MiniMentors is the sister programme to CyberMentors; which is an online mentoring service for secondary school-age children. MiniMentors focuses on friendship, respect and looking after each other and aims to increase the wellbeing of children whilst developing ‘soft skills’ around communication, interaction and behaviour, both inside and outside school.
The programme has been designed to link with National Curriculum PSHE and Citizenship objectives for KS1 and KS2 as well as with SEAL. It also connects with the Healthy Schools Standards for Emotional Health and Wellbeing.
MiniMentors understands that children go through a number of development stages and so we have created two separate programmes to cater for these needs.
KS1 Programme
The KS1 programme is a one-day programme aimed at children who are 5-7 years old. The focus of this programme is to teach children about the nature of good and bad friendships, bullying and online safety.
The programme has been designed to teach children through practical activities and creative play and the use of traditional stories.
KS2 Programme
The KS2 programme is a much more intensive programme which is run over two full school days. There is a lot more focus on the actual mentoring aspect of being a MiniMentor. This applies to mentoring conducted in a school environment and in an online capacity.
The training covers friendship, bullying, peer pressure, cyberbullying, confidentiality and online safety. The programme uses various techniques and activities to help children to gain an insight into how they can be advocates for children who may be less confident than themselves: thus building their self-esteem and self-confidence at the same time.