Year 10 Peer Mentors Reflect On The Peer Mentoring Program

Each Thursday the Year 10 Peer Mentors meet with their group of Year 7 students for a peer mentoring session.

The Year 10 and Year 7 Peer Mentoring Program has entered its second term.

The Year 10 Peer Mentors say that they are enjoying seeing the Year 7 students become more confident and outgoing as they settle into high school. The Peer Mentoring Program began in Term 1 and will continue through to the end of Term 2. The Year 7 students meet in small groups with their Year 10 Peer Mentors each Thursday afternoon.

“Our group of students started off quite reserved but are now really outgoing and aren’t afraid to say things to us,” says peer mentor Leisel H. "They all really love socialising with each other and have become good friends. At the beginning of Term 1 they barely spoke to each other! It is nice to speak to them each Thursday and in fact we have all become friends. It is really nice to talk to them.

Peer Mentor Lyoni D. says she has loved seeing the transformation from shy students to students who are now more confident. “At the beginning they were all really shy but over the weeks you could see them all open up and this has been great to see. They always say hello to us in the playground and they are all so sweet. Their personalities have grown so much.”

Currently in the peer mentoring sessions the groups have been looking at resilience and participating in activities with resilience the focus. “Resilience is an important skill to learn, whether it be with study, with friendship groups or a whole range of different situations,” says Lyoni. “Last week we had an activity for the Year 7 students where we played a game with cards which outlined a situation which might happen and the students needed to consider and discuss the positives which could come out of that situation.”

The Year 10 students who were chosen to act as peer mentors all say they wanted to be involved in the program because they remember what it was like when they were in Year 7. “I have enjoyed most watching the younger students learn,” says Suzanna F.

It has been interesting to see their journey as I can remember being in the same position too.