Life Skills mentoring course, is turning kids around

With so many young people demonstrating a complete lack of respect towards their
teachers and peers it was only a matter of time before communities across the country
would start experiencing increased levels of anti-social behaviour.

A dedicated group of professionals from teaching, policing and military backgrounds
decided to get together to design a mentoring course where these children would be
exposed to some of the important life skills that will improve their chances of becoming
successful members of their communities.

The Life Skills mentoring course is designed to develop such skills as: - vision, confidence,
motivation, communication, action, creativity, strategy, respect and trust.

Delivered over a flexible time frame of between 6 - 10 sessions, young people experience
a tough, direct, no-nonsense approach to life skills development where no excuses can be
used to bypass any of the material.

Key messages are continually driven into the students throughout the course with the
objective of providing the candidates with a clear understanding of what is expected of
them both at school and home.

In those situations where the child comes from an environment which is not supportive of
the correct life skills due the parents or guardians either not caring or understanding the
importance of this education, parental classes are provided.

The mentoring course was successfully delivered to a group of difficult children within
Bedford.  “The life Skills Project proved to be an invaluable intervention program for some
of the year 8 pupils at my school. Over a period of 10 weeks Gary worked with a group of
pupils who for varied reasons had become disengaged with school. Some of this group
had also become involved in some undesirable and often dangerous behaviour both in
and out of school”.

“Working on areas such as self esteem, attitude, morals, conflict resolution and target
setting I witnessed in the majority of pupils a significant positive change in both their
attitude to school and towards their fellow pupils and teaching staff. Feedback from
teaching staff and parents was extremely positive which is not surprising considering none
of these pupils have been in trouble since”.
said Darren Freeman - Head of Science & Key Stage 3

“This has been one of the most useful, valuable experiences of his time at Lincroft and
maybe his school life in its entirety. In such a short time S has gained confidence, realised
areas he needs to work on and it’s made him feel worthwhile again”

“We feel it’s a truly wonderful thing that Gary and your school have done to help the
children at this vital time in their development. I was at the end of my tether”
said a parent of a child that experienced the course.

As a direct result of the successful courses that have been delivered in several
Bedfordshire schools, numerous local authorities are looking into the possibility of running
the mentoring course within their areas.

The life skills team are calling upon the business community to support the mentoring
course as anti-social behaviour costs local businesses millions of pounds each year.

For further information on the Life Skills Mentoring course visit: www.lifeskillsforchildren.co.uk