Activities for Mentoring Young People

Engaging with young people as a mentor can be difficult but Stephanie George draws on years of experience to provide tried-and-tested activities that will help. The activities provide specific structured tasks that can be used during mentoring meetings and to support mentoring intervention. The activities will build rapport, provide evidence of progress through assessment and cover specific issues such as improving attendance, time management, study skills, how to think more positively, conflict resolution and anger management.

The mentoring activities include:

• Knowing me, knowing you – Building rapport with a student
• Planning the journey – Giving students a baseline for improvement
• Initial self-assessment – Providing a baseline for measuring progress
• Student reassessment and evaluation – Giving students the opportunity to reassess their progress
• Target setting and action planning – Developing targets and a plan of action
• Show me the difference – Students demonstrate that there is measurable progress
• Improving attendance – Develop strategies to improve attendance
• And the moral of the story is – Stimulates the concept of conscience
• Let me tell you a story – Students consider choices and consequences
• What if? – Students look at different possibilities, a good activity when they claim there is ‘no point’
• The treasure hunt – Develops problem solving, communication and teamwork skills
• Sunshine thinking – Helps students see themselves in their best light
• I remember when … it happened to me – Students recount a personal experience and reflect on what they learnt from it
• Oh no! Sarah’s in trouble – Students create a story that looks at issues of conflict and reconciliation
• Conflict – What it is and how to deal with it – Looks at the skills students need to mediate between people in conflict.
• I’m seeing red – How to recognise the initial signs of anger and identify ways of defusing it.
• Stop seeing red – Strategies for coping with highly charged emotional situations
• It’s about time – Managing study time effectively
• A place to study – Creating a positive environment for successful study.

Each activity is mapped specifically against Ofsted’s Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) Development Criteria (Ofsted Evaluation Framework September 2012 onwards), and the SMSC criteria applicable are indicated. The activities, once complete, will provide you with evidence of work with students that is demonstrable to them and other stakeholders.

This photocopiable resource is an essential tool for learning mentors, behaviour mentors, inclusion teams and SEN teams.

"In her manual Activities for Mentoring Young People, Stephanie George has developed a comprehensive programme of activities to enable children and young people in their life choices and relationships … the supportive, patient and caring mentorship this programme endorses can only enhance and equip the children and young people we seek to support."
- Bill Rogers, Education Consultant