Why Fife is first in Scotland to roll out peer mediation training across schools

It’s basically a crash course in emotional intelligence - teaching young people how to deal with conflict in a non-violent and constructive way.

I went behind the scenes at Kirkcaldy’s Balwearie High School to see what training is like and get an idea of what the programme will look like when it’s rolled out.

Fife Council and Scottish Mediation have paired up to bring the training programme into the Kingdom's secondary schools, following on from three years of primary school partnership.

On a sunny mid-June day, more than twenty S5 students volunteered to receive training to become peer mediators next term. Jennifer MacLaren, S1 deputy head teacher at Balwearie, said the training programme is about student empowerment. She believes that pupils are more likely to open up to older students they look up to as opposed to traditional guidance services.

“Peer mediation is crucial because young people really need to be equipped with these skills,” Patsy Wright-Davis, principal teacher for enhanced provision at Balwearie, added. “We’re finding time and time again that young people just don’t have these skills to resolve issues, and I think the young people realise there’s a need because we had so many volunteers who have come forward and want to get involved in the project.”

The training programme itself could be called a crash course in emotional intelligence. The students were taught how to speak about their feelings and emotions that conflict can bring up, and also how to solve them without violence or aggression.

Over the two day course, they were asked to role play peer mediation scenarios and solve situations on their own.

“We’re peer mediators and we’re here to help you sort through this conflict,” S5 student Tia Fury, 15, stated - kicking off one of the role plays.

For each mediation, students laid down some ground rules. Youngsters in conflict are asked to not speak over each other, to be respectful of one another, and not to assign blame.

In turn, the mediators are now allowed to take sides, they are not allowed to offer solutions, and they pledge to keep the session confidential unless they feel a teacher needs to be involved. “We can’t offer any solutions because we’re just here to facilitate conversation between the two of you and not to solve the conflict for you,” S5 student Lucy Peat, 15, said.

In the fake scenario, Ms Fury and Ms Peat played the role of peer mediators while S5 students Jess Laing, and Abbey Fowler, both 15, pretended to be two friends in conflict. The mediators asked about what happened and how it made each girl feel. They dug into why each girl has acted the way that she has.

“Is there anything you think either of you could do that would help the situation?" the mediators ask. “Is the solution something you can both agree on?”

After the scene, Ms Fury explained that she imagines the peer mediators can help resolve low level conflicts like this and free up time and space for guidance services. “It takes a lot off of guidance’s shoulders so if there’s anything more serious it’ll be handled better in guidance,” she said.

S5 student Lila Woods said it is a much needed programme for people just coming up to high school

“It can be really confusing and scary time. I feel it’s important that they have someone they can talk to ands that includes students,” she said.

Delta Wilson, 15, S5 added: “It’s good that it is S1-2s who we’re talking to and they’re talking to us because we’ve just been there - we’ve done all of that. We’ve got it fresh in our memories.”

Ms MacLaren said that the peer mediation service will look to get off the ground in August when the schools new promoting positive relationships policy is relaunched. For now, these training sessions are laying the groundwork.