Harrow School
Programme
Our first secondary school partner, Harrow has pioneered a peer mentoring project since 2021 aimed at developing the whole school community and pupil leadership. Students were mentored in different houses and then benefited from two workshop days with a consistent team of Oppidan mentors, focused on mentoring approaches, case studies, safeguarding and practical tips. Mentoring led by those Year 12 students is live and underway with their Year 9 mentees.
Moreover, in September 2023, as part of Harrow’s ‘Living Together Conference’, Oppidan mentors provided a day’s training session to the entire cohort of lower sixth (Y12) pupils. Following the training, each sixth-form mentor was paired with a Remove (Y10) mentee, with one-to-one peer mentoring sessions taking place throughout the Autumn and Spring terms.
The program aims to foster reciprocal and supportive relationships between pupils from different year groups. These relationships aim to bridge the gap and overcome hierarchical divisions that can exist in spaces where inter-year interaction is limited - building community and fostering positive relationships across year groups, especially within individual House contexts. The initiative acknowledges the influential role that young men can have on each other within school environments. It seeks to leverage this influence to bring about positive changes among young men.
This was the third year of the Oppidan peer mentoring programme at Harrow, and the first in which Y12 mentors had been a Remove mentee themselves.
Y12 Mentors
38%
Increase in the perceived benefit of having a mentor.
33%
Increase in confidence in knowing how to mentor.
17%
Increase in their own belief of being an excellent mentor.
Remove Mentees
10%
Increase in feeling of belonging at school.
9%
Increase in feeling that pupils matter to others at school.
86%
of mentees expect to do extremely well at school.
Outcomes
Pupils in both Year 9 & Year 12 cohorts have completed preliminary surveys. Reports indicated that Year 12 pupils were excited to take on whole school responsibility and provide valuable support they would have valued when they were starting senior school. Year 12 mentors have commenced sessions with their Year 9 mentees which will continue bi-weekly for the next two terms.
For a more in-depth look at this programme download the impact report below.