Primary Mentor Training
Welcome to our Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Birmingham Newman Partnership.
The information provided below has been written to assist our School Partners understand our Birmingham Newman Partnership and assist you in your role as part of the ITE programme. We are fully committed to preparing trainee teachers to become highly skilled and reflective practitioner teachers through inspiring professional development in creative school partnerships, focussing on understanding and promoting effective learning and pupil progress and developing professional expertise.
Thank you for supporting Birmingham Newman University Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses. We value the strong partnership that has been developed between the University, schools and trainees and look forward to working with you to support the future of Primary teaching in our joint commitment to make a real difference to children, young people and their families.
The Primary Partnership team are proud to currently work with around 180 schools including mainstream, special schools, pupil referral units and nursery schools across a wide geographical area and are always striving to grow our partnership and work more closely together to ensure that our Birmingham Newman Curriculum is purposefully integrated with the learning in schools.
The Importance of Mentors
We value the importance of a mentor’s work to the teaching profession. The mentor is at the heart of driving the quality of new teachers that enter the education system and the learning of the children and young people they teach.
We provide training on our mentoring principles, the Birmingham Newman Curriculum, the ‘Big Questions’ and the Newman Curriculum Continuous Assessment Tool (NCCAT) for all partners.
As a mentor in school, whether novice or experienced, we want to support you in the best ways possible to develop your mentoring skills and knowledge to enable you to coach and guide our trainees whilst at placement with you.
Dedicated Training Website
We require all school mentors to undertake our mentor training in order for them to be fully conversant and aware of our processes, procedures, and rationale for our approaches to mentoring as we aspire to seamlessly integrate centre and placement-based learning. We develop learning provided through our face-to-face and online mentor training sessions with a suite of supporting virtual content and emailed updates. We have a dedicated Mentor ‘Moodle’ website for curriculum information, placement-specific documentation for each placement stage and access additional asynchronous mentor training resources.
Birmingham Newman University ITE Mentoring Principles
At Birmingham Newman University, we have designed and developed a set of ITE Mentoring Principles, which we ask our Mentors to follow. These principles recognise that the success of the mentoring relationship depends upon mutual respect, openness, and sensitivity. Trainees are individuals with a range of knowledge, experience, preconceptions, and anxieties; following our ITE mentoring principles should allow trainees to set and achieve challenging, personalised, and professional goals in a supportive and enabling environment.
The relationship between Birmingham Newman and our school partners is extremely important to us. The vision in our Faculty is to become a centre of Excellence in Education, Training and Professional Development, Changing Lives, Shaping Futures. Through long established partnerships, we aim to prepare a confident workforce that is equipped to meet the needs of all learners.
We appreciate the pressures and demands of schools, and as a result ensure that our processes and documentation are effective yet manageable. Our university tutors are always available for guidance and advice where needed. We genuinely value our good relationships and always look for ways in which we can offer mutual support to benefit our partnership and community.
“We are proud of our strong partnership with Newman University, where their teaching of trainees plays a vital role in shaping our children as well as becoming leaders of the future here at Brandhall School.
This collaboration ensures that our children benefit from the fresh perspectives and dedication of these aspiring teachers, enriching their learning experience and creating a dynamic environment within our school.”
We look forward to continuing this fruitful partnership and are excited about the positive impact it will have on the growth and development of all our children.
Our partnership with Newman is truly a collaborative effort – both parties are so dedicated to the success of the students. Thanks to the highly skilled professionals who go above and beyond to ensure the recruitment and retention of the teaching profession is continued and cemented.
R Summers – Deputy Head Teacher: Brandhall Primary School
“For the past few years, we have had the privilege of working in partnership with Birmingham Newman University providing placements for trainee teachers.
Working in partnership really matters to Birmingham New University and they value the feedback they receive to ensure that the programmes they run are effective in developing the teachers of tomorrow.
Colleagues at Birmingham Newman University are always on hand, offering valuable advice and support to mentors and trainees. They are very clear in their shared vision for successful partnerships and work collaboratively with partner schools.”
P. Dosanjh – Headteacher: Tividale Community Primary School
“Working in partnership with Birmingham Newman University to train future teachers has been an absolute pleasure. Their students arrive well-prepared, ready to engage and learn. The partnership tutors are incredibly supportive and always available for advice. The streamlined paperwork process means there is little impact on our teacher workload, which we greatly appreciate.”
M Brazier – Deputy Headteacher: Burnt Tree Primary
Sarah Bott
Primary Partnership Lead
Email: s.bott@staff.newman.ac.uk
Tel: 0121 387 4565