WHAT DOES A LEARNING MENTOR DO?

Town Farm Primary School believes in the development of the whole child within education and life.    To support this, we are proud to have two full time Learning Mentors who are accessible to all children across the school.

As an integrated part of the learning support team, the aim of the Learning Mentors is to provide support and guidance to children who are experiencing difficulties with their learning typically due to emotional or behavioural needs. Much of the Learning Mentor role involves creating and maintaining positive relationships with pupils, teachers, parents and external agencies in order to assist pupils to develop their academic, social and emotional skills so they are able to reach their full potential.

Children will find it difficult to access learning opportunities if they are experiencing barriers to learning. These barriers can include:

• Anxiety and worries
• Difficulties at home
• Behaviour for learning
• Issues concerning friendships/social anxieties
• Dealing with bereavement/loss
• General disaffection and disengagement from learning
• Transition between phases/from primary to secondary 
• Transition between home and school in the mornings
• Difficulties with organisation
• Anger Management
• SEMH- Social skills, Self-esteem, Honesty, Positive thinking
• Emotional Literacy 
• Mental Health

OUR LEARNING MENTORS

Learning Mentors offer mentoring and support to both individuals and groups of children.  The support is dependent on the needs of the child and assessed frequently.  The Learning Mentors’ promote the Town Farm Values of Ambition, Courage, Determination, Enquiry, Equality, Integrity, Resilience and Respect. They also strive to improve pupil progress and achievement by helping minimise barriers to learning and maximise pupil participation.

A number of pupils are supported by the Learning Mentors and whatever issues individual pupils face, there is a planned support program in place to develop a one-to-one mentoring relationship aimed at helping them overcome the barriers to their learning. Discovering what the barriers to learning are for a child can be straightforward and quick or it can take a while to unpick. Each case is different and all work is planned to meet the needs of the individual child.

Learning Mentors are always available at break times and are always out on duty at lunchtimes. Children can access the Learning Mentor team either by being referred by their class teacher or through parent concerns.

WHO ARE WE?

Mrs Goddard; I am a learning mentor who can help pupils with behaviour, anger management, Ready2Learn skills, managing emotions, achieving targets and SEMH.  I am a trained ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) too. 

Mrs Memon: I am a learning mentor, here to facilitate pupils’ learning so they can thrive, by increasing motivation and building confidence as well as resilience. I can also help pupils to improve their concentration and most importantly their ready to learn skills.

A BRIEF SUMMARY

Learning Mentors:

• Provide support for all children’s well-being
• Are here to provide non-judgemental and confidential support to all our pupils and families
• Work closely with teaching staff and families to help children achieve their full potential
• Have a variety of activities, strategies and interventions that can be offered within school on a bespoke basis to those in need
• Provide interventions which can be short and focussed (over perhaps a half term) or on a more long term basis
• Might work with children on a 1-1 basis, in a small group or in their class