Boys Mentoring Programme


Mentoring of boys has taken place at Kenakena through informal and formal arrangements for individual boys and small groups for some time and we have been trialling an extension of that by developing a focussed mentoring programme we hope will eventually reach all boys as they pass through our school. The process has begun with a trial mentoring programme focussing on Year 6 boys. The goal of the programme is to develop the following: " Social skills (including, communication, helping others and being part of a team) " Confidence and self esteem " Self-management (including goal-setting, self discipline, self awareness personal organisation and responsibility) " Leadership
	The programme targets Year 6 boys (predominantly 10 year-olds) as we would like to prepare them for the transition from boyhood to manhood with the onset of puberty and their entry to the Year 7&8 area of our school where we expect them to be leaders, role-models and mentors for younger children. We began by trialling one ten week programme for ten boys and have extended the trial to run three modules this year to get all our Year 6 boys through with a view to being able to sustain the programme over time. The activities the boys are involved in during the module are directly related to the goals of the project. The mentoring programme is part of a home-school partnership which includes parent education sessions and 'before' and 'after' data collection and analysis from the boys, their parents and their teachers.
The long-term outcome we are hoping for is for boys to grow into positive, confident and non-violent young men who will contribute to the long-term betterment of our community. As young men are over-represented in crime and negative social statistics, we believe we can do something positive to counter this trend. The pilot programme we established this year has been very successful and has given the impetus to look for a way of sustaining it over time while also providing a model for other schools.
	The Kapiti Primary Health Organisation (PHO) has supported the programme through funding, personnel, expertise and monitoring to ensure we can show we are making a positive difference. So far the results have been very positive. Julia Bevin, John McElwee and Andy Jenkins are leading and managing the project, which is attracting the attention of other schools. One of our challenges is to secure funding to support the programme in the long term. Some things are being put in place now. One of the areas we are looking at is sponsorship. If you belong to a business or organisation that would be interested in sponsoring a programme that is likely to attract widespread interest, I'd like to have the opportunity to discuss this with you. Please contact me. Bruce McDonald Principal