Mentors in Violence Prevention

In the past year, Elgin Academy has introduced the Mentors in Violence Prevention Programme (MVP) which is a programme made to explore different kinds of violence, particularly gender based, and how this can be prevented by the use of senior pupils teaching our Secondary one’s and two’s. As the government describes it, “The MVP programme supports young people to positively influence the attitudes and behaviour of their peers to tackle the issue of gender-based violence.” This allows the junior pupils to understand the gender-based violence they might face in their life, as well as the impact of using stereotypical language in their own vocabulary and in their actions.

The Mentors in Violence programme has been rolled out in various secondary schools in Scotland, following research which shows an increasing issue in Scotland of gender based violence, and with the knowledge that younger pupils are more likely to speak out about their own issues with someone in a closer age range to them than a teacher or parent. The programme allows the junior pupils an extra group of people to share their concerns with and have complicated conversations with. This idea is reinforced during the lessons in the hope that no one will stay silent about their battles.

This programme is taught every term, with a lesson for every Physical and Social Education (PSE) class in Secondary one and two. These lessons hold interactive videos, scenarios and games for the junior pupils to partake in. This allows the senior pupils to connect with these classes and bond with the junior pupils in order for this programme to be effective. The programme also explores other issues such as bullying, knife-crime and abusive relationships, along with an array of different scenarios the junior pupils learn about and understand.

Ms Morton, a support for learning teacher at Elgin Academy, claims that her favourite part of this programme is watching juniors engaging with the senior students, as they are able to have conversations about topics that they would not usually speak out about. She believes this is beneficial as they can be comfortable with seniors, in which the senior students can relate their own experience in order to support the younger pupils.

However, Ms Morton says that getting the senior students to be confident in the discussions is the most challenging aspect of MVP. As the training to become a mentor is a two-day course, involving the senior students learning all the discussions and lesson plans it can take this time for them to feel comfortable with such themes. Although, after these two-days she says she has seen students come out of their shell which gives great value to the mentors and also the junior pupils.

Furthermore, Ms Morton has already seen success stories with the programme, including a time when she witnessed a mentor helping two students contemplate how they can deal with situations such as name calling. This shows how students have already begun the discussion within each other and how this has helped their ability to speak to peers and work together as a team to handle different affairs.

For the future, Ms Morton and Mrs Milligan hope for MVP to become a rolling programme, meaning it will continue and involve each year group as there are topics which could be useful for every student. This will help the programme impact as many students into favourable conversations and new skills which will help them conquer situations in everyday life and for their upcoming adulthood. In the time ahead, the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme will keep evolving and impact every student here at Elgin Academy.

For those in 4th year interested in becoming a member, there will be applications coming up in the months ahead – please look out for these.