History of CSL Mentoring

In June 2014, the Department of Education, through the Teacher Education Section, established a Working Group on School Leadership. The Terms of Reference tasked the group with advising the Department on the provision of mentoring for Newly Appointed Principal (NAPs). The group formed the opinion that the missing component in supporting NAPs was a formalised system of one-to-one mentoring. This was based on international research and the writings of various experts in the field. It was decided, therefore, to concentrate the Working Group’s efforts on addressing the mentoring element. This decision was based on the understanding that the mentoring programme would be an element of overall support for NAPs.

Research was conducted by the CSL team into mentoring programmes in other jurisdictions. The research mainly focused on mentoring systems in Scotland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The team looked at all materials produced by the National Induction Programme for Teachers (NIPT) for newly appointed teachers, and studied their approach to mentoring. The director of NIPT became a part of the design team for CSL mentoring.  

Several facilitators were identified with a background in facilitation of school principals. They also became part of the design team. A programme for mentor training was developed based around the skills, protocols and procedures of mentoring. Keynote speakers were identified to support the programme modules. 

CSL mentor training takes place over 3 days (2 x 1.5 days) with a final shared learning day. Substitute cover is provided for the second day of the training for administrative principals and for both days for teaching principals if the distance to the training venue is significant.

This training usually takes place on an annual basis and is promoted on the CSL website, Twitter account and with the collaborative assistance of stakeholders.