You reap what you sow

During this pandemic, it can seem like a daunting prospect undertaking the role of a mentor to an early career teacher alongside all our other responsibilities as we adapt to this new sense of normality. However, being a mentor to both ITT trainees and NQTs in Drama and across a range of other subjects within my career has offered far-reaching benefits that outweigh any trepidation I may initially have felt.

Mentoring new teachers allows us time during the frenetic pace of our daily routines to reflect upon our own pedagogical practices through the act of observation, feedback and target setting. It provides us with the rare opportunity to stand back from our own subject and dissect the features of an ambitious and creative lesson.

What may be second nature to an experienced teacher – an effective behaviour management tool; a nuance within the delivery of a challenging concept; framing expectations within our choice of language – can all be unchartered territory for trainees and NQTs. Empowering them through coaching, questioning and self-assessment methods and encouraging them to see their pedagogy through the lens of an experienced colleague can make us more empathetic and aware of our own strengths as classroom practitioners.

New energy

Working with trainees and NQTs can revitalise and reenergise a Drama department. Their insight into innovations in technology and new initiatives within teaching and learning can encourage the most established of departments to move beyond their comfort zones to experiment with new ways of working. For many established departments, they can subconsciously rely on an in-house style of delivery within their teaching methodologies for many years, but welcoming an NQT/trainee into the fold can result in the most experienced of teachers working in unfamiliar and exciting ways.

Disrupting the creative status quo with the arrival of an NQT or trainee can be an extremely positive way forward in discovering new artistic endeavours, resources and current trends within drama education. It is often a fantastic way of widening drama provisions for young people and opening their world up to other creative possibilities through areas of expertise beyond those offered by your permanent staff.

Recent statistics reveal that a third of teachers who qualified in 2014 are leaving the profession within five years of teaching. Having access to high quality mentorship is crucial to preserve the longevity of creative and passionate teachers within the infancy of their arts careers. It can be the springboard for trainees/NQTs’ progression within their subject and heavily influence how they perceive themselves as practitioners within the short and long term.

Investing in the future

Much of the reward of being a Drama mentor is seeing the part that you play in the shaping and refining of an individual's personal and professional development, but also knowing that they are ambassadors for your subject; contributing to its future status within the curriculum. In a climate of arts vulnerability within the education sector, the nurturing of arts teachers through methodical and sustained mentoring is crucial if we are to preserve the recruitment and growth of the next generation of Drama teachers and our subject.

Next academic year, the DFE's nationwide launch of the NQT Early Career Framework will offer unprecedented and far-reaching professional development opportunities for mentors to develop effective instructional coaching techniques. The programme will provide structured training across a range of networks for them to harness their tools in communicating, supporting and engaging their mentees in meaningful professional dialogue and practice.

Investing in mentors through peer-to-peer, webinar and regional training will change the landscape for those individuals who have the desire and tenacity to invest in guiding young teachers, but do not necessarily have access to CPD in order to undertake this role with confidence and insight. It would be the ideal time to take the next steps to becoming a mentor, strengthening leadership skills and knowing we are making a valued contribution to the career pathways of others.

‘Be the teacher that you needed when you were younger’ is sage advice for any trainee or NQT, but being the person that shares such knowledge and bears witness to them acting upon it is one of the most revealing and joyous highlights of becoming a mentor. The investment of a committed Drama mentor pays dividends in nurturing innovative and informed early careers teachers that our students duly deserve and need to thrive within the arts.

Updates on the Department of Education's NQT Early Career Framework can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-career-framework-reforms-overview/early-career-framework-reforms-overview