St Paul’s School
Building a network of peer support for students
All students have questions. And all students have something to teach others. So, we’re supporting a project that’s helping connect the two.
Research shows that being mentored by your peers has a positive impact on young people and could help close the education gap. But student mentoring isn’t currently being used as much as it could be. St Paul’s School in London is helping change this. Their Colet Mentoring initiative is designed to provide students with free one-to-one academic support, available when they need it, connecting mentees and mentors via a mobile app.
- 90% of parents agreed that Colet Mentoring helped to improve their child’s academic skills.
- Students reported being 75% more confident in their abilities in the topic after the mentoring session.
- Some states in South Sudan have an average pupil-teacher ratio as high as 85:1.
Helping students help each other
Colet Mentoring is currently being used primarily in UK secondary schools. Our grant of almost £20,000 will fund expanding it to UK primary schools, as well as the initial stage of a pilot project in Juba in South Sudan.
Around 6 to 10 mentors will be available for 1 hour every weeknight evening to answer questions in the UK, with a rota of 50 to 60 mentors providing support. Mentors don’t just give answers, they encourage mentees to get there themselves, using prompts and questions. Mentees benefit from personalised support, while mentors gain useful skills such as confidence and empathy from supporting their peers.
“Students became more empowered to make decisions on certain calculations. It has developed students’ communication, study and personal skills…. and their strategies for dealing with both personal and academic issues.”
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