Brooklands Special School
Learning conversations between support staff
Brooklands Special School in Reigate has 75 children on roll and eight classes. Because of the diverse range of children’s needs, there is a high staff:pupil ratio and the school employs 31 support staff – both Special Needs Classroom Assistants and Teaching Assistants. As a highly successful school, in its latest Ofsted inspection the school had no key issues identified.
What do they do?
In 2002 the school identified a need for a supportive structure for these paraprofessionals, and introduced a mentoring scheme run by Teaching Assistants who mentor other Teaching Assistants and Special Needs Classroom Assistants. This provides a structure for learning conversations to take place.
How do they do it?
Seven Teaching Assistants received training from an external consultant from FourS to become mentors. A job description was drafted for the mentoring position, and from that point all staff new to the school have been assigned a mentor from within this group by the deputy head, Lynis Williams.
Structured time for the mentoring pair to meet is made available on request but the aim is to meet every week for the first half of term after a new member of staff starts at the school. These meetings can take place during school time, although the mentors acknowledge that this isn’t always easy – Teaching Assistants, especially when they’re new to the school, can find it hard to prioritise their professional development over their time with the children. Sometimes meetings take place at break times or after school. Ground rules are established at the beginning for confidentiality between the mentor and mentee.
Support is also available for the mentors, as the leadership team (LMT) see the role as an important part of professional development for these staff. There is a formal structure of termly meetings with LMT where mentors explore what they do through role play and discussion.
What’s been the result?
The head and deputy at Brooklands are very clear about the positive impact of conversations through the mentoring scheme, not only for the staff who are mentored - they talk about the way mentors’ confidence has increased and the distributed leadership that the mentoring system has brought about in the school. “Teaching Assistants are more willing to come to me and discuss things they feel aren’t working in school, and come up with solutions. They take responsibility for issues which arise. They’re a wonderful part of our team,” the headteacher, Susan Wakenell, says.
What do staff in the school have to say to others who might be interested in trying this approach out? One of the mentors says: “You have to be really positive if people are going to learn from their conversations with you – there’s a tendency to talk about what’s going wrong, not what’s going right”. The mentors also talk about the way they’ve changed since taking up their role – the pride they take in their school and the satisfaction that comes from seeing someone they’ve mentored develop and succeed.
- Could a system like this be helpful in the context where you work?
- What are the similarities between this school and your context?
- What are the differences between this school and your context?
- Are the differences significant enough to suggest that this approach wouldn’t work with your colleagues?
- What would need to change for this approach to work for you?
- How could these changes be made?
