Pupils talking about their learning mentors: what can we learn?

Perspectives of SENCos and support staff in England on their roles, relationships and capacity to support inclusive practice for students with behavioural emotional and social difficulties

“…(SENCo, School S) Support staff in particular relayed instances in which, by spending a greater amount of one-to-one time with students, they had been aware of subtle changes in mood or behaviour that they could then raise in discussion with them. The positive relationships between support staff and students along with the reduced student-to-staff ratio may help create conditions in which students are more likely to discuss their difficulties with staff (Rose & Doveston, 2008). Support staff are then in a position where they can identify and flag up difficulties or potentially problematic changes in the student's situation to the appropriate individuals, allowing the correct monitoring or support to be implemented.…”

“…Both SENCos and support staff were confident in their accessibility to students experiencing difficulties, thus fulfilling the role of a reliable, supportive adult who can be called on for help and advice at all times (Rose & Doveston, 2008). Interviewees appeared to genuinely care about the well-being of these students and would go beyond what their job required in order to help meet their needs; for example, designing learning materials at home and attending training in their own time to improve their ability to support these children.…”

Primary school learning mentors: do background and training matter?

“…Anecdotal evidence as well as some survey reports (see Machin, McNally, and Meghir 2005;Roberts 2007; Rose and Doveston 2008) indicates that many schools, teachers and children value learning mentors and their specific role in helping children to overcome barriers to learning. In achieving this, mentors work with children in a variety of ways -providing one-to-one or group support in the classroom, and working with children providing support outside of the classroom in both formal and informal contexts.…”

The motivations of mentors: promoting relationships, supporting pupils, engaging with communities

“…It has been suggested that learning mentors may play a significant role in representing young people with other agencies in order to address the five key Every Child Matters outcomes: being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution to the community and economic well-being (Department for Education and Skills, 2005). Whilst schools are invariably driven by the standards agenda and place a heavy emphasis upon academic outcomes, it is evident from research conducted into the role of learning mentors that these individuals often perceive themselves having a much more personal role (Rose & Doveston, 2008). Gibson (2003) has emphasised the unique characteristics of the mentor role as being qualitatively different from that normally associated with relationships between adults in positions of authority and young people.…”

“…In many respects, therefore, this does not differ significantly from the impulses of the stakeholders mentioned above, who also have to consider this correlation that is central to the motivational impulse. Drawing upon evidence that has been gathered in the course of recent research (Rose & Jones, 2007;Rose & Doveston, 2008) it is possible to identify how the realms presented in the above model have each had a motivational factor in the work of mentors working with young people. During the course of this research, interviews using a narrative approach (Elliott, 2005) were…”