What’s not to love about peer mentoring?

At FunKey Maths, we’ve advised hundreds of schools on how to set up a successful maths peer mentoring scheme. Maths peer mentoring works in primary and secondary settings and is a joyous win-win-win for students, teachers and the school.

If you set up your programme in the right way, you can expect an uplift in maths scores and improvements in self-esteem, social confidence and oracy for mentors and mentee.

Teachers also report that there can be positive changes to mindsets in mentors who witness first-hand a younger student making mistakes but then making progress through repeated practice.

Maths mentoring is an effective way of tackling maths anxiety. A child with maths anxiety will engage in maths activities much more readily with another child particularly if the learning is based around games.

Older children in primary schools are a huge untapped resource and have so much to gain themselves from taking on a maths mentoring role.

Contact us to talk about peer mentoring at you school

An external evaluation of the FunKey Maths peer mentoring programme shows that mentees make really good progress in the targeted maths areas, and their confidence in all areas of maths improves. Teachers also report significant other benefits for mentees, such as improvements in self-esteem, social confidence and oracy. The mentors also benefit hugely. Becoming the “knowledgeable other” develops confidence, empathy, communication and leadership skills. In many schools children are chosen to work as mentors as a way of tackling low self-confidence.

Teachers also report that children who have taken on the mentor role improve their scores on reasoning papers because they are required to articulate mathematical thinking on a regular basis with the younger child.

The FunKey Maths mentor training programme is challenging and inspiring. Children respond so well to the responsibility and trust they are given as mentors. There are hugely positive impacts on mindset and metacognition.

“We had a pupil premium review in school today and I know they were very impressed with the impact FunKey Maths peer mentoring is having. I honestly think it’s one of the best interventions we have!”

Jane Robinson
Brunel Field and Ashley Down, Bristol

How does FunKey Maths peer mentoring work?

Our resources are designed for use by mentors aged 9+ but can also be used by teachers, teaching assistants or volunteers in school, and parents at home.

Training your mentors is the key to setting up a successful programme.

If you would like to join one of our online training programmes, please contact us here. We offer training and support to help you get going with peer mentoring and to support you in your first year. Packages start from £350. This is a one-off fee as once you are trained you will be able to run the programme year after year without needing further input.

The training for mentors helps students think about the strategies and language which will motivate children to learn, how best to encourage learners and how to correct them sensitively. The training also explains how memory works so that mentors understand the importance of repeating activities to embed learning. Exploring leadership skills is also part of the training.

“FunKey provides a very low-cost and highly effective peer-teaching intervention for KS1 children who are not meeting age-related expectations in mathematics.”

Dr Marcus Witt
External Assessor, University of the West of England.

“It’s taken a load off my workload with the lower attainers – the repetition has worked so well and they are applying it in lessons.”

Sara Phillips
TA in Year 2, Ledbury Primary

Once trained, mentors can work with minimal supervision

You can train any number of mentors. Some schools start with a small group of six mentors, while other have started with groups of 20. Some schools have even experimented with whole class mentor training as they have found the training to be beneficial for building positive relationships within a class.

Once mentoring is underway, it should always be 1:1 and the mentor/mentee pairing should be stable to allow a relationship of trust to develop. Mentoring sessions can be as little as 10 mins. Ideally there would be at least two sessions per week. For mentees from KS1, we recommend at least three short sessions a week. These can be timetabled flexibly.

A school wanting to introduce maths peer mentoring should identify a member of staff who will be the peer mentoring champion and lead the programme. This staff member takes responsibility for training and co-ordinating the mentors, identifying the mentees and supervising sessions.

How we support schools with maths peer mentoring

We developed our maths peer mentoring programme with the help of charitable funding from Nesta’s Maths Mission. Over the last ten years, we have seen the transformational effects of maths peer mentoring on many young children and we want all schools to benefit.

We are sure you will be delighted by the energy and enthusiasm you see in mentoring sessions. Children engage so positively with each other in a structured 1:1 setting. The positive relationships mentors build with their mentees transform children’s attitudes to maths and open the gates to progress.

“I was gobsmacked how good she was. She could have been employed.”

Lisa George, Deputy Head,
Port Talbot, about a Year 5 mentor

“It’s given him the words and the way to be positive with someone.”

Joy, Maths Lead,
Port Talbot, about a Year 5 mentor

Funkey Maths and peer mentoring