Peer Support in Action

Peer Support at Longton High

Sonya Shabbir, Scott Barrett, Cara Shubotham and Rebecca Stanley
Longton High School, Stoke-on-Trent

Longton High School is a large comprehensive on top of a hill on a mostly council housing estate on the edge of Stoke-on- Trent. The building consists of a tall tower block and a maze of buildings on the ground floor.

The kinds of problems students face are racial and bullying problems such as harassment, name calling, violence and singling out occurring both in between lessons on the schools corridors, and during break and dinner. The school has had a few major racial disputes but mainly faced with minor disputes between students, which with the skills we have been taught through our training, we are confident to deal with.

Peer support began in 1997 when the school joined up with Walton High School, Stafford and Queen’s Croft Special School, Lichfield in a 2 year project funded by Barclays New Futures.

In 1997 teachers and students in year 10 trained in Re-evaluation Counselling and set up the peer support system which has been running ever since.

Every year since then a group of about 20 year 10 students have been trained to be buddies by the school counsellor Netta Cartwright and other staff to offer peer support to the other students in the school.

The peer support service has included over the years:

• A drop-in for students to have one-to-one counselling
• Buddies have gone into year 7 tutor groups regularly about once a week
• Leading anti-bullying PSHE lessons
• Supporting year 6 on induction days and when they start as year 7’s for the first time.

The current group finished training last half term and have go into year 7 tutor groups during registration once a week.

We hope to lead some lessons on citizenship in year 7 and year 8 tutor groups.

A new group of year 10s will be trained to work with us as apprentices in the Spring term.

What we’ve achieved

Through being a buddy at Longton High we have gained confidence and experience which we feel we can continue with through our careers. We have also gained friendships with the younger students to help them feel they can come to us as a friend and not just as a buddy. They understand we are here for them and to help them to get through problems and settle into their new school which they will hopefully find enjoyable.

What’s been easy:

We feel that forming bonds with the teaching staff has been easier than expected.

What’s been difficult:

We think overall the most difficult thing was getting the students to acknowledge that we are there to help them as well as providing a listening ear.

Best moments:

The best moments of being a buddy has been gaining the trust and friendship of the younger students. We feel they respect us and appreciate us, and look up to us, which helps us achieve the confidence we have. We also have thoroughly enjoyed our trip to London, where we met a lot of new, friendly people.

Worst moments:

As buddies we feel we have not crossed any really bad points. We feel that the worst moment is saying goodbye to the younger students when we leave Longton High in May 2005. This will be upsetting for us as we have gained a sense of responsibility as well as the friendship and respect of the teaching staff and the younger students. This will not only be the worst part of being a buddy but it will also be the most difficult for us, as saying goodbye is always hard.

What the students get out of it

The students feel that sometimes it is easier to talk to students of around the same age group than to teachers, this means even the students get a certain amount of confidence to talk openly to older students, even if it is just saying hello in the corridor, or talking confidentially to a single buddy or a group of buddies about problems they are experiencing. As buddies we offer a personal, confidential drop in centre that we operate once a week this is so students can openly talk and interact with us, having fun too. Students know they can talk to us during form registration which we visit every morning, when we are not occupied with prefect duties.

What we get out of it

Out of being a Longton High buddy we have experienced some truly amazing friendships and we get the sense of acceptance which help us with our growing confidence. We have been respected and have learnt a number of skills which will help us when problems occur involving ourselves when we leave.

All the buddies from Longton High would like to say a big thank you to some inspirational helping staff that have put us buddies on our feet and made being a buddy thoroughly enjoyable, so from us personally thank you.

The authors from left to right - Sonya Shabbir (1st), Scott Barrett (3rd),Cara Shubotham (4th) and Rebecca Stanley (6th)

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Last Update: January 16, 2005