The Mentor Strand
During the Cluster’s existence we have had a team of 15 Learning and Behaviour Mentors and one coordinator. We are pleased to say that most of our Learning Mentors have been taken on permanently at their schools.
The Learning Mentors have acted and will continue to act as a bridge across academic and pastoral support roles with the aim of ensuring that individual students engage more effectively in learning and achieve appropriately. They were originally funded via the Excellence Cluster. In addition to this provision, we also had Behaviour Mentors, originally funded via the Behaviour Improvement Programme (BIP)Behaviour Improvement Programme (BIP), who have worked more specifically to support schools in improving behaviour and attendance. In some instances, mentors have also engaged with families and with other agencies such as social services.
We have also provided a series of holiday
programmes during the Easter, May and Summer breaks for children attending Cluster schools. Activities have included: arts and crafts, cookery, visits to cultural sites, and games. These activities are not only fun for the children but are provide a stimulating environment.
The mentors will also continue to run various groups depending on their school’ needs. Examples of the groups are: anger management, self esteem, social skills, therapeutic story writing study skills, and organisation skills, circle time. Learning Mentors also help with the running of breakfast, lunch and after school clubs. They also carry out transition work for year 2’s going into year 3 and year 6’s going into year 7.
Training
A Learning Mentor’s role can be very diverse, and our Learning Mentors have received training relevant to the school’s needs. All Mentors have CWDC (Children’s Workforce Development Council) Core Skills training, which is recommended for any non-teaching staff working with children and they also have Child Protection training.
Some of the mentors have received the following additional training: Transactional Analysis, Play & Art Therapy, Therapeutic Story Writing, First Aid, Bereavement, Domestic Violence and SHARE.
Achievements so far
- Currently our mentors have supported 218 individual children.
- During the Cluster’s existence, the Learning Mentors have run 26 holiday programmes, which have included 557 pupils.
- All our mentors have undertaken National Mentor Training this year.
- 6 of our mentors have undertaken SHARE training. This training has enabled mentors to run SHARE groups which help parents and careers assist their children with their school work.
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