Manav
Manav’s dad was seriously ill with cancer and Manav was repeatedly presenting as upset, angry and defiant at school.
In only session 2 of his pastoral mentoring Manav said he felt as if “a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders” as a result of being able to talk about his worries and feelings of stress during the school day. His demeanour was very quickly noted by his teachers to be much brighter during lesson times.
When his anxiety levels rose due to him feeling ‘out-of-contact’ with what was happening when at school whilst his dad underwent a serious operation, Manav’s mentor advocated for him to be able to call his mother for updates during his lunch break to ease his levels of stress. As a result of this Manav said "I feel much calmer."
Following work equipping him with strategies to stay calm, Manav, his teachers and mother all reported that his behaviour had settled and improved both in school and at home. Manav said, “I can look forward to the future because I know I'm not alone and what I can do to help me cope with Dad's illness.”
Manav’s YP-Core measure of emotional distress dropped significantly during mentoring from 26 (severe stress) at the start of mentoring, to 13 (moderate stress) at the end. This 13 point reduction in emotional distress demonstrated that a high degree of ‘reliable change’ had occurred which was just below the 14.4 measure of ‘clinically significant change’ for males aged 11-13 years. Manav also said in his feedback that he felt his learning had improved as a result of feeling calmer during his lessons.
*Names have been changed and models have been used to protect the identity of young people.