'Mentor'

[di30]

Hi everyone.

 

Just curious really.

 

Back in January 07 we attended a meeting with the ED PYSCH, SENCO and the LEA.

 

My son age 12 in his first yr of a mainstream secondary school has always been under IEP's, and at the meeting the arrangements are for my son to keep attending the booster lessons too, if this does not work and still some causes for concern, the ED PYSCH mentioned if it came to it he may arrange a 'mentor'.

 

I assume this is more of the case of my son receiving help as an individual, but have not actually experienced this.

He does have IEP for numeracy, literacy and social skills and attends 3/4 booster lessons over a fortnight.

 

Has anyone have any experience of a 'school mentor', thank you so much, I look forward to your feedback.

 

Cheers Di xxx

[jb1964]

Hi Di,

 

Our head of year mentioned this last year - although when they were talking of a mentor they were inferring an older child yr11 etc - that she could become familiar with, go to with any troubles, help with taking her around the school etc. We asked that they didn't do this because my daughter (she's 13) doesn't want to be singled out as different from anyone in school.

 

Take care,

Jb

[Bard]

Mentor can mean different things, so if you're not sure, go back and ask for an explanation.

I work in a primary school, and the schools in my area have invested heavily in Learning Mentors, linked to the Every Child Matters document.

Learning Mentors are in-house support, a carefully selected, trained TA who works with individual children who are vunerable to build self worth, anger management, social skills family issues etc. Like a councillor/friendly ear. Ours is wonderful, and has worked brilliantly with children from 4-11. She handled my son's visits to Secondary, preparing him for transition.

The support is targeted at the individual child's needs, for as long or as short as necessary.

Teacher tends to nominate child. It's not linked in any way to the child's academic ability.

[angy141]

my daughter who is in yr8 had a mentor while waiting for her statement to come through her mentor was a learning support assistant who was trained to work with asd children.She went to lessons with her and she took my daugher to the front of the dinner queue but mainly supported her with other teachers and school enviroment issues.

[di30]

Thank you all for your replies, much appreciated.

 

I have been informed the report from the ed pysch has been sent through the post, (he did say i should have received it by now), so will check that out when it arrives and see if he has mentioned anything about a 'mentor' for Daniel.

 

Thank again.

Di xxx