Q: How can a trained group of secondary students help others with their issues?
Q: New staff always bring fresh perspectives and leadership on school issues. I was fortunate to appoint a Head of Year who has transformed our approach to this aspect of school life. As a former Youth Counsellor she has trained our SOS (support our students) team, who are now peer counsellors. This group of about 60 secondary students work with our local primary school and within the environs of the college. As these students move through the college into the sixth form we hope that they will support a range of students who are working their way through all types of issues. For us esteem building is the key and these students aid this process.
Jenny: Empathy is the key concept. Lack of empathy can range from autism to people who are indifferent to other people's needs. The building up of empathy has to be the key to any primary or secondary school. The approach that you use of training peer counsellors is one very important strategy. Work in the early 90's was well documented. In our local comprehensive in an article called 'Peer To Listen', they screened all the year 7 pupils to find those with low reading ages. They then gave them all a reading test. On this basis all those who had low reading ages were given specialist help with a good reading scheme. However, half the pupils were given 15 minutes a week with a peer counsellor - these were sixth formers who had been trained how to listen and relate to younger pupils. At the end of the year they re-tested the pupils. The pupils who had had time with their 'befrienders' had nearly doubled their reading ages - the other group had made no significant improvements. The key factor was self-esteem, if you are important to someone somewhere, you don't mind failing somewhere else. If you feel your ideas and opinions are of no value anywhere you cannot take another failure - so what's the point of trying that new piece of maths, English. If you feel good enough about yourself you will have a go at anything that you choose as failure will not devastate you. This is the beauty of all these peer mentoring schemes. They are tapping into the natural generosity and energy of young people and redirecting it to the ones that need it. It's wonderful in its simplicity - the biggest resource in a school are the young people! Well done. I hope you can encourage this teacher to write up this scheme as the more attention that is bought to it the more it will become common practice. However, as ever, a note of caution, at secondary level all pupils need PSHE to be delivered through circle time. Otherwise, if they are not within a safe circle (and safety comes if we can see each other), they learn from the school that they have to have a problem before they get a listening ear. Some counselling schemes are causing difficulty as pupils create more problems in order to get much needed attention. In addition to advocating group work to all pupils I try and insist, when I am working with mentoring schemes, that the mentors show equal amounts of interest and excitement with the achievements of their peers and not just their problems.
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