Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Peer mentoring pilot projects declared a success.
A review of the DCSF funded trials of peer mentoring schemes in 18 English schools has been published this month.
The DCSF funded peer mentoring programmes in 180 English schools over the last three years. In the programmes one pupil became a mentor for another pupil in their school for a sustained period of time, using one to one meetings.
A review of the success of the peer mentoring schemes has been published this month. The study found that 63% of schools said mentoring had increased pupils' confidence and self-esteem. 90% of mentees felt they had been helped by having a mentor and 87% of mentors felt they had benefited by being part of the scheme.
It is worth emphasising the message that the mentoring system benefits the mentor as much as those they are supporting. It should not be seen as a favour to the mentee, but a mutually beneficial arrangement.
The main identified way in which mentors and mentees felt they had been helped by the programme was in improving their attitudes to learning and in increasing their confidence.
This reseach further strengthens the previous research findings in this area upon which the face to face structured mentor meetings in the PbyP web tool are based.
The full report can be read here and there is also a programme which summarises the report on Teachers TV.