Early Years Educator – Mentor Standardisation
We are required by the Awarding Organisation for workplace mentors to attend standardisation training. Due to the nature of distance learning and time commitments of mentors, this standardisation will be completed remotely and at a time suitable for the mentor.
Please take the time to review the standardisation training below which will be updated periodically with relevant updates to the course or mentor guidance. There is an opportunity on the mentor upload form to ask questions and answers to these questions will be shared on this website page or sent directly to the mentor via email depending on the type of question asked.
Thank you for agreeing to support the learner within your workplace.
30.11.22 - Course guidance – Observational Evidence of Practice
The Observational Evidence of Practice documents need to be filled in periodically with observations of the learner’s completion of the Practical Placement Assessment Criteria. A suitably qualified witness in the setting must complete the observations and should be listed on the Setting Agreement Form.
Observational Evidence of Practice must be:
- Dated for each activity e.g. on the 03/03/2019 I observed Joanne…….The following day 04/03/2019 I observed Joanne……
- Written at the time of observation and submitted within 3 months of being completed
- Written in the third person (I observed Joanne working with…..)
- Written as a narrative (explaining exactly what Joanne was seen doing or saying to show the skills and abilities were in place in her practices, not simply what she knows)
- Typed or handwritten by the mentor (it cannot be in the learner’s handwriting and, if typed, the mentor should handwrite a short confirmation at the end of the document confirming it is a true and correct record)
- Include a signature and date of both the mentor and learner
- All signatures on the Observational Evidence of Practice must be included on the Setting Agreement Form
- Sufficient evidence of each assessment criteria must be provided (one or two lines is not enough)
Please see the exemplar document for how this should be completed. This should be provided to you by the learner.
20/11/22 – Professional Discussion Guidance
As part of the course, learners are required to undertake professional discussions with suitably qualified mentors within their placement setting. Professional discussions should be planned by the learner on the planning document prior to being recorded.
Pointers for professional discussions for the mentor:
- The mentor and learner should both state their names at the start of the recording
- The learner should lead the discussion
- The mentor can ask open questions to encourage the learner to demonstrate their understanding of the assessment criteria
- Confidentiality must be maintained at all times and no children’s names should be used
- It is also important that there are no children featuring in the recording whether this is visual or verbal
Please see the guidance document and professional discussion template for how this should be completed. This should be provided to you by the learner.