2 August 2023
“We’ll be there for you – just look for the pink jackets!” Girton Grammar School Year 5 students Steel Austin, Navya Dua and Izzah Hadi reassured their peers at a buzzing Junior School Assembly.
This week, Steel, Navya and Izzah are excited to hit the school playground with 21 of their fellow Year 5 students in the role of Restorative Peer Mediator (RPM).
Donning their eye-catching pink vests, the RPMs will predominantly work with younger children, supporting staff on duty by helping to manage any problems that may arise in the playground.
Girton’s Deputy Head of Junior School, Mrs Viv Bath, says the RPM program is being trialled in the Junior School due to its ability to empower students to solve problems, build relationships and develop their leadership skills.
“RPMs do not tell students what to do or give advice – they support younger students to find their own solutions,” Mrs Bath said.
“This is an important part of building problem-solving skills and resilience in our younger students, as well as leadership skills in our Year 5 students.”
The 24 RPMs have been trained by Mrs Kristy Elliot from Restorative Pathways, who travelled from Melbourne to spend a day with the students role-playing skills such as empathetic listening, considering multiple perspectives, and asking restorative problem-solving questions.
“The Girton students were an impressive group of children who demonstrated great insight and emotional intelligence throughout the training,” said Mrs Elliot.
“I found them to be incredibly kind and compassionate in their responses and problem-solving capabilities.”
Mrs Elliot believes the program complements Girton’s focus on emotional intelligence education as a cornerstone of its approach to student wellbeing in the Junior School.
“It’s important for students to learn and apply emotional intelligence capabilities in a range of circumstances and contexts, and the peer mediator program provides an additional context in which students can explore emotions and support their peers to do the same,” she said.
Since 2011, Girton Grammar School has used the RULER approach, developed by Yale University in the US, to help students learn how to be more empathetic and build positive relationships.
That’s why the RPM’s distinctive vest features one of the RULER program’s core elements – the Mood Meter – as a visual aid to help students express how they’re feeling based on four colours. Students and staff members plot themselves on the mood meter chart when the day begins and update their statuses throughout the day.
Three Girton teachers are set to return to Yale at the end of the year to ensure the School is abreast of any new developments in the RULER program.
