Peer mediators on the playground at Girton

STUDENTS at Girton Grammar’s junior school are honing their leadership skills in a new peer mediation program.

Twenty-four students will now be able to support their peers in the role of restorative peer mediator, a responsibility that involves supporting teaching staff to manage playground problems.

Deputy head of the junior school Viv Bath said the program is being trialled to empower students to solve problems and develop social and leadership skills.

The students were trained by Kristy Elliot from Restorative Pathways, a Melbourne based agency offering training programs in areas like relationship management and social and emotional learning.

During their training students learned new skills including empathetic listening, how to ask problem solving questions, and how to consider the perspectives of others.

Ms Elliot said it was important for students to learn and apply emotional intelligence in a range of contexts and this program provided a new opportunity to apply these skills.

“The Girton students were an impressive group of children who demonstrated great insight and emotional intelligence throughout the training,” she said.

The new RPM’s, who are all year 5 students, will assist their younger peers to find their own solutions to problems.

This initiative is linked to Girton Grammar School’s adaptation of the RULER approach which was developed at Yale University and teaches students to become more empathetic.

Three teachers from Girton will visit Yale at the end of this year to learn about new developments in the RULER program.