Over 50 Businesspeople Sign Up For 2½ Year Commitment To Mentor North Walsham School Students
Fifty-three professionals went back to school to embark on a unique mentoring programme which will see them provide advice, guidance and support over a two and a half year period to 135 young people at North Walsham High School.
Representatives from organisations including Aviva, Lafarge, Victory Housing Trust, Premier Inns, KLM, Victory Housing Trust and the John Innes Centre, as well as a host of smaller local businesses, took part in a ‘speed-dating’ event to match them with potential Year 9 student mentees, whom they will partner with for the rest of the students’ high school career.
This is the second year that NWHS has run the scheme, which has been a run-away success; this year has seen a 40 per cent increase in the number of mentors volunteering to take part.
The mentors will meet regularly with their students over the next two and a half years, as well as being available via email and telephone, to offer support and advice on qualifications, skills needed to progress towards their ambitions, and to help motivate and inspire them.
The initiative is aiming to help raise aspirations amongst students, as well as equip them with the social skills and confidence to help them achieve their ambitions.
The students met each of the professionals in groups of two and three for just three minutes each, before moving on to the next potential mentor. At the end of the event, students were asked to choose three professional they would like as mentors, and NWHS staff are now in the process of matchmaking based on their preferences.
“To see so many busy professional people prepared to make a two and a half year commitment to help young people, on a voluntary basis, is tremendous,” said NWHS assistant head Paul Clark, who is co-ordinating the initiative.
“It is almost impossible to put a value on the opportunity for our students to meet so many high-powered people from the wider world outside school. We know from the students who started on the scheme a year ago just how valuable they are finding it, and it is noticeable how much more confident they have become from taking part.
“Helping young people be ready for the world of work, and to realise that they can have higher aspirations, is such an important part of their education, alongside our core task of helping them to achieve the qualifications they will need in later life.
“Our mentors are not just talking about the need to support our young people to achieve their ambitions, but they are actually doing it. We are so grateful for their commitment; I am sure that they will find it as equally rewarding as our students.”
Case Studies Of Mentors Who Joined The Scheme In Its Inaugural Year In Feb 2014
Case Study: Sue Willis
Sue is one of seven members of staff at Victory Housing Trust who volunteered to be mentors in the scheme. Sue works as a resident involvement advisor at the Trust, and has worked with young people before.
Together with her fellow Victory mentors, Sue has brought her mentees into the Trust’s North Walsham offices, giving experience of a real workplace, as well as carrying out mock job interviews.
“I believe that everyone should have the same opportunities to get on in life, and for young people, that means making sure they receive the right guidance and advice on top of their academic teaching,” she says.
“For youngsters in rural areas, or whose parents might not be able to provide them with the skills needed to take advantage of those opportunities, it is vital that we as a wider society help equip them to make the most of their potential.
“Sometimes in Norfolk, young people think they can’t go anywhere else, or achieve things outside their immediate experience. The mentoring scheme gives people like me an opportunity to open their eyes as to what is out there – and how to grab it with both hands.”
Quote from one of Sue’s two mentees, Year 10 student Kira Howes
“When I heard that my mentor works at a housing association, I thought I would just be learning about houses, but it has not been like that. I’m learning what it is like to work with people, and what goes on in an office.
“Victory’s offices were not what I was expecting at all. I think I expected to see everybody in cubicles, but it is all open-plan, and with a more relaxed atmosphere than I thought would be the case.”
Kira is hoping to become a veterinary nurse when she leaves school, and Sue has been able to help her try to find a work experience placement, suggesting different approaches, and helping to draft letters.
“The scheme is really helping me develop my social skills,” says Kira. “I know that as a result, I will be able to work better with people.”
Case Study – John Fleming
John Fleming was one of the original mentors on the scheme, taking on five mentees, all boys. John, who lives in Bradfield and runs his own handyman business, is also a parent at the school, and is already involved with young people through his involvement with Scouting.
He has come up with a variety of activities for his group of mentees, all of which are aimed at building self-confidence.
“Society in general moans about young people, but I think it’s much better to get involved and support them,” says John, for whom this is the first time he has undertaken a role such as this.
“It is about expanding these young people’s horizons, and putting something back into the society in which I live and work. I am trying to help them learn the kind of life skills which will stand them in good stead whatever they do – things like looking people in the eye, shaking hands confidently and speaking clearly.
“I have found being a mentor much easier than I thought it would be – you just have to be yourself. I would encourage anyone to come and do it – it’s not rocket science.”
Quotes from some of John’s mentees – all now Year 10 students
Nathan Allen: “We have experienced all sorts of new things as part of John’s mentoring, from survival skills to cooking. I was expecting it to be about the classroom and paperwork, but it has been more about learning lots of practical stuff.”
George Shepherd: “We have been able to learn the kind of things we don’t learn in the classroom, for example how to act in a job interview. It has been good hearing it from someone who is not a teacher, but is running a business and at the sharp end of things.”
Jack Flatman: “The most important thing I have learnt doing the mentoring scheme is to be myself. I was a lit