Davitt College

Big Brother/Big Sister Mentoring

In 2004/2005 Davitt College introduced a mentoring programme. Students from First Year and Transition Year participate in the programme, which has been established to provide support for First Year students and help them adjust to school life at post-primary level. Each Transition Year student (Big Brother/Big Sister) is matched with a First Year student (Little Brother/Little Sister) according to individual interests and hobbies.

Training sessions were provided by Foroige personnel, whereby Transition Year students learned about the responsibilities associated with being mentors and First year students learned about their role as mentees.
All students come together once a week, between 1.00pm and 2.00pm when they have lunch together and get involved in sports, board games, music and projects. The mentoring programme has been successful because it has provided a support system for First year students, which has helped them settle in with ease to secondary school.
The programme has also allowed Transition Year students to develop communication skills and improve social competency, which are aims of the Transition Year programme.