The School Based Mentor Program, from birth to adulthood.
New parents or even parents to be would register for the program with the proposed school for their child’s schooling, and be allocated a Mentor accordingly:
Birth to five years of age Stage 1 Formative
5 to 8 Yrs of age Stage 2 Early Childhood
9 to 11 Yrs of age Stage 3 Primary education
12 to 14 Yrs of age Stage 4 Puberty years
15 to 18 Yrs of age Stage 5 Career preparation years
That would imply a maximum of five mentors from birth to exiting school would be possible as per the ratios described within the role statements following. Movement of children from stage to stage, picking up a new mentor as they progress, would occur during the periods between their 5-6th, 8-9th, 11-12th, 14-15th years up to several months either side. In small school settings only one or two mentors may be needed, but the expertise of the mentors and the support they would provide would mirror the developmental stage of each child.
The structure in detail: After the birth of our new citizen a hospital visit with a school gift pack and further suggestions for support would be arranged. Home help may be required on leaving hospital. Everything that a new parent may need should be provided during these crucial days as the newborn develops into a five year old child. Most parents would not need very much real input but regular visits and chats would usually be welcomed, as from a friend. Data gathered, reports written, information provided for families during these first five years of life would be mutually shared and agreed upon. Nothing that the Mentor wrote could be considered valid unless it was countersigned by the parents, preferably by both. Whilst this may seem a huge overkill by the school the help and resources that can be provided to young children and their families can only have positive outcomes for the growing child.
A Mentor would always work proactively from the child’s birth, or earlier, and work for the benefit of the child with complete focus on family support. Once rolling the workload would be capped at thirty new families per year, a workload of ninety families per Mentor. Where several children of the same family may fall within the same age stage the maximum number of children would not be more than one hundred.
At around age five each child and family would move to the next level of Mentoring with an enhanced emphasis on early childhood education. This would be dependent on the progress and stability of the child and their observed development. Some families might have interaction with two mentors when this should occur, as there would often be children in the same family less than four years apart in age. During this second phase, association with a school which best addresses the needs of the child would be finalised and parents would be invited to begin their involvement also. The school would at the same time become fully aware of the incoming new pupil and begin to provide support through the Mentor to the family. Resources and financial assistance would be provided through the Mentors and their task primarily would be to give family support which benefits the child’s development. This assistance would not be vague and waffly and in large group situations but personalised and precise in a one on one family basis. If a family for whatever reason should decline the services of their Mentor no further assistance, including financial, would be provided. The child would not be abandoned but observed from a distance, for these situations are the ones that currently cause so much harm to our young children, our critical future.
At around five years of age, on their fifth birthday for most, some leaving it a little later, children would begin the next phase by joining a class of young learners, aged five to eight with two teachers managing a group of forty eight with a Mentor, whose task might also include being the Parent Liaison Person (PLP) for the family and the teachers. This role would ensure that the learner has the support necessary to fulfill his/her learning needs and support through parent teacher contact. Such issues as nutrition, bullying, financial support and so on are within the Mentors’ role but more importantly are learning and the maximising of resources for the learners. During this phase the case load for each Mentor would increase to thirty families for each year, maximum being ninety.
At around nine years of age children would move forward to the second phase of their primary school education with two teachers educating up to fifty four children per group. The role of their Mentor would not change significantly and the case study would remain much the same, maximizing out at ninety. The parent teacher liaison aspect would continue as would the provision of essential learning assistance to ensure the best possible outcomes.
At around twelve years of age children would have mastered all of the basic learning skills necessary to set them up for divergent learning experiences. For the following two to three years they would join the Puberty Years phase of learning with the nineteen basic modules to be explored and mastered. The Puberty Years Mentors would have the maximum case load of sixty teenagers and their role would be as before but emphatically focused on the development of the teenager psyche and the materials of the puberty curriculum. In this phase there would be no subject based learning classes as the real life topics to be explored will carry all of the essential numeracy and literacy components within them. The loop for parenthood would be firmly established in all teenagers through the Puberty Years curriculum modules, especially modules “Only You, Your Body and Puberty”, “Relationships and You” and Your Life Skills for Adulthood.
At around their fourteenth birthday the students would embark upon their final phase of structured learning as senior students with a wide choice of modules available. Some might spend a lot of time with work experience whilst others would complete pre tertiary modules in specific learning disciplines. The senior school Mentors would assist in co-ordinating the learning pathways and their case load would be lessened to fifty, due to the extra liaising with community groups and businesses as well as higher learning bodies like TAFEs and universities.
At a point between their seventeenth and nineteenth birthday the young men and women would be ready to spend a year or two, some calling this their gap year, to explore and experience the wider world, to partake in community service volunteer type projects, to spend time in an armed service experience or to be a Mentor’s assistant for a year or two, to go back-packing, picking fruit or getting involved in other country life, or just to have a holiday, possibly travel. During this phase there would remain a Mentor as there has been throughout their whole learning journey. As young adults the Mentors’ role is now more strongly that of a coach and confidant, an assistant, a person of the world who can speak of real life experiences and give wise counsel. The case load of the adult mentors would be fifty but they might be contracted part time and either have other employment or be retired from their usual work.