Delivery
Student reflection:
"I was surprised to see that not everything worked out as it was intended to be but you still achieve even if it didn't finish as expected."
"Everyone's books are so different; there's not a right one and a wrong one."
The first meeting of the programme was held shortly after the beginning of the school year. Year 12s were taken out of their timetabled classes and brought into a Year 11 class, a period chosen where there was time to run over. Claire and Terry introduced the students to each other, presented an overview of the programme and introduced the mentoring concept, and then initiated discussion about the coming year's Year 11 work and what it entailed. The students then broke up into groups.
At that first mentoring session the Year 12s spoke about the work and expectations at Level 1 and showed their portfolios from the previous year. This was a valuable experience for the Year 11 students as they could see the depth of documentation and information required. It was also an opportunity to see the standard of work which is required to get an Excellence in the achievement standard being assessed.
Claire says many students found it reassuring to see that there are no rigid restrictions on how work should be presented. They noted that the work was very different, both in terms of how it was presented and the order that it was presented in. The main point being that the right things had to be in there somewhere. It was also helpful to see that projects sometimes changed from the initial plan and that this was not necessarily a problem.
Student reflection
"They talked about how they were in exactly the same situation as us and it gets easier; it gives you a bit of hope that you're going to get to a similar stage."
"We felt more confident and really keen. Even if you didn't talk with them for the rest of the year that initial meeting with them was helpful."
After the initial formal meeting, contact continued through the year as the Year 11s saw their mentors around the school, in the boarding house, in tutor groups, and at other activities. Some took advantage of these informal opportunities to chat about their work. Some of the students are boarders, which meant they could go to their mentors at night during prep time to discuss their work. Some Year 12 students visited the Year 11 class if they had a study period.
Having been through the same experience themselves, the Year 12s were empathetic and could be encouraging when the Year 11 students worried about particular aspects of their work or about falling behind. Using their experience, mentors could recommend what parts of the programme to work on at particular times.
Student reflection:
"We felt we were getting behind but they told us not to worry about it, it would come right and that most of the paperwork could be finished once the skirt was done."
"The most important thing is to get on with the job, not to fiddle around with little bits and pieces of the paperwork."
"They told us what to make sure we did [it] right away and what we could leave for a bit and go back to."
In the first timetabled meeting Terry began collecting data from the students about the programme. Using a questionnaire, which had a range of questions common to both parties and separate ones for the Year 11s and 12s, he quizzed the students about the programme with a view to fine-tuning it if need be. Their responses were graphed - see Mentoring Questionnaire and Results from Questionnaire.
