This year we are introducing the concept of Peer Mediation into the school.
Peer mediation is the idea of pupils resolving problems themselves with the help of other pupils. It is a process by which two or more pupils involved in a dispute can meet in a private, safe and confidential setting to work out problems with the assistance of a trained ‘senior pupil’ mediator.
This does not replace the teachers’ or the school’s responsibility to sort out problems within the school…it just adds an extra level to our ability to resolve playground issues…it allows us to give more ‘ownership’ of the school to the pupils and to teach conflict resolution skills to the children which will hopefully help them throughout their lives.
All the staff have been trained in Peer Mediation through our involvement with MFT (Moving Forward Together - local schools working together) and Miss McCurdy has trained Primary 7 volunteers in the programme.
Peer Mediation is NOT for serious discipline infringements and Miss McCurdy will be closely supervising the programme to ensure that the minor disputes are resolved fairly and reasonably.
The sorts of issues that Peer Mediation is designed to resolve are…
• friends falling out,
• people not following the rules of playground games and
• pupils feeling excluded from playground games.
