EVIDENCE BASED MENTORING TO INCREASE YOUR SCHOOL’S PERFORMANCE, RESULTS AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

HELPING CHILDREN AND SCHOOLS SUCCEED

Every Child Needs a Mentor is a strategic mentoring and school improvement company. We are mentors, we train mentors and we significantly increase school performance, results and student achievement.

Our RAMP (Raising Achievement Mentoring Programmes) approach is award-winning, recognised as “high quality” by Ofsted and acknowledged by many professionals as leading practice.

MENTORING ISN’T ABOUT ‘PROBLEM’ CHILDREN

We know mentoring improves a young person’s chances of success and gives them a desire to do something positive with their lives. Unfortunately, mentoring in most UK schools is deficit focused and only available to those who are failing, have emotional problems or behaving badly.

This approach is corrective, uninspiring and alienates more than 80 per cent of students who are just “in the middle”, well behaved or generally doing ok.

We’re different. We believe in asset based mentoring, where every child has a mentor and experiences that epiphany that helps them decide what they want from life and school.

It is essential training for all staff who have regular contact with young people and in particular teachers.Jon Shepherd, Assistant Head Teacher

1

Improved attendance

Reduced no. of behaviour incidents

Improved working at grades in English

Improved working at grades in maths

*Based on data collected from across 5 secondary schools on our mentoring programme.

REACTIVE

LIMITED REASONS

FOR REFERRAL

SEEN AS PUNATIVE

NEGATIVE VIEW OF

MENTEES & MENTORS

DEMEANING PERCEPTIONS

OF BEING MENTORED

LACKS AN HOLISTIC FOCUS

LACKS DESIRED IMPACT

DEFICIT APPROACH

COMMONLY USED IN SCHOOL

COMMONLY USED DEFICIT MODEL

The deficit model is corrective so the child must be doing something wrong to receive mentoring. This form of mentoring starts from a point of failure making it remedial and disempowering for children.

PREVENTATIVE

ACCESSIBLE

SUPPORTIVE

ASPIRANT FOCUSSED

WHOLE CHILD APPROACH

ACCOMPLISHMENT

OUR APPROACH

OUR ASSET MODEL

We believe mentoring should help children to identify their skills and talents so they can thrive. This type of mentoring is similar to mentoring on the X Factor or The Voice where acts are chosen because they have potential.

2

MENTORING APPROACHES

3

EVERY CHILD NEEDS A MENTORTHORNTON PRIMARY SCHOOL - CASE STUDY

Not enough mentors

When Headteacher Rachel Clements decided to really push mentoring at Thornton Primary School, there was only one part time Learning Mentor. She worked 20 hours a week and could only see around 10 per cent of the pupils. She supported the children for many different reasons from a death or separation in the family, social and friendship issues to low self-esteem.

The school decided to train its staff to be mentors, but understandably many of them were nervous about taking that responsibility. Some felt they did not have the right training. Others were worried about having enough time to be a mentor. And some raised questions about what to do if a child disclosed something sensitive or concerning in a mentoring session.

Finally, Rachel also had to explain to the governors what she wanted to do, what the benefits of mentoring would be and justify the cost of a whole school mentoring / training programme.

A bespoke approach

The school turned to the Every Child Needs a Mentor organisation. Chief executive Herman Stewart said: “We specialise in enabling young people to have epiphanies and we show others how to be able to do this too. We use a highly structured and methodical approach so that we can effectively record, track and evidence impact.”

Over a six-month period, Every Child Needs a Mentor worked with Thornton Primary School to develop a school improvement strategy with our Lead Schools Inspector and a bespoke mentoring programme to enable every child to have a mentor. We trained the senior leadership, teachers, TAs and some year 6 students. We developed a bespoke approach with mentoring resources, training sessions and staff consultation. And the Lead Schools Inspector delivered “outstanding learning” training for the teachers.

