Third Meeting of the Peer Mediation Working Group

  REPORT BY VICTORIA HARRIS

The CMC Peer Mediation Working Group just held an exciting third meeting. They had great news to report from the Peer Mediation community: Many new members have joined the group since it was founded in February, Working Group Chair Ellis Brooks reported from a successful presentation to Scottish Parliament to promote Peer Mediation, Ben Harper will be taking on the Peer Mediation Coordinator role at Quakers in Britain and shared his 12-month work plan and CALM Mediation’s Dave Walker and Mel Bruce will be speaking at the CMC conference on 15 November.

The CMC Peer Mediation Working Group held its third meeting this year on 3 October. Exciting news were shared by the Group’s Chair, Ellis Brooks, that Quakers in Britain have appointed a National Peer Mediation Coordinator.  Ben Harper will be fulfilling this important role and it was good to meet Ben and to hear about his workplan for the next 12 months.

Since the Group first met in February 2023, many people have joined to learn more about how to make Peer Mediation a reality in their local schools. Training new trainers to deliver a high quality and sustainable programme for schools is a high priority for this group. It was great to be able to confirm that Ben Harper will be delivering this training in January in Bristol for a subsidised fee of £95. More dates and areas to follow.

The group also discussed how individual practitioners evaluate their work, going beyond collecting feedback, to gain a better understanding of the impact on schools and pupils. It was agreed that if we had three standard questions, to accompany any existing questions used by practitioners or required by funders,  that consistent evaluation would support a cohesive national picture of the value of peer mediation in schools.

Promoting Peer Mediation is always high on the agenda and as well as exploring future events to attend to raise awareness, the group heard from Ellis Brooks about his visit to the Scottish Parliament to explain the work of peer mediators and to help develop restorative schools.  We learned that the event was well received by MSPs and that First Minister Humza Yousaf also stopped by to find out more. Since the event Scottish Mediation are recruiting for a national Peer Mediation coordinator to further support Peer Mediation in Scotland.

Finally we would love for you to be able to join us at the CMC Conference on 15 November to learn from our experts, CALM’s Dave Walker and Mel Bruce about ‘How to make peer mediation cool in schools’.  The next CMC Peer Mediation Working Group will take place on 9 January at 2pm. Contact Victoria Harris at projects@civilmediation.org for more information on any of the topics in this report.