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The purpose of this article is to identify and examine root causes of the failure of school‐based mentoring to realize its full potential.

The article draws on the re‐analysis of data from two major mixed‐method empirical studies carried out in England. It focuses on data generated from interviews with beginner teachers and mentors in both primary and secondary schools.

The findings point to a failure to create appropriate conditions for effective mentoring in England at the level of the mentoring relationship, the school, and the national policy context.

Implications of the findings include the need to achieve a greater degree of informed consensus on the meaning and purposes of mentoring in teacher education, and to ensure that mentors of beginner teachers are appropriately trained for the role.

The article identifies the practice of judgemental mentoring or “judgementoring” as an obstacle to school‐based mentoring realizing its potential and an impediment to the professional learning and wellbeing of beginner teachers. It also points to worrying indications that judgementoring may be becoming, through accrued experiences, the default understanding of mentoring in England.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to extend existing knowledge on the nature, reach, causes and consequences of judgementoring; second, to present a new framework for mentoring beginner teachers that has the potential to forestall and combat judgementoring, and enable the full potential of institution-based mentoring to be realised.

The paper draws on a thematic analysis of: previously published findings from three empirical studies undertaken between 2003 and 2015; new data from two empirical studies undertaken between 2012 and 2016; and recent literature (2013-2016) on judgementoring.

The paper provides further evidence of the nature, reach, causes and consequences of judgementoring as a national and international phenomenon. In doing so, it extends previous knowledge about the conditions that enhance or detract from the successful enactment of beginner teacher mentoring.

The findings presented have implications for the work of education policymakers, school and college leaders, mentor trainers, mentors and others concerned with enhancing mentorship and effectively supporting the professional learning, development and well-being of beginning teachers.

The paper presents ONSIDE Mentoring as an original, research-informed framework for mentoring beginner teachers. The framework may also be applicable to other contexts, especially for the mentoring of early career professionals.