Learning mentors have helped to transform the lives and futures of thousands of schoolchildren with various problems. Helen Gregory reports on one team's work.

It's lunchtime and the learning mentor's office at Newcastle's Walbottle Campus Technology College is bustling with youngsters who are playing games and chatting to staff during a drop-in session. Some have learning or behavioural difficulties, others are educational under-achievers, but you can tell by the children's enthusiasm that Cathy Boyd and her team of learning mentors have made a big impact.

Ask any one of these children and you'll get the same response: the service helps them to achieve their academic potential, or at least feel better about being at school. And that's exactly what the Walbottle Pyramid Learning Mentor Project, now in its third year, set out to do, by helping to change youngsters' attitude towards school and teaching them how to cope with life's challenges.

Last year, the team offered one-to-one mentoring to more than 300 students - mainly from Year 11 - who told them they felt mentoring had helped them not only improve their behaviour, but also increase their self-confidence and motivation, and improve their classwork, relationships with teachers, and personal organisation skills.

How the team works

Boyd, Walbottle's senior learning mentor, and her staff - learning mentor Anne Rowlinson and assistant learning mentors Warren White, Ros Hinds, Catherine Moclair and Michelle Farrer - come from a variety of backgrounds, from nursery nurse to teaching assistant, ex-teacher and social worker.

But each has the qualities that make children want to share their problems.

"You need a sense of humour," laughs Farrer, "as well as good listening skills, the ability to be non-judgmental and a general empathy with kids."

The team works across four middle schools in Newcastle, as well as at Walbottle College. Most of the mentors have about five 35- to 40-minute one-to-one appointments a day, which take place during lesson time, and they take it in turns to oversee the drop-in sessions, run homework clubs and help to run the student council.

Hinds also works closely with the special educational needs co-ordinator and the team of teaching assistants to mentor students on the special needs register, while refugee students are invited to drop-ins where they socialise and get help with schoolwork.

Everyone's welcome, and it's purely voluntary; children can decide not to attend and sometimes do just that, unfortunately. And because it's such a large site, finding missing students can be a problem. But it's the only real challenge the team has, although there was initial scepticism from teachers because mentoring sessions take place during teaching time and because teachers were unsure of the role of learning mentors. This, however, has now dissipated. "There are always some teachers who think their lessons are more important than mentoring," reveals Rowlinson. "It can become personal in some staff rooms if teachers don't understand what you're doing, but generally they understand our role better now."

From September, Boyd hopes to improve this understanding when individual mentors will work more closely with the three pastoral teams in the school: "Then we'll be more visible and everyone will see where we fill in the gaps," she explains.

Most children are referred to the mentors by the head teacher or head of house, while others come through a GP or special educational needs co-ordinator; the rest put themselves forward. "We get about the same number of boys and girls, although girls seem to respond better to mentoring, and there is a higher proportion of girls who go on to get good grades," says Boyd.

Much of the mentors' work is to help push as many pupils as possible into getting good grades - at least five GCSEs at grades A to C - and the proof of their effective involvement will come when the exam results are revealed later this summer. But as Boyd points out: "It's all about keeping children in school; for some, if they just complete Year 11, I consider that a success."

Mentoring is not only about helping naughty boys and girls: gifted and talented children are a special target, particularly those who aren't achieving their potential. Rowlinson focuses on these children but says that, however successful they are, it's always a professional relationship.

"Sometimes children get overly dependent on you, and you need to prepare them for detachment by making them aware of when you'll be stopping.

But you also need to let them know they can come back." she explains.

"Sometimes they think you're the one stopping them getting into trouble, but you have to tell them it's their progress that's having this effect," adds Farrer.

The team agrees that their working lives are made easier through a strong multi-agency approach. They liaise with various agencies, such as social workers, education welfare officers, and adolescent mental health services on different cases. Sometimes a GP, parent, speech therapist or form teacher can be involved in a case conference for a child, while there are multi-agency meetings every month to review overall progress. Ongoing training, with practice-sharing seminars on peer mentoring and self-esteem, for instance, also helps them to keep up to date, while they regularly meet up with mentors from other schools to share resources.

