Learning about Mentoring; the Enfield experience

Over the last few years there has been a growing body of knowledge, both nationally and in Enfield, of the expertise required for mentoring newly qualified teachers (NQTs). Coordinating the LEA support for this group we identified a gap in the provision for those in their second and third years of teaching. The article describes the efforts that were made through the accreditation of teachers' work to support teachers new to the profession to develop as reflective practitioners. This work is based mainly on the experiences of a group of teachers who were NQTs in 1992–93 and who wrote assignments that were submitted in May 1994. It is in three parts. In Part One we identify the problem as we see it; in Part Two we present our model for filling the ‘gap’; and Part Three explores the learning outcomes for the new teachers and ourselves.