All schools and academies who are led by leaders who have a moral compass and “feel” responsible for their students, know that all children deserve the best chance at education, whilst under their watch.

However, even after many interventions and strategies with the aim of closing the various achievement gaps and making the school experience rewarding for all, conscientious leaders are still aware, that there are some groups within the learning community whose potential is not being maximised. Especially the “children in the middle”.

Some quarters call these children “the invisibles”, “wall paper children”, “the grey matter” or simply “the quiet children”. Regardless of the term, this group of children can represent beyond 80 per cent of the student population who are sadly overlooked. Or the attention they could be experiencing, is taken by the more urgent groups of children such as the “more able”, those with “Special Educational Needs” (SEN), poorly behaved students spoiling the schools equilibrium or those with a Pupil Premium designation. It is how it is, but this status quo is simply not fair.

For the tender hearted and pupil focussed leader, this creates a moral conflict or dilemma which is not excusable but is still a Goliath or white elephant in the room that is hard to tackle due to a number of other responsibilities. Responsibilities such as staff capacity, budgetary priorities, pressing school matters or areas highlighted for improvement by Ofsted. In the light of the latter list of school essentials the moral case to support all explicitly, may not be urgent or weighty enough.

However, this does not have to be the case.

From years of seeing the above play itself out, without much notice and also being a part of the trend, I was personally and professionally challenged in the early part of my career by having to turn away one too many “children in the middle”. The reason, being they put themselves forward to receive mentoring however the schools funding focus, priorities, behaviour focus and the school’s mentoring practise / provision was geared towards levelling the playing field for targeted children who were, notorious or visibly struggling with their social life or school experience.

Don’t get me wrong… this mentoring approach does have its place (and merit) but, to me is only justifiable when it is part of a wider and more inclusive mentoring strategy, that is both remedial and preventative, used to fight fires and be proactive at the same time.

From years of working in this field, development mentoring thought leadership and exploring best practise models, I have discovered there is a better way which creates a win / win. We have developed a congruent and strategic mentoring approach that is not an either or but, works for all. We help schools to develop greater internal capacity in their staff, systems and students that enables the school to mentor at a minimum 200% more children such as entire year groups, key stages or schools. We help to stimulate even greater aspirations to heighten expectation of students, parents and staff alike.

We do this by:

Providing solution focussed mentoring programmes and resources that track and evidence anecdotal and quantifiable impact.
Incorporate our work with ongoing school improvement initiatives to ensure there is minimal disruption and duplication.
Deliver tried and tested CPD on mentoring and student engagement to radically improve student, parent and teacher relationships.
Working with a Lead schools inspector and use mentoring as a school development tool to enhance Ofsted inspection preparation.
Develop robust and meaningful parental partnerships to encourage collaboration and reduce the odds of our work being undone at home.
I am not sure where you are on your mentoring journey but, if mentoring is used well and strategically it can be one of the most transformational tools to move both children and staff forward. We are in the people business and mentoring creates dynamic professional relationships that can be leveraged to raise school standards, aspirations and increased productivity.

If you are a school leader desiring to do something different, as a school you think outside the box and have the bandwidth for innovation and would like to utilise mentoring in your school more effectively, please feel free to contact me by calling: 0800-644-4881, message me directly on LinkedIn or email: herman@everychildneedsamentor.com and we can make arrangements to have a chat.

We have moved mentoring from being simply soft and fluffy and are able to give hard and concrete evidence that as an achievement strategy it makes sense.

Make 2015 the year that you did something innovative, meaning and groundbreaking with mentoring that all children can experience and benefit from.

Herman