Developing peer-to-peer mentoring

Learn how to use peer mentoring effectively and what peer-to-peer sessions might look like, to create a supportive and collaborative culture in your school.

Last reviewed on 8 June 2023
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 42732
Contents
  1. Peer-to-peer mentoring fosters collaboration among colleagues
  2. Choose your approach depending on your priorities
  3. Mentoring doesn't need to reach a particular goal
  4. How to implement peer support

Peer-to-peer mentoring fosters collaboration among colleagues

Peer support networks can help to build a workplace culture where staff enjoy:

  • A sense of community in the workplace
  • Sharing ideas and practices
  • An inclusive and friendly approach to work
  • Time to interact informally with colleagues

Mentoring across different schools in a trust or federation can also help you foster a collective culture and school-to-school collaboration. 

The Working lives of teachers and leaders report found that teachers were more likely to rate mentoring/coaching as having a high impact than lesson observations, and internal and external training sessions (page 142).

Coaching has different goals

Coaching is about specific improvements and has a clear goal.