Iaşi Focus Group

Caerphilly Peer Education Pilot Crosskeys College

Trinity Fields is a special school and resource centre that was established by the County Borough of Caerphilly in 1998. The intent was to ‘break the mould’ of traditional special schools and create a 21st century ‘new model’ special school that included the development of a specialist community resource of the highest quality. Trinity Fields caters for children and young people with severe and complex needs, a learning disability, ASD, aged 2-19 and has130 planned places with pupils being drawn from all over the County Borough.

The school now has an established reputation as one of the leading special schools in Wales and is used extensively by the Welsh Assembly Government to help develop their SEN policies.

To realise its vision of a ‘new model’ school and resource centre, Caerphilly LEA developed 5 key objectives with the Governing Body in 1998 when the school opened. These express a vision for the school as a day provision providing, ‘excellent special education’, together with the development of a Resource Centre serving the whole of the Borough. The key objectives outline the role of the Resource Centre in developing:

• Leisure activities.
• Promoting the inclusion of young people with disabilities.
• Improving arrangements for the transition to adulthood.
• Facilitating improved joint working between the various agencies providing for children and their families with disabilities.

The following community services, delivered by the Resource Centre, are available to children, young people, their families and those who work with them, all over the Borough.

• Promoting Independence and Peer Mentor Support.
• Caerphilly Autistic Spectrum Service (CASS).
• Youth and Leisure Services.
• Trinity Fields Training Service.
• Trinity Fields Outreach Service.

A considerable number of Caerphilly County Borough schools and both local Colleges have either received direct support from the Resource Centre Services or their pupils have benefited from the services.

Over the last 6 years, Trinity Fields has participated in several successive Leonardo funded European projects. This has included the development of Peer Mentor Support programmes and led to the delivery of an accredited training course on a yearly basis to pupils attending Caerphilly Schools and Cross Keys College. More recently, peer mentors from the College progressed to become peer educators by participating in the Leonardo PIP project.

Promoting Independence based at Trinity Fields School and Resource Centre in Caerphilly, worked in partnership with Crosskeys College to enable a pilot peer education project to take place.

Four students who were originally trained as peer mentors in their previous schools by Promoting Independence were selected to work on the pilot. They have been actively engaged in peer mentoring opportunities through Promoting Independence in their spare time and at Crosskeys College. These four students (Becky White, David Wells, Davey Cavell and Charlotte Lippiett) attended peer education training in Antalya, Turkey.

The peer education pilot at Crosskeys College involved these four peer mentors, delivering peer education training to 10 students studying Independent Living Skills (ILS). These students have special educational needs and were selected by staff on the basis that they would benefit from extra tuition on the basic skills needed to succeed on a work experience placement.

The peer education session was delivered over three one hour sessions based on the three key principles outlined in the course framework delivered in Turkey:

• Communication skills
• Personal qualities
• Team work

The three sessions were delivered by all four mentors to the group of eight. The original plan was to split the group of 8 in half so that a group of 4 students would receive training delivered by 2 mentors. It was decided that the training would be more effective if delivered to a bigger group, making team games and activities more effective. To avoid anxiety on the part of the mentees due to having so many trainers, one peer mentor took a lead role and the other 3 worked with students that needed more help and when there were group exercises, each mentor worked with a group.

All three sessions were written by peer educators and observed by Nikki Bennett (Trinity Fields School).

Session 1

Session 1 was developed to serve as an introductory session incorporating communication skills. Peer mentors explained the course and why it was developed and conducted icebreaker activities to build a rapport with the group and make everyone feel comfortable.

Lesson Plan

1. Getting to know names (20 mins)
“I love you” game
Each student must say “I love…..but I cannot smile”. The blank can be filled with something or the speakers choice. If there is no smile or laugh response, then it is moved onto the next person. The person who smiles/laughs takes over.

2. Getting to know everyone better (15 mins)
Truth Game
Each person tells 2 truths and 1 lie about themselves and the next person has to guess which is the lie.

3. Introducing ideas about obeying commands. (15 mins)
Follow the leader game
Everyone has to follow an elected leader. The person who copies the action last is out and must sit down.

