Church Cowley St James Church of England Primary School

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Peer Mentors

Our peer mentor programme matches older pupils with younger pupils to provide guidance and serve as positive role models.

This programme aims to enhance early intervention and prevention of pupils' low-level mental health and well-being issues.

We subscribe to a local support agency called 180, which provides additional support to schools with the aim of enabling children with complex needs and challenging mental health needs to thrive in schools.

They run a programme called 'Make Me Smile' that trains Year 6 pupils to support pupils in Year 3.

The peer mentors are children in Year 6 who have received training on how to support the following issues that can be encountered when growing up:

  • school work
  • friendship breakdown
  • loneliness
  • peer pressure
  • potential bullying 

There is always an adult available to support the children too. The Peer Mentors are located in the Inclusion Room,  just off the main playground and work with allocated children in the mornings before school.  This helps them build a positive relationship with each other and ensures that the younger child has a positive start to the day. Each day, the peer mentors receive supervision with their mentoring to ensure that the worries of other children are not carried with them through the day.