Gary was referred to us for mentoring in May last year. He was a very quiet and anxious boy, acting much younger than his age, and was worrying about to his impending move from primary to secondary school. We matched him with a mentor who, among other things, did the walk from home to school several times. By the time Gary started school in September, he was eager to go, confident about walking by himself and settled into school with no trouble at all.

There was an existing CAF and we attended the review meetings at school. By half term in the autumn the CAF was closed as all needs had been met.

The mentoring relationship continued and Gary and his mentor met at weekends every other week. We reviewed it every two months where we saw Gary growing in confidence and really benefitting from his time with his mentor. By mutual agreement, we held the closure meeting after 9 months, however at that meeting it transpired that while Gary was settled at school, there remained some behaviour issues at home which required further work. Gary is particularly interested in cricket, and Jason, one of our mentors who is a cricket coach, had just become available. So, we suggested that Gary might like a change of mentor and start working with Jason. He eagerly agreed to this.

Jason and Gary have now been meeting for two months over which time Gary has increased his understanding about his own behaviour, and the most recent diary said there had been no issues at home at all. Gary’s mother has also attended our Triple P parenting course and is benefitting from this. She said it is helping her to rethink her relationship with her son and is teaching her how to allow him to be more of a young adult rather than a child.