I started the mentoring programme as in my school I saw many behaviour problems, reduced grades, social exclusion, and poor achievement. The majority of staff member's in the school had a hand fall of children to support, help and generally talk to. This included teachers, dinner ladies, library staff, education assistance, administration, reception staff, and counsellors. It worked out that we were able to mentor of 100 students throughout the years.

Everyone I have met are only moaning and complaining about how awful their children's lives are with theses bullies at school, and how terrible these bullies are, but what do they actually do about it? I used to try to help all theses individual children and their problems, I would talk, they would listen, after a few years I was so tired of dealing with the same issues again and again, and never having enough time to actually solve the problem and to follow it up a few weeks on. This is why I started the mentoring programme.

I made up a simple a simple folder with information on the programme scheme, an information sheet of the person they are mentoring, a permission slip, and a top tips sheet of how to help. I gave this folder to each and every mentor.

Having 2 or 3 children to mentor was getting a little too much for the hectic life of my staff members, so next year we decided to cut back to only child. This was a good decision as the next year we were able to really help each child that was mentored and they showed great improvements in all aspects. We were always able to solve the bullying problems, and to make sure the bullying didn't continue months on. 

An additional area of concern was keeping an eye on the mentors in the scheme. The next few years were dedicated to training mentors in dealing with problematic children and teenagers. We cut the staff to only professional that we thought showed talent for this mentoring programme.

We were quickly seeing amazing results due to this scheme. We found many bullies making new friends, and enjoying school life as a respectful member of the classroom.  This didn't happen over night, it took a lot of hard work and commitment, but it was definitely worth it. So, don't fret if everything wasn't perfect. It will take time to learn and improve your program. Just start supporting these children! You will be inspired and the children will learn, adapt and grow into happy, educated people.