News Release, 5 October 2000
Following the development of peer support projects in schools across the UK over the last seven years, the first national peer support forum conference will take place on Monday 6 November 2000 at the London Voluntary Sector Resource Centre, London N7.
With bullying within schools, and a growing awareness of the pressures that school pupils can experience, sometimes leading to severe anxiety, depression or other mental health problems, schools are increasingly examining ways of providing support to pupils across all age groups. Peer support - training students, usually within secondary schools, to provide listening support to other students, many of whom are younger - is now seen as an important tool for promoting individual pupils' self-esteem and wellbeing. It has also been shown to improve the atmosphere of the school as a whole and reduce the number of school exclusions.
"We know that good peer support programmes work well," said Jo Scherer-Thompson, joint founder, Peer Support Forum. "But what we now need to do is to work out what is good practice on peer support - to ensure that all students are getting the best support that really will make a difference to their school, and to them as individuals. Then we can try and ensure that it becomes a standard part of every school - promoting the good mental health that will stand students in good stead for their future development."
The conference will establish the Peer Support Forum, a national network of statutory, voluntary and grass-roots organisations working with peer support in schools, to enable further development of good practice, accreditation of peer support training and national and international networking.
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For further information and interview requests contact please contact the press office on 020 7803 1105 / 1128 or email the press office
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