Mentoring That Matters

Mentoring in OSHC often begins with practical guidance. A new educator needs to understand the children, routines, supervision arrangements, policies and expectations of the service. At times, they need a clear answer about what to do.

Yet mentoring becomes more meaningful when it goes beyond transferring instructions from an experienced educator to someone less experienced.

A mentor might respond to a question by explaining the correct process. They might also ask what the educator noticed, what they were trying to support and what other possibilities they considered. This does not withhold guidance. It helps the educator connect the immediate decision with the thinking beneath it.

When mentoring is approached only as correction, educators can become dependent on someone else to confirm each decision. They may learn how practice is currently done without developing the confidence to question, interpret or contribute to it.

Connection creates space for curiosity. An educator is more likely to acknowledge uncertainty, test an idea or discuss something that did not go as expected when the relationship feels respectful and safe. The mentor can still challenge practice and communicate clear expectations, but feedback becomes part of professional learning rather than simply evidence that something was done incorrectly.

This also means recognising that learning can move in both directions. Experience brings valuable knowledge, but a mentor does not hold every perspective. A newer educator may notice something that has become invisible to the rest of the team, ask a question about a familiar routine or bring knowledge and skills that open another possibility.

Mentoring is therefore not about shaping someone into a copy of the mentor. It is about helping them develop their own professional judgement while remaining connected to the service’s philosophy, responsibilities and shared practice.

A useful mentoring conversation leaves the educator with more than an answer for one situation. It helps them understand what to notice, what questions to ask and how to think when the next situation is different.

That is how mentoring builds capability: not by removing uncertainty, but by strengthening an educator’s capacity to work thoughtfully through it.