NASBTT TEP Licence Holder: The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead SCITT
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead SCITT became a NASBTT TEP Licence Holder in 2019, thereby enabling it to deliver NASBTT’s Level 1 and Level 2 programmes in Effective Mentoring and Coaching, Advanced Mentoring and Coaching, and Facilitating Inspiring CPD.
SCITT Director Claire Murray, together with independent teaching and learning consultant Debbie Twineham, have co-facilitated training at both levels and fed back positively on their experiences. “First and foremost, the TEP materials are very comprehensive and accessible,” Claire said. “They are informative and develop mentors well, with opportunities for us to provide them with professional development and with updates on the SCITT programme locally. The trainer notes are very detailed and, as the expectation from NASBTT is that the content will be followed comprehensively without alteration or amendments, time needs to be taken to summarise content in order to make it accessible for mentors within the timeframe of the sessions. We have also created our own presentations from the trainer materials to provide key information in a user-friendly way.”
Claire highlighted a number of aspects which have been particularly useful. “Level 1 materials have been very helpful in establishing the need for a successful mentor-mentee relationship, especially focusing on the evaluate/motivate/facilitate cycle as we were able to link this closely with our own SCITT mentor meeting materials,” she explained. “SMART targets really made our mentors consider how they approached target-setting, particularly to ensure that the mentees had the skills necessary to meet the set target. Ready-made scenarios have been helpful throughout especially where they have been based in an education environment.”
She continued: “The sections on giving feedback and holding difficult conversations in Level 1 and 2 were well received and as trainers gave us the opportunity to draw on our own experience. In the coaching section of Level 1 we were also able to role-play to model aspects of a coaching session and bring in trainer knowledge linked to other education-based coaching models such as STRIDE. In Level 2, delegates particularly enjoyed the transactional analysis section which encouraged them to consider their responses to others and, as developing coaches, opportunities to coach each other linked to real-time issues were well received. All delegate booklets are very comprehensive and have been a useful resource for all sessions.”
The SCITT has reported how the TEPs have provided “clarity and consistency” across mentors, and opportunities for delegates “to come together and discuss shared issues” as well as “coaching skills to be taken into other areas of their roles in school”. Claire said: “As a local authority SCITT, it was considered valuable to have a tool to train all mentors not only to provide them with local SCITT information but have some cohesion across messages and skill sets. Having attended TEP training ourselves, the resources seemed to be a good fit for our requirements. Now I strongly recommend TEP as it looks at an in-depth coverage of mentor role, relationships and addressing difficult situations.”
Case study developed: April 2020