Assertive mentoring

[bruffin]

Is this something new?

We got a letter from ds's school to say yr11s will have assertive mentors. Most of them will have their form teacher as their mentor under certain criteria some children will be given different mentors. DS seems to have been given a mentor that is not his form teacher, which I am pleased about as his current form teacher is not very good. They will meet with their mentors once a month.

I assume that by saying assertive they mean the mentor takes an active role setting up meetings, rather than the child only going to see their mentor when they think they need help.

Sounds a bit weird to me. Assertive is not the same as pro-active. Maybe what they mean is 'assertiveness' mentors - that is, someone who will teach them to be more assertive.

Still sounds a bit odd, though.

No it's nothing to do with assertiveness training, it is all to do with helping them to reach their targets.

I have just found this article on assertive mentoring Although this seems to concentrate on boys, whereas at dc's school it is for all pupils.

Has anyone elses school used Assertive mentoring

Have found this as well

I have implemented this at my previous school and it is fully operational at my new school.

Basically your DS will meet with his mentor on a frequent basis and they will go through the lastest data on his performance in his subjects. A discussion takes place on what is going well and what isn't. For the subjects that he is not on target for then a plan is put in place for extra revision/extra classes etc in order to raise the performance in that subject.

The main priority is that the student has the support/guidence/ a close and beedy eye(!) on him all year to ensure that he gets the best possible grades at GCSE.

It was designed firstly to ensure that boys did not slip through the nets so to speak during their GCSEs as it was found through research that if they were eft ot their own devices the majority of boys will under achieve. The other orginal aspect of the programe was the C/D kids to ensure they met the C grade.

Most school that use this have quickly seen the benefits and have extended it to all students and the mentors give their own time to the programe ( I use my PPA time to meet with students) in order to support the students.

If your school is undertaking Assertive mentoring then take this as a positive

Thanks cricketballs - it does sound really positive.

The three criteria for having a mentor other than form teacher are

a - gifted but needs extra help to meet A/A* targets
b - generally not meeting targets
c- behaviour

I think DS comes under first criteria as his targets are all A/A* but he has dyslexic problems which does affect some of his work. The mentor he has been given is a science teacher which is one of his strong areas.