Thornton Primary School in Lancashire opened on 7 September 1914 and looks after children aged four to 11 years old.

In 2012 the school was rated as ‘satisfactory’ by Ofsted. Headteacher Rachel Clements and the staff were determined to improve: “One of our strengths was quality of care, but we wanted to improve across the board.”

The school believed in the positive power the right kind of mentoring could have on children, but at the time it only had one part time learning mentor. It turned to Herman Stewart of Every Child Needs a Mentor for help and now the school is going from strength to strength. In its last Ofsted report the school was praised for “good and sometimes outstanding” teaching and strong “quality of care”.

4

Now more than 16 staff members are mentoring the children and every child has a named mentor. The original mentoring system still runs alongside the Every Child Needs a Mentor programme, but the Learning Mentor can focus on the students who need her most.

A proud achievement

The school’s latest Ofsted report was a glowing endorsement of the process. It described the school’s welcoming ethos and atmosphere. The teaching was “sometimes outstanding” and inspectors were impressed by the creative curriculum and strong “quality of care”.

Headteacher Rachel Clements said: “Reading the report I felt so proud of what we’d achieved in that time. The report said we’d improved rapidly all the way through.”

Staff are on-board, with evaluations showing they support the programme and are enjoying being mentors.

“Mentoring is a fantastic opportunity to get to know a small group of children really well. It provides quality time to spend with the children. I like the way mentoring encourages children to have goals and aspirations and I can support them in achieving their dreams” Hannah Leech- teacher

“I am finding the mentoring sessions really valuable. They are informal meetings that allow time for the children to talk openly with an adult about issues that they might not have the opportunity to discuss during the normal school day.” Tracey Barnes Teaching Assistant

The response from the children has also been very positive. They look forward to their mentoring meetings and enjoy having the time to talk.

“I enjoy meeting and talking with children from different classes and different age groups. Mentoring is helping me to think about what I want to be”. Max (year 6)

Headteacher Rachel Clements said: “It’s great having more avenues of support for the children. I feel there is more capacity to support children and reduce their barriers to learning. It has also been good to see the shift amongst the staff as the programme has developed and their confidence has grown.”

Our unique methodology is based on years of studying student behaviour, emotions, attitudes, aspirations and performance. Our process is heavily youth consulted and we have embed our findings into our mentoring process which continues to yield immediate and staggering results.

OVER 50% OF STUDENTS INCREASED BY 1 GCSE GRADE

OVER 72 % OF STUDENTS IMPROVED IN THE VIEW OF THEIR TEACHERS

*14 OUT OF 26 STUDENTS INCREASED FROM D TO A C GRADE IN EITHER ENGLISH AND MATHS GCSES.

14 OUT OF 20 STUDENTS IN MATHS IMPROVED IN THEIR OVERALL: ATTITUDE, EFFORT, BEHAVIOUR AND PUNCTUALITY

15 OUT OF 20 STUDENTS IN ENGLISH ALSO IMPROVED IN THEIR ATTITUDE, EFFORT, BEHAVIOUR AND PUNCTUALITY

5

OUR METHODOLOGY

RAMP equips schools to significantly increase how many students they mentor by using existing staff, professionals and students.

It is a highly structured and a methodical approach that gives us an advantage, as we are able to effectively record, track and evidence impact. This makes us data driven and very different from many existing mentoring approaches – as we can show we are hitting and passing agreed objectives.

Mentors help mentees to discover their “greatness”, skills and talents. It is also great for staff who act as mentors as we give them new skills, improve their confidence and can raise their aspirations.

6

A STRUCTURED, EVIDENCE BASED APPROACH

It was very useful, it gave me a wake up call just the right motivation I needed before my exams

If you would like more information about our Every Child Needs a Mentor programmes and services,

please call 0800-644-4881 or email: info@everychildneedsamentor.com

www.everychildneedsamentor.com

Logo created by Marianne Hartley of Hartley & Soul I Photography by Ingrid Marn