What is a peer mentor?

written by Scarlett, Year 5

Being a peer mentor is a very responsible job.  Being a peer mentor means that you look after people who are upset or worried about anything and make sure playtimes are fun for everyone. For example, if they don’t have a game to play at playtime or are waiting for a friend to come out from lunch, peer mentors will play with you or get you involved in a game.

Peer mentors also set up and lead games on the playground like tag, bulldog or dodgeball.  They are kind and caring and they make sure that games are fairly organised.  They organise games to play but also teach people new skills such as skipping games or hula hooping.

We award a ‘Perfect Playground Partner’ each week in celebration assembly to recognise the person who has joined in most of our challenges and played really well each week.  This is something people look forward to getting awarded.

Peer mentors can sort out arguments but they don’t get into them!  In disagreements, peer mentors don’t take sides or get in the middle of them.  Also, peer mentors don’t put themselves in a position where they could get hurt.  They know when to get a teacher to step in and help but can sort most things themselves.  Being a peer mentor means children at our school have a person of their own age to talk to; they don’t shout at you or ignore you or be selfish.

Being a peer mentor doesn’t mean that you can be bossy but in a kind way, you can tell people nicely what you want them to do.  Peer mentors are very empathetic people to talk to about anything that you are worried about.

What makes me proud

by Cara

I am proud to be a peer mentor because I love holding games for all the other children in teh school adn seeing them all be so active.  Never in my life did I imagine I could do this and I really don’t like seeing someone feel sad or left out so it makes me proud that I know how to help them be part of a game.  Everytime I help someone and they find somebody new to play with because of my help, it makes me smile!

The other thing is that only rarely do I have to tell someone to listen to me – most of the time they just do, which is very good and it shows their listening skills.  All the values that we learn about in school are really important to being a good peer mentor and it means that we get to use our values every day.

That is why I’m proud of being a peer mentor.