Your development
We see mentoring not only as a vital element of supporting our beginning teachers to succeed but also as an important source of professional development for mentors themselves and a hugely valuable resource for our partnership schools.
As a result we offer a comprehensive programme of training and development for all our school based mentors, which is broken down into 2 main areas:
- Taught content training (Level 1 and 2 mentor training)
- On-placement mentor development/refresher training
For details of all of the above please see below
Taught content (Level 1 and 2)
We ask all mentors to complete as a minimum our Level 1 face-to-face mentor training. This training is equivalent to 5 hours and is run on campus.
We also recognise equivalent training from other local providers (within the South-Coast Providers group – see below) and national providers such as NASBTT. You should not have to repeat training you have already completed.
In addition we highly encourage our mentors to complete the Level 2 training (again on campus).
For full details of our on campus training sessions and booking links please click here.
On-placement development (refresher training)
In addition to our taught training all mentors who are mentoring for our programme will also receive 6 hours of on-placement development which serves as refresher training for our experienced mentors. This will take the form of:
- A subject-led briefing at the beginning of the placement
- Time to access and engage with the half-termly mentor development updates
- 2 in-school visits by university tutors including a co-observation and co-feedback and a developmental conversation AND/OR 1 online visit for Focus placement mentors
Claiming DfE funding for mentor training
For the academic year 2025-26 the DfE has announced that funding for up to 16 hours per mentor is available to schools. In terms of our training this breaks down as follows:
- Level 1 training = 5 hours
- Level 2 training = 5 hours
- On-placement training for Base placement mentor: 6 hours
- On-placement training for Focus placement only mentor: 3 hours
Further information on how to claim this funding will be sent to ITECs via the partnership office.
In order to facilitate claiming for this funding, it is important that mentors maintain an up to date log of their training hours.
Mentor development log
Please find below a downloadable version of our mentor development log.
Please note that this has been updated for the academic year 2025-26, any mentors who have already completed the previous version are welcome to continue to use that.
Mentor development Log 2025-26
Please use this document to log all training completed via the University of Southampton or equivalent providers. We ask you to maintain this log to ensure you are able to transfer your training to other institutions if mentoring for them in future.
Recorded training options
If you have completed the minimum requirement of Level 1 mentor training but wish to enhance your mentoring knowledge independently. You are able to access 12 recorded units of mentor training. These can be downloaded via our Recorded training materials tab which is password protected (please contact Partnership@soton.ac.uk if you have not been provided with the password).
The South-Coast Providers
Working together as a group, the below institutions have co-designed a mentor-training curriculum which will be recognised by each of the providers in the group. Therefore completion of training with us will be transferable to the below institutions:
South Coast Providers group: University of Southampton, University of Portsmouth, University of Winchester, University of Chichester, University of Brighton, University of Sussex, Portsmouth SCITT, Wildern Partnership, Fareham and Gosport SCITT, Canterbury Christ Church University, South Farnham SCITT.