ASiP Newsletter Spring 2020

6 Abingdon School in Partnership www.abingdon.org.uk Developing Leaders Programme An exciting initiative was launched earlier this year: a cross-town peer mentoring programme with sixth form students from Abingdon, St Helen and St Katharine, John Mason and Fitzharrys School mentoring Key Stage 3 and 4 students in their own schools. These students undertook training in relevant counselling skills and the official role of Peer Support Leads began in each school from September 2019 and will carry on until the Easter break. Twilight training sessions in each school throughout this year will provide an opportunity for Peer Support Leads to share experiences and learn from each other while supporting mental health and wellbeing in each school. Hopefully, this will enable peer mentoring to become embedded within school life across the whole town. So far the experience has been hugely positive with the Peer Support Leads meeting Mrs Preiss-Chapman and Mr Southwell-Sander on a fortnightly basis to discuss their experiences. Ultimately we hope this programme adds a layer of support to our already excellent pastoral care. ~ Robin Southwell-Sander “I feel the skills I have acquired from the training workshops are invaluable and being able to implement them in my day to day life as well as when talking to younger students has helped me develop as a person as well as hopefully helping to convey the message that I’m someone younger students can have a chat with. As well as this the training workshops helped me make friends with a couple of people from the surrounding schools I probably wouldn’t have otherwise met and learning about the variety of situations that peer supporters from other schools have had to deal with has made me appreciate just how useful a peer support programme is.” ~ Sixth Form Peer Support Lead, Abingdon