My Diminishing Returns

 This will be my first year mentoring a NQT and I have been thinking a lot about the best way to support them. I recently read Louis’excellent guide for NQT’s and it has got me thinking about the subject-specific guidance that heads of department can offer. I feel a strong responsibility to make sure I get it as right as possible. We have all seen what happens when NQT’s are not properly supported and this year more than ever when they have only had one placement, I suspect the level of departmental support will be crucial. I have always found the best development to be subject-specific and so I been developing a 3-step strategy to mentoring this year: 1.        Subject Knowledge Subject knowledge is always assumed to be excellent, but a university degree is a poor proxy for in depth knowledge for the specific content covered in a curriculum. Subject knowledge is sometimes seen as the poor sibling of pedagogical development but the two go hand in hand. Rob Coe’s research has sh