STEP, for managers

STEP has three routes.

• New Starter: everyone new to teaching at the college, including colleagues joining from industry. STEP ON first, then STEP AHEAD or STEP UP. See the New Starter pages
• Directed Support: support for colleagues with one area of their teaching. It can be a few one-to-one sessions or several weeks of mentoring. Its pages are private: only the colleague and the STEP team can open them.
• STEP FORWARD, the RAISE Accelerator: coaching after RAISE Visit 1, through to Visit 2. Its pages are open to everyone. See the STEP FORWARD pages

STEP follows the college’s Mentoring Procedure (2024).

• New starters: add them to the New Starters tab of the 26-27 RAISE and Staff Master List, or email adminraise@bradfordcollege.ac.uk.
• From RAISE: colleagues with 2 Ambers at RAISE Visit 1 join Directed Support, and STEP FORWARD comes from RAISE Visit 1. No referral is needed for either.
• Your referral: see Making a referral, below.
• Colleagues themselves: anyone can contact the STEP team if they’d like support. We’d encourage them to mention it to you too.

What counts as a referral

Any time you ask for an Innovator to work with a colleague on their teaching. Use your own words for the reason. You don’t need to know the lesson visit areas or choose the type of support. The STEP team agrees the right support with your colleague.

The support we offer

Four steps

1. Talk to your colleague first. Explain why you’re suggesting STEP, what it is, and that an Innovator will be in touch. Nobody should hear about it first from an Innovator.
2. Email adminraise@bradfordcollege.ac.uk with:
   • their name, role and department
   • your reason for the referral: what you’ve noticed, and what you’d like to change
   • that you’ve talked to them
   • any timing needs, such as part-time hours
3. The STEP team agrees the right support with your colleague.
4. An Innovator contacts them within 3 working days.

Not STEP: capability or conduct concerns follow their own HR procedure and paperwork. For wellbeing or personal concerns, contact HR.

• The STEP team allocates an Innovator, who contacts your colleague within 3 working days.
• Most stages take 15 to 45 minutes outside lessons. The rest happens in lessons they already teach.

• Talk about STEP at their personal development review, as part of their development plan.
• Protect time for short drop-ins and peer visits, usually 15 to 20 minutes.
• Ask how it’s going, and leave what they write between them and their Innovator.

• Whether your colleague is engaged with STEP.
• For new starters, the outcome of the sign-off visit (Ready for RAISE, Further mentoring or Revisit), from their Innovator.
• When Directed Support ends, and the next step agreed, from their Innovator.
• Not what they write. Their starting point and reflections stay with them, their Innovator and the STEP team.
• If something needs your involvement, the Innovator will tell your colleague first.
• STEP numbers for your own staff come in your fortnightly data email.

STEP is not performance management or capability. Any HR process runs separately, with its own paperwork.

• STEP follows the college’s Mentoring Procedure (2024).
• Coaching built on lesson evidence and feedback improves teaching: across 60 studies, it made a clear difference to teachers’ practice and to learners’ results (Kraft, Blazar and Hogan, 2018).
• The EEF’s guidance on effective professional development (2021) sets out what makes new practice stick: building knowledge, motivating staff, developing techniques and embedding practice. Each STEP stage uses it.
• STEP follows the ETF’s guidance on mentoring in FE: developmental, non-judgemental and not used to manage performance.