observations were graded – a practice long since discredited and abandoned by most schools).

Refusing to take the credit my mentor gave me the advice I now pass on: “If you really want to improve then let’s do it together.” I felt supported, I was allowed to fail and, most importantly, I knew I could restart – how could I possibly lose?

What makes a good mentor/mentee?

Those of us who are mentoring need to remember that teaching has changed and that those we mentor face challenges that we didn’t. Our mentees also bring knowledge that we were not given at the same point in our careers. We need to listen without judgement and try to understand the needs of our mentees. We need to show them, using practical examples, where they can be more effective, and to be ready to offer compassionate support aimed at helping them to develop into confident professionals. Above all, we need to remember that a mentor’s role is to empower. When in doubt, ask yourself what kind of mentor you could have used when you were starting out?

If you are under the mentorship of a colleague, I encourage you to let them know what you need from them. You cannot assume they will instinctively understand your needs and it is important to tell them when you are struggling.

My mentor taught me the fundamentals of providing and receiving mentorship:

• We both have to want the best possible outcomes for the students.
• Honest feedback isn’t always easy to receive, but without it you can’t be the best for your students.
• It is never too early or too late to ask for help.
• Never assume anything: If we give an instruction, we should take two minutes to talk it through. Or if a mentee is unsure then they should always ask for further clarification.

The barriers to mentorship

So, what is stopping every ECT from gaining the best possible mentoring? I would argue that it is the usual issues (money and time). 

However, rather than accepting that many teachers won’t carry on beyond their fifth year, what if we changed our mindset? What if we incentivised our most experienced teachers by offering them the opportunity to mentor and share their experiences?

When the government considers education funding, I would advise them to drill down into the reasons why teachers are leaving the profession. How often is pay the key reason? How many teachers feel overworked and underappreciated?

How might these teachers feel if they were given dedicated time on their timetables for mentoring? What would a school look like in which line management was more than just a “check-in” but instead was an on-going formative mentoring process aimed at helping every teacher improve? The introduction of the Upper Pay Scale was intended to keep the best teachers in the classroom, so why not use them and their expertise?

Education Support recently published a policy paper, Revisiting the teacher retention crisis: Recommendations for change. It puts forward a range of practical recommendations for government, employers and school leaders to improve retention, including calling on government to fund capacity for high-quality mentoring for ECTs.

Let us listen and learn from each other and change our thinking, so that year 5 isn’t the year we drop out, but the year we step up.

Sean Trelawny is head of faculty at a large secondary school in Brighton, leading the strategic development of students’ personal, social, moral, and cultural education. He has experience as a teacher and middle leader, having served as mental wellbeing lead and head of department.