Mentoring: So nobody gets left behind

A Catholic school in Cape Town has introduced a new concept of mentoring. CLAIRE?MATHIESON visited the school and saw the programme in action.

School is not just about academics—it’s about molding future adults as a whole. This is attitude, common to the ethios of all Catholic schools, is written large at St Joseph’s Marist College in Rondebosch, Cape Town, where a new mentoring programme has been implemented to groom “better people” and to ensure “no learner is left behind”.

Candice Critien heads up the school’s Pastoral Care and Mentoring team which has designed an organic life skills programme, based on “The 16 Guidelines to Life”, an international initiative of readings, workshops and activities suitable for the development of their high school students.

“Each of our learners is split into a group. Each group is paired with one teacher who deals directly with the students needs. From making study plans, to reading skills and then working on critical thinking themes, the teachers provide a nurturing and caring environment that the students can benefit from,” said Ms Critien.

The daily meetings are an opportunity for the learners to interact with their mentor. Each week has a different wisdom theme which is discussed throughout the lessons.

In addition, the time the small groups are together is also an opportunity for teachers to check on the practical aspects of school administration and ensuring homework is complete.

The groups meet for 20 minutes every day except on Wednesdays. “The groups meet for a reading period and on Fridays they meet for an extended period in a workshop environment to review the week’s theme,” said Ms Critien.

Learners are encouraged to write journals to help them reflect on their lives and the values learnt in their lessons. Every theme has a practical aspect and while students are writing and discussing values these are related back to situations in the classroom, playground and sporting field. All the themes and exercises are age and situation appropriate.

Ms Critien said due to their size, the groups are able to discuss personal and schooling issues daily, helping them in all aspects of their development.

“We are trying to educate our students to be better people. This mentoring programme looks at all aspects of a learner’s education,” she said.

The school had to consider the effect of shortening the academic day to make time for the mentoring lessons, but Ms Critien has said not only have the teachers been pleased with the progress many of the students have made, parents have been entirely supportive of the programme.

“One of the main reasons we looked into the course was the lack of maturity many of our students were showing. This programme develops critical thinking. With the wisdom themes being discussed every week, we are creating responsible and reasoning children,” Ms Critien explained.

St Joseph’s has seen a marked decline in bullying and a drop in the number of failures. “There was a much bigger failure rate in the first term of 2010 compared to the first term of 2011. We’ve seen a big improvement in many of our students,” said Ms Critien, who believes the mentoring programme is directly responsible for this improvement in academics.

Teacher Colleen Callahan said the mentoring programme was as beneficial to the learners as the academic courses. “It helps learners develop good relationships, grow in confidence and it has increased unity between the various subgroups in the classes. When you get that right, academics simply fall into place.”

One of the biggest challenges the school faced was getting the teachers to support the project. “At first, it was a lot of work and the teachers had to learn how to handle the classes. The programme can only be successful if the teachers supported it. Once they saw the benefits, the teachers were behind the mentoring programme and today they really are great,” said Ms Critien.

Ms Callahan, said even though she had not been involved in the programme since its inception, the short time she has been involved has produced “excellent results”. The learners, she said, take their work more seriously are more willing and “the children look forward to the mentoring sessions”.

This sentiment was shared some Grade 10 learners. Zara Canterbury said at first she didn’t like the programme, but then she “began to see how much it helps and I understand more about myself. It’s really good!” she said.

Anastasia Dooms said she liked that she was given time to be “by myself and my thoughts. I can give time, which I don’t have at home, to get more values in life”.

Ms Critien said because the teacher is so familiar with the student, any issue, big or small, is picked up on and resolved sooner than later.

“If it’s regular low grades in one particular subject, the teacher is able to advise the student to take extra lessons and to adjust their study time tables to match their academic needs,” she said. If it’s something bigger, the teacher can refer the student to the pastoral care and social workers at the school. “Because of the size of the groups, we pick up on issues quickly.”

Ms Critien said the mentoring programme was like having a parent at school. And parents are a very important part of the process.

“We see education as a triangle with the child, parent and teacher each representing one aspect of the process.” Teachers are required to communicate with parents once a week via telephone, e-mail or in person. While this seems like a lot, Ms Critien said since there were only ten learners to one teacher it was easy for a teacher to keep on top of things.

Because both the mentoring teachers and parents are more aware of the learner’s situation, it was far more likely for the learner to achieve his or her best. “We try and catch learners if they are falling, so not one learner is left behind,” Ms Critien said.

The Catholic ethos is ingrained in every aspect of the programme and was “another reason why we implemented these themes. They line up,” said Ms Critien. The programme, she says, supports and enhances the learner’s lives. “It gets them thinking about themselves and their spirituality.”

St Joseph’s mentoring programme is unique. “There was no prototype to follow, so we had to be clever using all our resources to make it work.”

Every adult educator, from the librarian to the social workers is involved in the programme. But while not every school may have additional staff, she said the principle was possible for all schools to follow.

“We hope other schools will catch on and start providing a mentoring environment for their students,” said Ms Critien.