Mentoring in Early Childhood Education: Reshaped, Not Lost

The WELL Framework is built on four interconnected pillars:

💙 Wellbeing First 💚 Empower Through Learning 💛 Lead With Purpose 💜 Lift Each Other Up

At The Educators Well, these pillars are more than professional concepts.

They support us not only as educators, but as people.

Wellbeing First reminds us that caring for ourselves matters.

Empower Through Learning invites us to become curious about ourselves, our learning and who we are becoming.

Lead With Purpose reminds us that leadership does not begin with a title. It begins with how we choose to show up and use the influence we already have.

And eventually, that brings us to the fourth pillar:

Lift Each Other Up.

We rise by lifting others.

For me, this pillar has always been closely connected with mentoring.

Not only the formal, credentialled kind.

The quiet kind.

The consistent presence of someone willing to walk alongside you when everything feels uncertain.

When Everything Feels Lost

There was a season when I genuinely believed my knowledge was gone.

Not misplaced.

Not simply rusty from time away.

Gone.

After my injury, when I sat back down to study, words did not land the way they once had.

I could read a sentence and lose it before I reached the end.

I would search for a word I had used hundreds of times before and come up empty.

I remember staring at my own course notes wondering who the person was who had once understood all of this so easily.

There is a particular kind of grief that can come with that.

It is more than frustration.

You begin wondering whether the person you were is someone you will ever recognise again.

I thought everything was lost.

I remember my first full day back in class.

By the time I got home, I was completely depleted.

And I did not know how to have the conversation that needed to come next.

I needed help explaining what I needed.

Not to make me sound impressive.

Not to make it look like I had everything together.

Simply to help me feel confident enough to ask for this:

Meet me where I am today.

That is when Di stepped in.

She never knew the person I was before the injury.

She knew the person sitting in front of her.

Exhausted.

Uncertain.

Questioning whether she had anything left to give.

And she met me there.

Not where I had been months earlier.

Not where anyone hoped I might be months later.

Where I was.

She encouraged me constantly, not with empty positivity, but with the kind of steady belief that says:

I see you. I am still here.

She checked in.

She followed up.

She worked alongside me.

She did not let me quietly disappear into the shame that can come when something that once felt easy suddenly feels impossibly hard.

And slowly, something began to shift.

Reshaped, Not Lost

I remember the moment it clicked.

Part of my training required me to deliver presentations based around units of work of my choosing.

For one of them, I chose an early childhood unit.

I brought everything I could carry.

Playdough.

Sand.

Shells.

Natural blocks.

Books.

Anything that could bring the learning to life.

I built the presentation.

I built the learning around it.

And then I stood up to present.

For that time, something changed.

I was not searching desperately for every word.

I was not relying on notes to tell me what I knew.

It flowed.

The knowledge was there.

It came together in a way I had feared might never happen again.

And people in the room, including people without an early childhood background, became curious.

They started seeing the work differently.

There were little moments of surprise.

Moments of connection.

Moments where I could see that what I was sharing mattered.

That was when I realised:

My knowledge had not disappeared.

It had been reshaping itself the entire time.

It was not lost.

It was still there.

And in that room, something else happened too.

Their curiosity and encouragement were strengthening me right back.

I was influencing them while they were helping me rediscover confidence in myself.

That is the ripple.

What Lifting Each Other Up Actually Looks Like

When we hear the phrase “lift each other up”, it is easy to imagine something grand.

A speech that changes someone’s life.

A public celebration.

A mentor with a formal title guiding somebody through a structured program.

Those moments can matter.

But that is not where my turning point began.

It was much quieter.

Someone showed up.

Consistently.

Someone checked in.

Someone followed up.

Someone adjusted to meet me where I was.

There is a word that sits at the heart of Lift Each Other Up:

Edification.

To encourage.

To strengthen.

To build up.

Edification rarely looks impressive from the outside.

It might look like a phone call.

A follow-up message.

Remembering something somebody told you last week and asking about it again this week.

Noticing when someone has gone quiet.

Choosing to reach out rather than assuming somebody else will.

It is rarely loud.

It is often consistent.

And perhaps that is why it matters.

When someone is struggling, they may not need a grand gesture.

Sometimes they need someone willing to keep showing up after the first difficult day has passed.

Mentoring Happens Long Before Anyone Names It

As educators, I think we underestimate how often we are already doing this.

Perhaps you are the educator who checks in on a colleague after a hard day simply because you noticed.

Perhaps you are the Family Day Care educator who picks up the phone when another educator working alone has gone quiet.

Perhaps you follow up on the same conversation more than once because you know some things take time.

Perhaps you remember somebody’s difficult week and ask about it again when everyone else has moved on.

None of those moments necessarily come with recognition.

They do not appear on an organisational chart.

They do not require a title.

They do not require the word “mentor” beside your name.

Yet every one of them can be an act of lifting somebody up.

This is also why recognising our own support network matters.

Who actually shows up for you?

Who listens?

Who encourages?

Who notices?

Who creates space for you to be honest?

And perhaps just as importantly:

Who are you becoming that person for?

Di was part of my support network long before I had language for what her presence meant.

Bringing It Full Circle

When I look at the four pillars now, I do not see four separate ideas.

I see one connected journey.

Wellbeing First reminds us that the person behind the educator matters.

Empower Through Learning reminds us that learning belongs to us and that some of our most important learning is about ourselves.

Lead With Purpose asks us to recognise the influence we already have and choose how we use it.

And Lift Each Other Up reminds us that none of this was meant to happen alone.

Because wellbeing can feel more possible when somebody checks in.

Learning can feel safer when somebody believes in us before we are ready to believe in ourselves.

Purpose can become clearer when somebody reflects back the strengths we cannot yet see.

Di did not simply help me reconnect with knowledge.

She helped me reconnect with myself.

And in doing that, she became part of the reason I understand this fourth pillar the way I do.

We were never meant to build wellbeing, learning, leadership or connection entirely alone.

We were meant to build communities where people can strengthen one another.

You do not need a title to lift somebody up.

You do not need perfect words.

You do not need a formal mentoring program.

Sometimes it begins with showing up.

Again.

And again.

Meeting someone where they are.

And if you are the person struggling today, trying to work out how to ask for what you need, I hope you find someone willing to meet you there too.

Because sometimes what feels lost has not disappeared.

Sometimes it is simply being reshaped.

Reflection Question

Who has lifted you up, quietly and consistently, in a way you may not have fully acknowledged until now?

And is there someone in your own life who might need that same kind of encouragement from you?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

💜 Rachel Smith The Educators Well

Wellbeing First • Empower Through Learning • Lead With Purpose • Lift Each Other Up