Learning mentor: role, pay and skills

A learning mentor works with individual pupils and small groups whose behaviour, attendance, confidence or home life is holding back their learning. The job is non-teaching and is usually graded as school support staff on the NJC pay spine, often a few points above a teaching assistant. Schools look for experience with young people, good judgement about when to pass a concern on, and the ability to build trust with pupils who do not trust adults easily.

Who learning mentors work with

Referrals come from teachers, heads of year, the SENCO or the attendance team. A pupil might be referred because they keep getting removed from lessons, their attendance has dropped, they are struggling after a bereavement or family breakdown, or they have moved schools and are not settling. Mentors in secondary schools often have a caseload of pupils they see regularly, while primary mentors may run small groups on friendships, anger or self-esteem.

The work falls into three areas:

• Behaviour: helping a pupil understand what is going wrong, setting small targets and checking in with teachers on how the week has gone.
• Attendance: noticing patterns early, talking to the pupil and family, and working alongside the attendance officer on plans to get the pupil back into school.
• Wellbeing: giving a pupil a regular, predictable adult to talk to, and spotting signs that something more serious is happening.

A typical week

A mentor’s timetable is built around one-to-one sessions, often no longer than a lesson, plus group work and time on corridors or in the playground. In one day a mentor might meet a pupil at the gate in the morning to make sure they come in, sit in on a lesson to see how a pupil copes, run a lunchtime club for pupils who find the playground difficult, and write up notes in the afternoon. There are meetings with parents and carers, and with outside agencies such as early help or child and adolescent mental health services.

Records matter in this job. Schools keep notes on interventions and their effect, and the mentor is often the person writing them.

Safeguarding

Pupils often tell mentors things they have told no one else. Keeping Children Safe in Education requires every member of school staff to know the school’s safeguarding procedures and to pass any concern to the designated safeguarding lead. A mentor cannot promise a pupil confidentiality and needs to be comfortable explaining that. Some learning mentors are also trained as deputy safeguarding leads; see our profile of the designated safeguarding lead for how that role works.

The job also needs an enhanced DBS check with a children’s barred list check. In England and Wales that costs £41.00 from 5 October 2026, usually paid by the school.

Skills and background

There is no single qualification route. Schools commonly ask for:

• GCSEs in English and maths
• experience of working with children or young people, ideally ones facing difficulties
• a Level 3 qualification in a relevant area, or the willingness to work towards one
• calm, consistent behaviour management and clear written records

People move into learning mentor jobs from teaching assistant roles, youth work, care work, sports coaching and the police or probation services. Training in restorative approaches, mental health first aid or working with trauma is useful but usually provided once you are in post. Our guide to youth work covers a related career outside schools.

Pay

In maintained schools in England and Wales, learning mentors are paid on the NJC pay spine through the council’s grading structure, and many academies use the same spine. The 2026/27 award was 3.3% from 1 April 2026 on spine points 3 to 43.

Grades vary a lot between employers. As a guide, these are some full-time, full-year values (calculated from the 2025 spine plus 3.3%):

Spine point	Full-time salary 2026/27
SCP 9	£28,153
SCP 12	£29,542
SCP 15	£31,015
SCP 18	£32,578
SCP 21	£34,237

Most learning mentor posts are term-time only, so the salary you receive is a percentage of the full-time figure. On the NJC advisory example, 39 weeks with a 36-day leave entitlement gives 86.778% of full-time pay, adjusted again if you work under 37 hours. See term-time-only pay and work out your net figure with the take-home pay calculator.

Council and academy support staff join the Local Government Pension Scheme. In 2026/27 members earning £18,401 to £29,000 pay 5.8% and those earning £29,001 to £47,300 pay 6.5%, based on actual pay.

Where the job leads

Experienced mentors move into pastoral manager or non-teaching head of year posts, attendance and inclusion roles, or local authority early help teams. Some train as teachers, social workers or counsellors. Learning mentor vacancies are usually listed under school support jobs.