Our School Counsellor, Mrs Gail Churney, led the new Year 12 pupils in the first of three sessions of training to become mentors and supportive members of the school community. It was heartening to see nearly 40 pupils, from all houses, volunteer to be academic or emotional support for the younger members of the school.
Their role is specifically to be part of the pastoral teams in their own houses and draw on their own experience to advise or simply to listen and be a friend to any pupil in need. The emphasis of the training is on developing life skills as confident, reflective listeners and to draw on their own experience of school life to help others navigate the path to the Senior School.
Typical issues might be helping Year 7 pupils to handle the transition to a new school, academic organisation and learning styles, advice on examination anxiety, finding one’s feet or making friends. Much use will be made of the team in our whole school awareness weeks on anti-bullying, wellbeing and mental health.
We are delighted to have seen the results of this pupil-led support through some great work done by last year’s Peer Listeners and we aim to follow their example in 2019-20.
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