Personalised Mentoring

Our Personalised Mentoring Program for Years 7 -12 continues the tradition of linking wellbeing to effective learning. Through this new initiative secondary students work closely with a selected mentor to develop their own wellbeing, academic and futures plan.

This program is built on a personal approach with quality time. Students meet with their mentor one-on-one for a PM (Personalised Mentoring) Session at least once a term for an extended conversation focussed on the student’s feedback regarding their academic, wellbeing and futures progress and goals. This is the framework for the mentor really getting to know their mentees. In the Senior Years, instead of a traditional morning roll call in which the teacher meets with a group of around 25 students for 5 to 10 minutes, this time has been reallocated to having the Personalised Mentoring sessions. The extended Personalised Mentoring session is the springboard for many more incidental conversations that happen along the way. With students having their locker right near their mentor’s office, the opportunities for drop-ins and catch ups to follow up on the goals of a Personalised Mentoring session are regularly there.

Deputy Principal and Head of The Ridgeway Campus puts it eloquently:

“One of the key features of research relating to successfully negotiating adolescence is the importance of having positive connections with adults outside the family. Traditionally, schools have been very good at identifying and giving attention to high flying students and also to those who hit major difficulties. However, sometimes the middle-level student does not get the attention and support they need to thrive: those who are not topping the class, nor leading the musical, nor starring in the sporting team, nor are they experiencing specific difficulties that require intervention. Often these middle students do make a wonderful connection to a staff member – students will often connect with a particular teacher through circumstances and be well supported in their time in later schooling. However, at times this can be more due to chance than systematic factors. The staff mantra of pastoral care is that ‘Every Student Matters’: that every student will have a staff member that really knows them – their strengths, interests and goals.”