My name is Kelly. I am deputy head at Willows high school in Cardiff. Part of my role is teaching and learning. Under that umbrella comes coaching and mentoring. We’ve got lots of different types of coaching in the school, from staff to staff, from teachers to parents. We were the first school in Cardiff to use 1MM to help support our students. We’ve been doing it for 4 years now!
Why did you choose to take part in 1MM’s mentoring programme?
It was unique. It has more longevity than other types of coaching and mentoring. That sold it to us. They mentor the pupils at the end of year 10, when they are just about to complete some part of the GCSE’s and then carry them over to just before the completion of the rest of the GCSE’s. That has worked really well for us. Our children may not have role models at home. They maybe don’t have somebody encouraging them at home. You need that distinction between a teacher and somebody who they don’t know. Someone who works in the real world and is showing them / encouraging them to pursue their dream and has already achieved it themselves.
What are the key things your young people needed support with?
Our school is second most socially economically deprived in the area, which does not mean parents don’t care. It means they may not have had experience in further education themselves or may not know how to encourage their children to do well in their exams. It was really important for our children to have role models from outside, with an outside perspective. People tend to stay in this area, so only see careers around them, they haven’t got that world view of careers. So to get in people from a wide variety of careers, It shows them and opens there eyes that there is a whole other world out there.
Have you seen a change in your young people since mentoring?
It is all to do with opening their eyes and giving them the confidence to do it. One girl was mentored by a solicitor. Her mentor offered her two weeks work experience after she had done her GCSE’s. It was the first time she had been in a big building in town, seen people in suits, she felt like she was in a tv show! Mentors have shown our young people different career routes. They have taught them that you don’t give up if you don’t do well in exams. You find a different way. A lot of mentors struggled themselves, to get where they are. so they are showing our young people that whatever they choose now doesn’t need to be where you are in 10 years time. They have shown that there is fluidity within careers. For the kids to see the same person, same face for a year, that is the real benefit.
