House Mentoring

Over the last two weeks, Year 7 pupils from each of our three school Houses have met with their year 10 counterparts to begin a peer mentoring programme. For example, 10C worked with 7C, 10O with 7O and so on. In this first session, the year 10 pupils asked their year 7 partners about how they were settling into school life, any issues they had and any help they needed. They asked them about their lessons, their friendships and whether they had been to any extra-curricular activities. A number of year 10 pupils volunteered to go with the year 7 pupils in order to encourage them.

These two year groups share break and lunch together, and so it provides another opportunity to strengthen friendships and bonds within the houses, as well as providing excellent role models for the younger pupils. This is in addition to the existing targeted House Mentoring which sees a number of year 11 pupils mentoring those in year 8 needing support with attendance, punctuality, behaviour and homework. 

This first round of three sessions was a huge success, and staff were very impressed with how seriously the year 10 pupils took the responsibility of working with the younger pupils. The information, which is recorded on a pro-forma, is passed on the year 7 form tutors who act on any concerns and if necessary pass the information on to the relevant member of staff.  It is planned that this will take place on a half-termly basis in order to strengthen the relationships, develop leadership and mentoring skills and ensure that everyone makes the best possible progress in all aspects of school life.