Mentor meetings are the cornerstone of support for beginning teachers, shaping their early experiences and helping them make sense of both the theory behind teaching and the realities of working in schools. When done well, these meetings offer a vital bridge between what new teachers learn in their training and what they encounter in the classroom. Unfortunately, their impact can be diminished when meetings focus solely on logistics and the organisation of the placement week, missing the opportunities for developmental conversations.

What Makes a Mentor Meeting Truly Valuable?

Timetabled Mentor Meeting Slots

Having a regular, timetabled slot for mentor meetings—whether during the school day or in a twilight session—can make a world of difference for maximising the potential of these meetings. Uncertainty around when these meetings will take place can leave new teachers feeling anxious and seeking informal support, which can be challenging for both mentee and mentor. While it’s not always possible to stick to the same time each week, a clear plan helps everyone involved. Consistency builds trust and sets a professional tone for the mentoring relationship.

Setting an Agenda

Mentor Meetings benefit from an agenda.  This helps to keep the meeting purposeful and focused, rather than ad-hoc or reactive.  It also ensures the mentor and mentee know what to expect.  The agenda needs to provide space for checking in on the beginning teacher’s wellbeing, organising their practice experience, reviewing and setting targets, and having a time to engage in a developmental conversation that encourages the integration of theory and practice. 

Checking in on Wellbeing

In my experience, it is more common for a mentee to suffer in silence than to admit they are struggling.  Making space to check in regularly about wellbeing signals that the mentor is an appropriate person for a mentee to admit their struggles to, and often helps to identify support needs for early intervention.  However, asking ‘how are you?’ rarely leads to an open conversation.  Instead, mentors may find they are more successful in their wellbeing check if they ask questions such as:

• What are you looking forward to this week?
• What did you do this weekend that wasn’t work?
• Have you met up with friends recently?
• Is there anything I can do to support you right now?

Organising the Practice Experience

Every mentor meeting will inevitably involve some discussion of logistics and organisation of the teaching practice placement.  These conversations will likely include agreeing the following week’s teaching, identifying resources, discussing issues relating to classes and pupils, and setting out when and how training programme activities can take place.  However, the temptation can be that this becomes the entire mentor meeting.  While it is important to get these arrangements clear, they are the not the developmental element of the meeting and need to be limited.  Setting a timer can help this portion of the meeting remain focused.    

Reviewing Last Week’s Targets

Each week, reviewing the targets set previously is essential. Mentees should be encouraged to keep a weekly mentor meeting record which acts as an aide memoire for them and as a reflective journal capturing their progress.  Beginning teachers can often feel overwhelmed by the barrage of targets they receive via observation feedback.  The mentor meeting also provides an opportunity for the mentor to help them sift through this feedback to identify trends and set their actual target for the week.   An ongoing dialogue around reviewing targets o ensures the beginning continues to move forward in their development.  It means that continuing targets can be refined, and new action steps agreed, or completely new targets can be set.  It also enables progress to be acknowledged and celebrated. 

Holding a Developmental Conversation

Successful mentoring ensures beginning teachers are gradually supported to see the big picture. Mentor meetings can also be used to undertake joint planning, model reflection, explore the mentee’s observations, undertake low-stakes practice of core classroom skills, engage in subject knowledge enhancement conversations or model pedagogical techniques. 

Engaging in regular ‘guided reading’ conversations with mentees can be an invaluable component of the mentor meeting. If time is short, mentors can ask their mentees to summarise an agreed key reading, offering their practice-focused experience to complement the insights brought by the beginning teacher’s engagement with the theory.  This collaborative approach to professional reading strengthens subject knowledge and helps mentees develop the habit of reflection.

Understanding and accepting the culture of the department and school is crucial, and colleagues should recognise that adjustment takes time.  The mentor meeting can also provide an important place of this ‘sense making’ to take place.

Final Thoughts

Mentoring is most powerful when it provides a safe space for mentees to make mistakes, reflect, and improve. 

Mentor meetings are about more than ticking boxes—they are about building confident, reflective teachers who are ready to engage with the challenges and rewards of the profession.

Thank you to all mentors who invest their time and care into making their Mentor Meeting meaningful. Commitment to excellent mentoring shapes the future of the teaching profession. Mentors matter.