Teenage mentors help keep younger pupils out of trouble

Training teenagers to act as "mentors" to younger pupils helps change the culture leading to knife crime, new research shows.

The Evening Standard has called for the widespread adoption of so-called "peer mentoring" schemes to teach children that respect cannot be won at knifepoint, and a government-commissioned report said today that pupils who were mentors and mentees "responded overwhelmingly positively to their experience".

Some 180 secondary schools are testing a scheme developed by the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. It involves training a group of older pupils to act as non-judgmental supporters to younger children, under the supervision of a teacher.

An evaluation by researchers at Canterbury Christ Church University said 92 per cent of mentees found the experience "very positive" and one said: "I thought someone would be telling me off, but it's different."

The reduction in bullying was marked. As a result, ministers will invest £3 million in peer mentoring schemes aimed at cutting bullying, suggesting attitudes to knives could be successfully targeted in future.

Children's minister Kevin Brennan said: "Role models play a huge part in how young people behave. They can promote an atmosphere of respect and maturity."

The report said mentoring had to be used with other measures, such as anti-truancy drives and the government's Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning programme.