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DELOITTE MENTORING SCHEME PRODUCES RESULTS AT HENBURY SCHOOL

Staff at Deloitte in Bristol are spending time away from their busy professional lives to help mentor students at a local secondary school.

The mentoring scheme is part of an initiative to help GCSE candidates at Henbury School who are assessed as being possible top achievers in terms of their potential to achieving five A to C grades.

Some 14 staff at Deloitte, from graduates to directors, act as regular mentors to individual pupils through the scheme, which is linked to the Excellence in Bristol Schools programme and is part of the business advisory firm‘s corporate social responsibility programme.

Teacher Andy Pryde, who co-ordinates the scheme, said Deloitte staff were helping students to work through some areas that could be improved and to tackle them from a new perspective.

“We have identified an issue with top achieving students managing stress and wanted to see what we could do to give the pupils the best possible chance of achieving their potential,” he said.

Involvement in the programme is open to all students with those interested being invited to a general get-together with the Deloitte volunteers. If they decide to join they are matched with someone they feel most at ease with.

Mr Pryde added: “The strength of this idea is that the mentors are from outside the school, a fresh pair of eyes and people with experience. The fact that these people, who are achievers themselves, want to work with the pupils makes them feel valued and supported.

“We already know it has had a very positive effect on the students and while it is difficult to quantify, it seems that students who have engaged with the idea, have benefited greatly, achieving more than those who did not take part.”

Andy Wright, a director at Deloitte in Bristol, commented: “Our staff are enthusiastic about the mentoring scheme and there is certainly no shortage of volunteers. In some ways it is a two way learning process that benefits everyone.

“We hope this year to get as close as possible to having one-to-one arrangements which we are convinced will make a real difference to the students who want to take part.”

 ENDS             15th November 2007

For further information please contact Neil Fraser, Sturgess Van Damme, on 01275 349011 or email neil@sturgessvandamme.co.uk