'School's mentor scheme has boosted our confidence'
BBCTeenage boys say a school's mentoring programme has boosted their confidence, taught them valuable skills and connected them with trusted adults for guidance and support.
GOAT Boys was launched at Brighton Hill Community School in Basingstoke, Hampshire, after some students said they did not have a trusted adult to speak to outside their family home.
The scheme brings together boys in Years 9 and 10 with volunteer mentors from across the local community.
Once a month they meet to talk, hear from guest speakers and develop ideas for projects, creating connections that school leaders hope will stay with them long after they leave the classroom.
The scheme was created specifically for male pupils after being inspired by the Netflix series Adolescence, which prompted a national conversation about the challenges social media and online influences can pose for teenage boys.
It was also shaped by Sir Gareth Southgate's Richard Dimbleby Lecture, where the former England manager spoke about the need to support young people, particularly young men, to make positive choices and not be afraid of failure.
Deputy head teacher Pete Beeching said the growth of the GOAT Boys initiative – which stands for Greatest of All the Boys – had been "remarkable", with 86 schools across the country now set to adopt the programme.
It comes after the response from the community far exceeded expectations.
"We thought we might get 10, 15 [mentors] at a push - within a month and a half we had 107 sign up," he told the BBC.
Those mentors include tradespeople, former students, counsellors and local professionals, all volunteering their time to support the next generation.
"We know that our young men are battling a landscape now which is as challenging, if not more challenging, than ever before," said Beeching.
Jack, one of the boys taking part, said the experience had made "a huge difference to a young lads like me".
"I got involved because it gave a perspective of learning new, valuable skills that I can take into the outside world that I can learn and build on and take from our mentors who are so successful," he said.
For Cayden, the scheme gave him the chance to speak to someone outside of his family.
"There's limits of what you can say to your family... [the scheme] gave me someone else to open up my feelings to and to talk to about anything."
He said the mentors had "given me more drive in school to be successful".
Beeching believes young people are facing increasing pressures and that trusted relationships can make a difference.
"Young men are facing the same battles they have done for decades and decades, but the problem is now there are more pitfalls and those cracks are wider than ever so people are falling down those cracks more often," he said.
"I hope we're providing a model in Basingstoke which can go far and wide because I think young men, given the right platform, just like our young women given the right platform, can go on to be hugely successful, more so than generations gone by."