4. Wind down session and feedback (10-15 mins).

Session 2

Session 2 is based on personal qualities. This includes the qualities needed to succeed in the work place including confidence.

Lesson Plan

1. Name reminder game (10 mins)
Each person says their name while doing a memorable action. Remember something about each person from the previous session.

2. Personal Qualities (20 mins)
Sitting in a large circle, describe a quality each that you like in a friend.

3. Mr. Intelligence (10 mins)
Draw around a member of the group on a large sheet of paper. Write the important personal qualities needed to succeed in the world of work inside the person on the paper. Discuss as a group.

4. Post-it Person (10 mins)
One person stands in the middle of a large circle. Everyone takes a post-it note and writes a quality you need in the work place and sticks it on the person in the middle with an explanation.

5. Getting to know you (10 mins)
In pairs, one person talks for a minute about themselves and the other person listens. They then draw a picture of the person and write down what they can remember about them around the picture. Swap over.

6. Feedback (5-10 mins)

Session 3

Session 3 was based on team work. Students were reminded that team work is very important in the work place and the exercises related to this.

Lesson Plan

1. Name reminder game (10 mins)
Each person says their name while doing a memorable action. In pairs, remember something about each person from the previous session and reveal it to the rest of the group.

2. Clapping game (15 mins)
In a circle, one person starts with a clap which they pass onto someone by saying the persons name. That person then does the same, passing the clap around randomly and remembering people’s names.

3. Human Knot (20 mins)
In two groups, students start in a circle and with eyes closed reach for the nearest hand. Everyone holds hands with someone in the circle and then must un-knot themselves as a group without letting go of anyone’s hands.

4. Blind Square (10 mins)
In a large group, everyone closes their eyes and must work together to make a square holding hands.

5. feedback (10 mins)

EVALUATION

Mentee Evaluation

An evaluation/feedback session was held after every session. Students were given three spots to stand. One side of the room was for if they rated the course positively, the other side of the room was negative and the middle was undecided. Students could stand where they wished and then were questioned about what they did or didn’t enjoy. Evaluation were positive for every session. All students rated the sessions positive except one who was undecided for all sessions. He stated the reason as not enjoying one of the activities.

When asked what they did/didn’t enjoy, students enjoyed the games. The human knot and post it person were especially enjoyed.

Peer Educator Evaluation

The peer educators felt that the sessions went well and were very successful. They all agreed that over the three sessions, mentees had developed immensely in confidence. They were relatively quiet in the first session but by the third session, all students were participating and seemed to be getting a lot out of it.

They felt comfortable to ask questions and as they developed in confidence and were comfortable with each other, they were able to add opinions and talk about experiences.

When asked how the course could be improved, a peer educator believed it could be more related to the work place by recapping exercises and relating them to how they can be used at work.

Conclusion

The peer educators worked really hard to develop and deliver the course and did a fantastic job. The courses were well structured and related to the three main points; personal qualities, communication, team work. The peer educators related exercises to the work place to put the skills learnt in context and questioned the mentees to ensure their understanding.

The sessions were not at all patronising and as the peer educators were teaching students the same age as them this is something that can sometimes happen. The sessions were pitched the right level and were very well received by mentees.

Mentoring Project Holds its First Peer Educator Training Course in Turkey

"The first Peer Educator Training Course took place in Antalya, Turkey, in November 2008, as part of the Leonardo Transfer of Innovation-funded Peer Implementation Project (PiP), led by Gorseinon College. 22 Peer Educators from Wales, Turkey, Romania, Portugal and Belgium attended what was a truly amazing educational trip, made even better by the people we were surrounded by.

All the Peer Educators learned new mentoring skills and everyone found the course very successful. During the week we learned about the varied circumstances, which we all face in our work and this made for valuable idea sharing. We also took part in group-building exercises to understand how important body language is, and practised the new skills we learned on each other – such as ‘open questions’.

It was very helpful that some peer educators were bilingual and could translate, but by the end of the week everybody was using phrases from other languages!

