Peer mentoring, or buddy group programs in school contexts, where students are engaging and interacting with students across a range of year levels, can of course be met with both positivity and a level of concern, from teachers, parents and pupils alike. Considering the implementation of programs such as these needs to be done with caution, acute awareness of school culture, in depth knowledge of student’s strengths and talents, as well as a clear understanding of the program goals, coupled with some type of reflective or assessment tool to measure areas of growth and development. These are areas that have been investigated by various teaching staff at the College and the research, especially when looking specifically at boys education suggests that when done in a structured and highly monitored fashion, have wonderful outcomes for both the older students (the mentor) and the younger students (the mentee).
According to research that is published by the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, Buddy systems play an important role in helping to create safe school environments. Buddy systems teach, and give children the opportunity to practise, the important values of respect, care, valuing difference, responsibility, friendship and including others. Through looking after and caring for smaller, vulnerable children who are just starting school, older children learn the skills associated with empathy and compassion through activities in the classroom and in the playground. This helps combat bullying and other forms of antisocial behaviour such as harassment and teasing. Teaching pro-social values and skills can also contribute to the development of resilience, a protective factor for children if they experience hardship or loss.
While St Edmund’s College officially launched our Buddy Program @ SEC last year as part of the Personal Formation Program, due to Covid -19 restrictions and school shut down periods, we were not able to run these programs to their full capacity. Today, Friday 12 March marked the launch of the buddy Program for 2021 and so we are hopeful that even stronger positive relationships and a greater sense of connectedness and community will be evident in all student who will benefit from participating in this entire program this year.
Our Year 4 students have been buddied with the College and House leaders, while other Year 12 students have been buddied in groups with year 5 and 6 students. This will ensure students in every year in the Junior School will have access to a group of senior students to help build their social networks. Our Year 7 students have continued to be buddied with the Year 11 students in their House groups and this is to ensure the continual peer mentoring with House group contexts and assist in the transition process for the students entering that challenging first year of high school.
For more information on the positive benefits of peer mentoring, positive role modelling and buddy groups, please access this website. Please also see the comments and feedback below from various teachers and students about their personal experience of the Buddy Group sessions.
Leanne Gair
Head of Treacy House
Below are some of the comments from teachers and students from various year levels that reflect their experiences of the Buddy program @SEC.
“This morning, Junior School was buzzing with a wonderful atmosphere. We held a buddy session with our Year 12s and our Junior School students. The theme of the session was ‘Positive Friendships’. Activities were completed together, along with some time for fun and games. This program is scheduled to continue through the year”- Mr David Kelly
“Today was an awesome experience for both the older students and the younger students are just in awe of how gifted and talented some of our senior role models are. We are so impressed to see the quality of young men in the senior school and to see they are so willing to give up their time to be present with the junior students”- Ms Bridget Cusack
“Today was the best, I loved hanging out with the bigger boys, they are so big, but really nice and helpful. They helped us with all kinds of stuff from how to communicate, make new mates and computing stuff”- Y5 student
“I enjoyed the buddy sessions even more than I thought I would. It is a nice feeling when the littler boys see you in the hallway and want to hi five you and then you hear them telling their other friends how great the buddy session was with you as one of their leaders, it is a nice community feel”– Y12 student