Mentoring
Everyone needs a mentor at some point, but for students aged 14 - 16, the support of an independent listening ear can be invaluable and transformative. Our mentoring programmes are predominately 1:1 and face to face.
Years 10-11
Our Schools
The SATRO programme, which has been running for over 20 years, works with corporate, public organisation and community volunteers to provide mentors into schools across South Central England.
We work with schools who find that mentoring is a positive way to engage with local businesses and their local community whilst meeting the needs of their students.
The benefits are:
- allowing you to reach students for whom there is limited support or no other provision;
- improving student confidence and self-esteem;
- improving the learning environment, often for all, as mentored students become more motivated and focussed;
- providing links to local businesses and helping to meet Gatsby Benchmarks 3 & 5.
We ask each school to nominate a coordinator with whom we will work closely throughout the year. We ask that the school identifies the students they feel will most benefit from the programme. For example, most of our mentored students attract pupil premium. We then discuss each mentoring relationship with the coordinator in order to make a good 'match' between volunteer mentor and the student mentee. Each pairing will work together during the school term over an academic year.
Quote from a school: "The mentoring provides an extra layer of support and guidance for educationally disadvantaged learners. the needs of each of these learners differs greatly. The mentoring provides further guidance and focus for those who don't receive the same support as more fortunate peers. "
Our Mentors
Each SATRO mentoring programme is normally built on the partnership between a business providing volunteer mentors and the school with students in need of 1:1 mentoring support. We also work with community based partnerships attracting a range of SATRO volunteers from the local area.
We train our volunteer mentors in mentoring techniques and safeguarding and will carry out DBS clearance. Throughout the SATRO programme they are supported by our mentoring managers who are on-hand to assist and advise, as well as providing access to online resources.
Quote from a SATRO Mentor: "I thought it would be like Good Will Hunting. I thought that there would this maths genius who needed help setting their talent free, but she just needed to know that she was worthy of being listened to. So if you're thinking of volunteering go do it, it might just change lives."
Our Sponsors
Most of our programmes are sponsored by businesses who realise the benefit of facilitating these programmes within their companies. Mentoring helps them reach their CSR and social value targets as well as contributing to staff development. Mentors will often express pride that their employer sponsors such programmes.
We also work with Local Authorities and HEON (Higher Education Outreach Network - part of the Uni Connect Programme). For the latter we recruit from the local community attracting mentors from all walks of life.
We acknowledge our supporters: CarVal, Allianz, synamedia, Sanofi, Reigate & Banstead Borough Council, Waverley Borough Council, Thakeham and CISCO.
