• Enhance teacher wellbeing by providing confidential spaces for reflection, problem solving and critical friendship.
• Reduce professional isolation by building cross‑phase, cross‑sector communities of practice under the umbrella of the national subject Association for Language Learning
• Promote inclusive and equitable mentoring that values diverse identities, languages, routes into teaching and career stages, reflecting ALL’s commitment to linguistic and educational diversity
• Develop leadership and mentoring capacity within the language community, contributing to improved standards of language teaching and learning nationally
• Support language teachers’ subject‑specific professional development and pedagogy, complementing ALL’s CPD, publications and events.

By locating the peer mentoring programme within ALL, individual teachers’ development is explicitly connected to a wider national effort to raise the profile and quality of language teaching and learning.

• Inclusive: Open to ALL members - language teachers, specialists and non-specialists, teaching assistants and language providers from all phases, sectors, languages and routes into teaching
• Diverse: Intentionally brings together teachers with different linguistic, cultural and professional backgrounds, echoing ALL’s commitment to language policies that reflect the linguistic diversity and language needs of the country
• Supportive: Provides a non‑judgemental, developmental space distinct from line‑management or appraisal, consistent with ALL’s role as a professional Association rather than an accountability body
• Confidential: Mentoring conversations remain confidential within professional and safeguarding boundaries; no information is shared with employers or colleagues
• Critical friendship: Encourages honest, reflective dialogue that combines support with thoughtful challenge, building on ALL’s tradition of practitioner enquiry and research‑informed practice
• Professional development and wellbeing: Keeps a dual focus on classroom practice, curriculum and assessment, and on the emotional demands and wellbeing of language teachers
• Peer mentoring: Recognises that expertise is distributed; mentoring is a reciprocal learning partnership in which both mentor and mentee can learn, question and grow, reflecting ALL’s belief that “together we are stronger”.

These principles are summarised in participant materials, on the ALL website and in induction sessions.

• Structured, time‑bound relationships established through an ALL‑coordinated matching process. Where geography permits, pairs may meet in person, including alongside branch events, if desired.
• E‑mentoring (online) is a core feature, allowing teachers nationwide to participate and reflecting ALL’s commitment to reaching members across regions.
• Once per half term with the possibility to meet once a month if preferred.

Note: In future, as the Peer Mentoring Programme becomes more established, mentoring groups may be considered to complement the one-to-one mentoring and diversify the mentoring offer.

• In the first meeting, each pair agrees a simple mentoring “learning contract” covering:
  • Frequency, mode and length of meetings
  • Reminder of boundaries and confidentiality
  • Priority focus areas (e.g. personal development, behaviour management, curriculum design, assessment, multilingual pedagogies, leadership, workload and wellbeing)
  • The agreement is reviewed regularly and at the final meeting to reflect on progress and next steps. It is anticipated that each mentoring relationship will last between 6-9 months.