Improving SATs results, behaviour and parental engagement

Every Child Needs a Mentor

Every Child Needs a Mentor (ECNAM) is an award-winning mentoring organisation and a leader in using mentoring as a school improvement tool to accelerate whole school development in primary education.

ECNAM specialise in supporting school leadership teams who want to make significant progress in achieving their vision for school development. And by doing that, we help leaders create schools they are proud of leading.

Our programmes use a unique five-stage mentoring system to improve:

- SATS results.
- School Development Plans (SDP).
- Ofsted preparation.
- Student behaviour.
- Parental Engagement.
- Staff and student well being.
- Pupil Premium deployment.


Every Child Needs a Mentor is the leading whole-school improvement, mentoring programme provider. We are revolutionising how school leadership teams stimulate improvement in their schools. If you would like to find out how we could support your school, contact [email protected] / 0800 644 4881.

Follow @Mentoring4all

Website: www.everychildneedsamentor.com Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Image courtesy of supplier. Image courtesy of supplier.

Blakesley Hall Primary School in Birmingham has more than 600 pupils who are cared for by more than 60 teachers and support staff. Headteacher Mrs Phillips contacted Every Child Needs a Mentor (ECNAM) in the summer of 2014 with a very clear brief:

“We needed to raise the attainment and the achievement of our year six cohort by May 2015. This was a challenging cohort of pupils who, during their six years at our school, had significant issues with very poor behaviour, low levels of engagement, stilted progress, minimal parental engagement and who, as a result, suffered with a bad reputation.

“I felt strongly that as a collective whole and as individuals they were more than their reputation and searched for an innovative solution to turn things around for them during their last year of Primary school.”

A programme developed for the school

ECNAM worked with Blakesley Hall Primary school to develop a bespoke programme based on their needs and desired outcomes. Across three training session, 18 staff from various areas of the school were trained to be mentors including SLT, teachers, TAs and admin staff.

The programme made sure that all children in year six were given a mentor – not just the minority with challenging behavior. There were whole year group motivational presentations, professionals spoke to the children about their journeys to success, mentoring days were held with thematic learning, and pupils received group and one-to-one mentoring sessions. Parents were included in the process and a school governor attended to inspire the children.

Mrs Phillips said: “The result was tailor-made for the pupils and it inspired, reignited and energised the pupils, parents and staff from the outset and throughout the year. The staff training sessions, were always thought provoking and relevant.”

Class teachers reported noticeable changes in the children over the course of the programme, including:

    • More of an “I can” attitude towards their work (including in some very challenging pupils who have never shown this before).
    • Some hard-to-reach parents engaged with the programme, providing comments in the mentoring booklets for example.
  • A mature attitude towards tests.


An outstanding success

10 months later in May 2015, the year six cohort took their SATs and outperformed all predictions. The pupils were motivated, aspirant and supportive of each other – and parents were strongly engaged. The school reported no issues with bad behaviour for the entire year, and the children left the school as responsible citizens.

“I cannot recommend Every Child Needs A Mentor highly enough,” said Mrs Phillips. “In fact, we have engaged Herman and his team again for the next year six cohort – this time with a very different brief, but with the same high expectation in terms of outcome.”

Visit www.everychildneedsamentor.com/programme or contact [email protected] / 0800 644 4881 for more information.

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