The National Foundation for Educational Research backs up Walbottle's findings that students' self-esteem and confidence improve as a result of seeing a learning mentor, as does their behaviour, motivation and ability to relate to their peers and teachers. Its research has also found that work improved, and classroom disruption was reduced.

Bridging the divide

The other main aim of mentors is to free up teachers to teach, and the foundation says teachers thought that mentors enhanced and complemented their role by supporting individual students. But there are challenges.

According to the foundation: "Learning mentors had experienced some apprehension from teachers about their role, which was generally related to resentment of the time and funding they received and the focus and approach they could adopt. Proving their value and contribution had helped to alter this perception."

The National Learning Mentor Network, which is part of the National Mentoring Network, believes there can be confusion over roles. "They are not meant to be used as teaching assistants, but in some schools they are recruited as a kind of hybrid," says network co-ordinator Steve Matthews.

"But others have a clear view about what they should be doing and are happy for mentors to work on a one-to-one basis."

"They are often under-utilised," adds the National Children's Bureau's assistant director of children's development, Simon Blake, "especially in the area of personal and social development."

What the future holds

Matthews believes another problem is the gap between teaching and mentoring in terms of training, but that moves to professionalise the role, through new national vocational qualifications and standards later this year, should help. He says: "The issue isn't about recruitment, since there are enough learning mentors around, it's more about pay, which can vary from 11,000-17,000 a year. There'll only be consistency when occupational standards are put in place. The picture for training and development will change quite dramatically."

Although pay can be a problem for some learning mentors, the team at Walbottle is happy with their lot, since Newcastle offers the best pay scale in the area. However, the campus's deputy head, Alan Glynn, admits that he chose to hire one very experienced mentor and the rest as assistants, mainly because they're cheaper. "Recruitment hasn't been a problem, and we've had heaps of interest, particularly from young graduates," he adds.

"We haven't had that many men apply, but that's possibly because it's just term-time work."

According to the National Foundation for Educational Research, this is replicated across the country. There are 6,000 secondary and 4,000 primary learning mentors funded through the Excellence in Cities initiative, which is guaranteed until 2006. And Matthews believes that because mentors are so successful, they'll be funded whatever happens. "They're an accepted part of the school landscape now," he claims.

With such a positive response from Newcastle's learning mentors, who say they feel privileged to work with their students, there will surely be a new raft of recruits wanting to work in this field as the scheme gathers pace. "The teachers don't get to see the side of the kids we see," concludes Michelle, "but even the naughtiest children need listening to."

TELL ME MORE

- Department for Education and Skills Excellence in Cities programme

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk

- National Children's Bureau www.ncb.org.uk

- National Foundation for Educational Research www.nfer.ac.uk

- National Learning Mentor Network www.nmn.org.uk

CHILDREN'S VOICES

"I started coming in Year Eight to boost my confidence at school.

We're still working on my confidence, but I'm less nervous about coming here. I feel happier and more positive - I might come in feeling down, but I'll leave with a smile on my face" Louise Hall, 14

"My teachers thought I wasn't working to my potential. After seeing a mentor my teachers said I'd improved and wasn't as distracted" William McNamara, 14

"I went to see a mentor because I wanted to stop chatting in class.

I did a few sessions, which helped. Now I just come when I've got a particular problem" Nicky Shipley, 14

"I was getting bullied, so my parents saw the head teacher who recommended I come here. The mentors have taught me to stand up for myself and their advice has really helped" Ruth Hetherington, 14

"I joined the school recently and used to get picked on. I found the mentors very kind, so I started seeing them weekly. They've given me confidence and now I'm doing well at school" Chris Bourne, 14

"My parents thought I needed help building up my confidence and the mentors helped me. I didn't feel embarrassed about coming here and my friends weren't bothered by it either" Ashley Storey, 14.