Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, responds to the news that the DfE has removed the minimum requirements of 20 hours of initial general mentor training and six hours of annual refresher training for the mentors of trainee teachers.
“We are relieved that the DfE has seen sense and abandoned these new rules for teacher training mentors. These requirements were completely unworkable for schools already dealing with staff shortages and would only have served to make recruitment even more challenging. We agree with the need for all mentors to receive sufficient high-quality training, to ensure trainee teachers receive effective mentoring, but this has to be proportionate and manageable for all schools.”