As peer educators, we greatly appreciated the opportunity – a huge thank-you goes to all of the people who organised the trip for us and took part in teaching us our new skills. It was truly an unforgettable experience and we are all still in contact with each other almost every day." – Chelsey Howells, a Peer Educator at Gorseinon College, Wales.

Swansea Youth Action Network
Swansea Youth Action Network presentation
Knife Crime presentation

Peer Coaching at CDO NOORD

Who are we?

CDO NOORD is a center for working and learning. Our students are between the ages of fifteen and twenty. The center is located in Antwerp, the largest city of Flanders, Belgium. In Belgium the law states that every youngster has the obligation to learn until the age of eighteen. If parents want to provide home-education then that is allowed within strict regulations but for our students this is not an option so they have to attend school until their eighteenth birthday. For many students this is too much to ask. They look back on a series of negative school experiences and they can’t wait to leave the classroom. This is especially so for students with learning difficulties, students with emotional and or behavioral difficulties, students with language difficulties and marginalized students.

They attend lessons at the center during two days a week: one day of practical learning, one day of theoretical learning. Three days of the week they are or are supposed to be employed outside the center. We are a center for vocational training and it is our aim to help the students into employment. We offer courses in professional cooking, hairdressing, construction, woodwork, shop keeping, administration, running a snack bar and in industrial insulation.

Our target group

By the time the youngsters arrive in our center they often have very little self esteem, their school career has focused on everything they can’t do. They have problems adjusting to rules and regulations and they often lack the social skills to handle conflicts properly. These youngster form our target group. We want to focus on their competences and help them find out what they want to do with their life. It is very important to help them understand why certain skills are so important. For example: you have to learn to be punctual if you want to obtain and/or keep a job.

The gap between the social background of our students and our own social background is often enormous. Many students live in notorious parts of town and are streetwise. This is why we started working with what we call “peer coaches”, we use the word coach because it is a familiar sports term.

The selection of peer coaches

The teachers are the key figures in the selection of peer coaches. They observe our students during seven our eight hours a week and make a first selection. Our peer coaches are our more mature students, they are able to be punctual, they attend the center on regular bases and they have good social skills.

After this first selection every candidate comes to the two coordinators of the peer coaching project for an interview. During this interview we focus on the competences they gained outside the school. Some students are members of a sports club and have coached children, others have been active in youth work or take responsibilities in their own family such as looking after brothers and sisters or nursing an ill parent.

Those students who posses the necessary skills to start as a peer coach and who are prepared to work with us guiding other students can start their training. We organize a three day residential training where we use material developed during the Implementor project and additional material from other projects such as Me Myself I.

We also insist on sending every peer coach on a residential training abroad. We are convinced of the extra value that an experience like that brings, these European courses focus on the development of personal skills and on intercultural learning.

The work of a peer coach within CDO NOORD

After their first training experience each peer coach is linked to a youngster from the target group. Every week they have to organize at least one short activity with their mentee. This can be just a ten minute chat during lunch break but it can also be a sports activity during the weekend. The coach will try to help his/her mentee to develop the skills that are necessary to successfully complete their vocational training and/or to find a suitable employment.

To help the peer coaches we organize a meeting once a month. During this meeting they can ask for our help in guiding their mentee and they can exchange experiences.

The coaches can also organize activities within the center if they want to. This can be a football competition aswell as a Christmas party.

The most difficult thing about being a peer coach is the position in between teachers and students. The coaches take responsibility in the center and that makes them very special students, they have their own room and they attend meeting with some off the staff members. On the other hand they are still students who have to attends courses and during these courses they are just ordinary students.

We have one professional peer coach, this is a former student who is now an official staff member. He joins the monthly meetings and helps during the first residential training.

Main objective of the peer coaching program

Our main objective is to offer as many tools as needed to those young people who have somehow lost their way in the course of growing up. By focusing on the competences of the students we want to build up their self esteem again. These young people need to be convinced of the fact that they have good opportunities and that they can work on themselves in order to improve their social status.

In practice this means that the peer coaches help their mentees during their weekly session to keep them motivated and if possible to help them find (and keep) a job.

We strongly believe that an approach were young people support their peers can improve the changes of success of our mentees.