Pupil mentors

At Shire Oak we have a range of mentoring programmes in place. We actively encourage students to get involved in training to become a mentor.

For the mentors:

Gives incredible satisfaction in being able to contribute to someone else’s career pathway.
Mentoring provides a good opportunity to develop a range of skills.

As a role model

To be a good role model you need to be subjective. Some mentees will be looking for a kindred spirit - someone who displays the same values and aspirations and has succeeded in areas important to them. Role models can be picked because of their drive and ambition, attributes that the mentor might be keen to emulate.

As a networker

Mentees might value your contribution to their development because of your networking skills. Essentially it is access to other people who can provide support, knowledge, advice, or career opportunities. But it might also be useful if you have knowledge of a wide portfolio of information sources such as websites, libraries and professional institutions. So networking can influence or inform.

Annually Walkways, a local counselling service, trains a number of Shire Oak students with the skills to carry out a mentoring role.

Some students have taken part in training from the University of the First Age who encourage our pupils to develop mentoring skills.

In some subject areas, particularly Science and Maths students use peer tutoring skills to share their knowledge with younger pupils at Shire Oak and at partner primaries.

For the students who are mentees it helps to:

• raise confidence and self esteem
• raise achievements and aspirations
• increase motivation
• broaden horizons and experience.

The mentees:

Business mentors are trained to help our students aspire to their chosen career or are helped to make choices. Some Year 10 and 11 students benefit from meeting with a business mentor regularly. E-mentoring is also an option for chosen students.