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Peer mentoring: A listener's experiences

In this account, Sam Baldwin, a Year 12 pupil at Seaford College in West Sussex, tells first hand of the operation of his school's peer mentoring scheme. He describes the training process, the reaction of the school community, how the system works in practice and the benefits it has brought.

In the summer of 2002, a small group of people raised our awareness in the problems of people communicating their situations, such as bullying and exam stress, within the school. Upon our return to school after the semester we were approached by a member of staff (Mrs Gregory), as to whether we would be interested in actually starting a scheme. Within days of accepting the proposal there were around fifteen volunteers to work in a peer mentoring scheme. (In a cohort of 55 that's a fair proportion!)

After a few weeks of arrangement and administrative authorisation the fifteen of us went on a two-and-a-half-day intensive course run by the Samaritans. This proved to be very interesting and rewarding and will be a skill that we will be able to continue to use for the rest of our lives. It is also a skill that is very important in this day and age, allowing flexibility in many demanding situations in modern-day life. The whole group are very pleased to have been given the opportunity to receive such training and are only glad to be helping the school community.

The course was set up to train us as listeners and not counsellors. This allowed us to pass on (with the 'caller's' permission) the details of the problem anonymously each week at a general meeting. The meetings allow us to aid each other in ways to help the caller's situation, or if the matter was one that would affect the school and its policies then it would be passed on to be dealt with externally if need be with all discretion.

The fifteen of us and the two teachers that run the scheme have been very impressed with the way the scheme has been accepted within the community. All fifteen of us wear badges so as to distinguish us from the general 'crowd'. We try as hard as possible to make ourselves available to listen to the caller, allowing as much time as necessary to listen to the whole problem. We try to make the environment suited as much as possible to the caller's request, such as a classroom or study, however sometimes they like just to talk around other people just out of earshot so not as to look as though they are describing a problem they have encountered.

We also have posters around the school and have announced our presence to every year group. There was also a school assembly where two members of the group arranged and performed a short piece to illustrate some of the situations that we were trained to help the pupils deal with.

Once a term, the Samaritans who trained us return to Seaford College; this is particularly useful if there is a situation we require help with and to give feedback on how enjoyable and effective our scheme has been.

On 25 March two of us went to the ChildLine conference 'Bullying: how to beat it', to try and pick up some ideas to help develop and improve the current peer mentoring scheme. This proved to be very useful and we have passed on the information received to the other members of the group, so that it can be used in helping deal with problems they encounter.

Some of the problems we've had to deal with

'I have been lonely since the start of the year and needed someone to talk to. Thanks to the peer listeners I got some good support from someone I knew and trusted.' (Year 12)
'I wanted to tell someone about my parents splitting up but it's not unusual anymore, I didn't think anyone would care. The peer listeners did, and it feels better not to have it on my chest any more.' (Year 9)
'What do you do when someone isn't hitting you, but they're making your life hell? I don't want to tell a teacher 'cause I'm not a grass. I went to a peer listener and they helped sort things out for me. Now I don't get any bother from the bully.' (Year 9)

This article was commissioned by TeacherNet's editorial team in May 2003, independently of DCSF policy teams.