My role as an SPT mentor entails me working with year 9 students, who all have the potential to progress into Higher Education. I work alongside another mentor to create lesson plans, ensuring we deliver a selection of collaborative and engaging activities. I have met my group over a period of 6 weeks and each week is exciting to teach. From a week on showing them a day in the life of a student, to making paper money and working on budgeting as a student.

The most rewarding aspect of this job is being able to show young people that they can achieve anything that they set their mind to, whilst giving back to my local community. It is always enjoyable when I receive positive feedback from the group, knowing they found a session informing. This is the reason why I applied to be a mentor, I value building sincere relationships and being able to support others.

Every session is unique. As well as informative, it is important that the students have fun. A session that my group particularly enjoyed was the Day in the life of a student. The students played a game of ‘timetable bingo,’ showing how different time management is at university. Another activity was a truth or myth-based exercise, where they stood if they thought it was true and sat if it was false. This got the students active, whilst also learning about what a student lifestyle may be like.

This role was everything I expected and more. It gave me the opportunity to show the students the value of higher education and that it is accessible for them. The highlight of my time as a mentor has been getting to know the students and being able to raise their aspirations whilst developing my own confidence.