Bevendean Primary School
and Nursery
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"Pupils, parents and staff appreciate the learning mentors. They give care and guidance and help pupils resolve any friendship issues."
(Ofsted, 2019)
Learning Mentors
Mrs Verduyn
Learning Mentor
Mrs Soudain
Senior Learning Mentor
Mrs Muirhead
Learning Mentor
At Bevendean Primary School and Nursery, we have a fantastic team of Learning Mentors. They are: Mrs Soudain, Mrs Verduyn and Mrs and Muirhead.
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Learning Mentors work with pupils of all abilities and ages who need help to overcome difficulties that are getting in the way of their learning (barriers to learning) through supportive one to one relationships and sometimes small group work. We help our children develop coping strategies, enhance their motivation, raise their aspirations and encourage them to re-engage with learning, to work effectively, taking into account a range of complex issues that can lay behind problems with learning and achievement.
We help them to:
- Analyse their situations and identify opportunities.
- Set realistic and challenging goals that are real solutions to problems and unexplored opportunities that have been identified.
- See there are many different ways of achieving goals.
- Use their imaginations to spell out possibilities for a better future.
- Choose the strategies that suit them best.
- Find the incentives that will help them commit themselves to their new agendas.
- Choose the right problems and / or opportunities on which to work.
Other ways Mentors help:
We support our students through periods of transition (moving schools, family break up, bereavement etc.) by providing emotional support and practical help, working with the children to build life skills such as emotional resilience and empathy. We ensure relevant people are aware of the impact of change and the importance of support through transition. We work with outside agencies such as the School Nurse, Health/Children's Services, Front Door for Families, Family Hubs, which enables us to expand our knowledge and expertise to ensure positive outcomes for our children and their families.
The Rainbow Room
The Rainbow Room provides our children with a ‘safe haven’, a place they can go to ‘offload’ and share concerns / worries with adults they trust. A pupil, who can dysregulate, can come to ‘chill’ until they are ready to reflect on their actions and repair any damage that may have been caused.