Case Studies

• Greengate Lane Primary School, Sheffield
• East Hill Secondary School
• Hunters Bar Junior School
• Shirecliffe Junior School (now Watercliffe Meadow)

Greengate Lane Primary School, Sheffield

The beginnings

The school was committed to a whole school approach and made sure that all stakeholders were aware and supportive of the activities.

CRESST and the staff at Greengate Lane worked together to identify a programme of activity that would address the problem and provide sustainable workable solutions.

This involved CRESST running their Conflict Resolution Education (CRE) programme, and training peer mediators to run a mediation service in school.

The training

A series of workshops and training sessions were run which included:

• CRE sessions with Y5 and 6
• Staff training on CRE
• Lunchtime supervisor training on CRE
• Peer Mediation training for Y5 and Y6

In the initial phase:

• 60 Children undertook the initial CRE training
• 40 Children undertook the Peer Mediation Training

The results

The Peer Mediation service is ongoing at Greengate Lane, and has become a permanent feature, with students in Y5 being trained to take on the Peer Mediation when they become Y6 students.

There are 10 active volunteers running the Peer Mediation service at any one time. The service is available to the 171 students of Greengate Lane, everyday. The 10 trained volunteers work in pairs on a rota basis, 1 pair per day.

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East Hill Secondary School

The Beginnings

East Hill Secondary School works with youth with moderate and severe learning difficulties. The school learned about the CRESST training and was very eager to try and address many of the conflicts that arise between students during the day, particularly during the break times and playground activities.

According to Melanie Turner, teacher and PSHE coordinator, "Pupils struggle with resolving conflicts and problem solving, but this isn’t a reason to give up and not help them learn these important life skills."

All the staff at East Hill were eager to explore the CRESST training for themselves as well as for pupils in order to address some of the conflict issues that arise in school.

The Training

A series of workshops and training was arranged with the school

• Staff training on Conflict Resolution Education
• Staff Training on Peer Mediation
• CRE and Peer Mediation training for 20 students

The results

14 students are now on the rota to deliver peer mediation during outdoor time, for the 120 students at East Hill. There are ten more students already volunteering for the next training.

For the past four or five weeks, peer mediators at East Hill have donned their bright red fleece jackets and watched for conflicts they may be able to help resolve.  All staff agree that fewer conflicts come to their attention than before.  Peer mediators are skilled in playing a role in successfully resolving conflicts that used to end up in offices of staff such as deputy head teacher Clive Rockliff

Some mediators expressed concern that this role would eat into their play time, but according to the East Hill Peer Mediator mentor, Tina Shirazi it is these same students that eagerly sign up for the next rota. This is in part due to East Hill's full support for the programme, the confidence and pride evident in the peer mediators, and the praise they get for their contribution

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Hunters Bar Junior School

Hunters Bar Junior School wanted to extend their existing peer support,
Playground Friends have been a feature in the Junior School yard for some time.

In spring term 2007 the staff at Hunters Bar invited CRESST to school to train their existing Y6’s to become Peer Mediators.

The school took on a whole school approach to conflict resolution education with teaching staff and support staff being offered training. Parents were also invited to participate in a series of workshops.

CRESST returned in December 2007 to offer top up training to the Peer Mediators and staff. In the summer term of 2008 staff at Hunters Bar undertook the training of the next wave of volunteers. This time the existing Peer Mediators were involved to give the new volunteers a true taste of what it’s like to mediate amongst your class mates.

Here are some of the questions the Y5’s asked us after their training

Q: What if you don’t get your mediation finished by the end of playtime?
A: You can carry on next break or the next day.

Q: What if one person wants mediation but the other doesn’t?
A: You can’t force anyone to have mediation, but you can persuade them.

Q: What if the mediation doesn’t work?
A: Mediations don’t always work, sometimes it’s best to agree to disagree.

This year we had great success being Peer Mediators, and we all hope next year will be as successful. We would like to tell you all about the job and try to encourage others to take it up.

When we started training we were all excited and nervous knowing we were going to be Peer Mediators. The training paid off and all of us enjoyed it. We have used the training to help with our own problems and situations we get into and we hope we can carry on in secondary school and use the skills for the rest of our lives. We can admit that at the beginning of the year we needed lots of advice.

Being a Peer Mediator makes you feel important and you feel really good when the mediation goes right and you gain the trust of the disputants. You are recognised by staff and seen as a better person to them. It has been good working in pairs and has given us chance to get to know other people on duty as well as people in other year groups. When we are not on duty talking to the people we have mediated has helped keep our trust and help them continue to solve their problems.  As a Mediator you feel much more grown up and important as you are sorting problems and are talked to like an adult. We have learnt how to listen really well and people have opened up to us. We feel proud for helping friends and setting examples to younger children. Friends are now sorting out their own problems, so now we don’t get as many arguments and that’s what we were after.

Below are some vital pieces of advice:

Always keep calm. If you get stressed or frustrated the disputants will probably get stressed too.
Don’t take sides. Even if you know one of the disputants.
Never force anyone into mediation
Never gossip at the mediation. It will give you a bad reputation.
Never tell the disputant off. They will feel intimidated and not want to come back.
Always carry a pen and paper with you when you are on duty
Always be ready for an unexpected mediation. You will be thanked, and importantly may be asked to do more in the future

Although it may seem like fun being a Peer Mediator can have some down points like when mediation goes wrong and the disputants get angry with each other, or when you can’t gain their trust and they won’t tell you properly about the incident.

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Shirecliffe Junior School (now Watercliffe Meadow)

In January 2008 Shirecliffe Junior School was preparing to amalgamate with Busk Meadow Nursery and Infant School and Watermead Nursery and Infant School to become Watercliffe Meadow.

Linda Kingdon (Headteacher) and her team have worked hard to develop the culture of the school community: encouraging pupils to be caring, tolerant and understanding of others and developing a sense of responsibility.

As part of this work CRESST worked with staff and students over the spring term, introducing Conflict Resolution Education and Peer Mediation to their then Y5’s.

With the support of learning mentor, Kath Brailsford, and other key staff the peer mediators at Shirecliffe were already helping fellow pupils sort out problems on the yard during playtimes by summer term.

“The training has increased levels of confidence. They have successfully resolved many fall outs which might otherwise have developed into a more major incident. I’m very proud of our team,” says Kath.

The Peer Mediators themselves have told us what they think.

“Peer mediation is cool like a cat. Since we’ve been here the fishes have calmed down a bit. I would love to do it for the rest of my life.” Jay

“It is great being a mediator because I like to see smiles on everyone’s face” Liam

“Peer mediation is a great experience because it can help people with their problems and you learn things that will stay with you all your life” Lucy

“Peer Mediation is really good. You get a lot of respect and it is fun helping lots of different people with their problems” Amber

“Peer Mediation is cool. It solves a lot of problems and it ensures kids are safe” Ibrahim

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