Developing Role Models: Peer-Led Mentoring in Schools (X3257)

15 credits, Level 5

Spring teaching

The Role Models Project is a peer-led mentoring project, training students to create and facilitate workshops for groups of young people (aged 12-15) at BACA (Brighton Aldridge Community Academy), a local secondary school.

The aim of the Role Models Project is to provide young people in the local community with role models, a safe supported space to be listened to and ask questions, and an appropriate environment in which to engage with important PSHE topics. We deliver 1-1 workshops with Sussex students and young people to enable the peer-mentoring element, rethink traditional education models and focus on small group work and conversations.

‘Developing Role Models: Peer-Led Mentoring in Schools’ is the second module in this area, and can be taken independently or as a follow up to ‘Discovering Role Models: Mentoring’. This second module allows you to create more in-depth workshops, with a focus on developing the young people’s agency and critical thinking.

The topics and type of workshops created will be led by what you are passionate about within the broad PSHE framework, “what you wish you’d known”, your reflections and feedback received on the Autumn term, and what the young people at BACA feel is relevant and interesting to them. Themes in the past have included gender identity, sexuality, relationships, the media and more.

On this module you will be asked to bring your passion, ideas and reflections on your own experience. You will build your skills and confidence in participatory facilitation and working with young people. You’ll explore the project’s social pedagogic theoretical framework and topic-specific training, as well as essential safeguarding and boundaries training.

This will enable you to combine academic learning with practical application so you can research, design and deliver workshops as a team to the young people at BACA, and become involved in a national dialogue on PSHE education.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 36 hours of contact time and about 114 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2022/23. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.