Leadership Development

Mentoring

Mentoring for Newly Appointed School Leaders – Principals and Vice-Principals

Newly appointed principals and vice-principals receive mentoring support in their first and second years of practice. Experienced principals and vice-principals also receive support and resources to prepare them to become effective mentors and continue developing their own leadership competencies. The government invested $4 million to support mentoring across the province in 2008-09 and will invest the same in 2009-10

Mentoring for Newly Appointed System Leaders – Directors and Supervisory Officers

The mentoring for newly appointed Directors of Education and Supervisory Officers pilot was expanded as a field test in 2008-2009 and is being implemented province-wide in 2009-10. System leaders who are in their first and second years in the role are eligible to receive mentoring supports.

Resources for mentors and mentees

The following resources are provided through the Ministry of Education and Principal Association partners. Contact the mentoring lead in your board for more information.

Tools

Websites

Resources for school boards and school authorities

The ministry has prepared a guideline to support school boards in their implementation of Mentoring for Newly Appointed School Leaders.

Other Resources

Handbook

Supporting Effective School Leadership: A Handbook for Implementing Mentoring for Newly Appointed School Leaders in Ontario was developed as a companion to the School Board Guideline for Implementation of Mentoring for Newly Appointed School Leaders. The mentoring handbook was written by a development writing team representing the Association des directions et directions adjointes des écoles franco-ontariennes (ADFO), the Catholic Principals' Council of Ontario (CPCO) (PDF, 930 KB) and the Ontario Principals' Council (OPC) (PDF, 930 KB), in partnership with the ministry of Education. It is available on all three websites.

Webcast

Watch Gary Bloom, Associate Director of the New Teacher Centre at the University of Santa Cruz, California, address the challenges newly appointed school leaders face and present coaching and mentoring strategies in his webcast Blended Coaching for School and System Leaders. Many school boards have found this resource helpful in implementing mentoring.