About learning mentors
Learning mentors help pupils who are experiencing difficulty at school. They work with students to tackle specific problems and to improve achievement levels.
For example, they might work with someone who regularly skips school to increase attendance and punctuality. Or they might help a pupil form better relationships with their peers and teachers.
Removing barriers to learning
Learning mentors are employed by schools and colleges to help students and pupils to remove barriers to learning. This helps increase participation, enhance individual learning, and raise aspirations and achievement.
These barriers include:
- the need to develop better learning and study skills
- difficulties at home
- personal organisation
- behaviour
- bullying
- general disaffection and disengagement from learning.
These issues can affect pupils of all abilities.
What learning mentors do
Learning mentors mainly work with pupils on a one-to-one basis. They help to develop coping strategies, enhance motivation, raise aspirations and encourage re-engagement with learning.
They take account of a range of complex underlying issues that may impact negatively on learning and achievement, such as:
- bereavement
- low self-esteem
- low aspirations
- mental health issues
- relationship difficulties
- bullying
- peer pressure
- family issues or concerns
They also work closely with teachers, parents, social workers, local government workers, careers advisers and fellow learning mentors. They help the people they look after and construct new ways of developing relationships in the community.
Becoming a learning mentor
Being a learning mentor is a role that covers a variety of areas. They provide support to pupils to help them overcome a variety of social, emotional and behavioural problems.
What makes a good learning mentor
The main requirements are:
- an ability to form good relationships with a wide range of young people and their families or carers and with a variety of organisations
- the ability to gain the confidence of children, schools, agencies and people in the community and business
- skills in negotiating, planning and managing activities
- good listening skills
- an understanding of health and social issues that affect children's development
- an understanding of the school curriculum and the needs of learners
Background and experience
Learning mentors come from a wide variety of ages and backgrounds.
People generally work as learning mentors after gaining experience in other fields. These include guidance, social work, counselling, teaching, pupil support roles or youth, community and welfare work.
But many people enter the field as a career change option or through drawing on general life experience.
Qualifications
Mentors need competence in literacy and numeracy and may require GCSE (or equivalent) grades A to C in English and maths.
They may also need a professional qualification in education, social work or nursing. The Certificate in National Learning Mentor Training is desirable.
Training is usually on-the-job, although occasionally outside training may be available to address a particular need of the school, such as cross-cultural issues.
How to become a mentor
If you have the skills and qualifications outlined above, you are on your way.
Take a look at the jobs page now - there may be a vacancy at a local school.
Contact Learning Mentors team
Telephone: 020 8921 4704