Holyport-Eton Mentoring Programme

For the Holyport-Eton Mentoring Programme (HEMP), a team of Eton Year 12 students host a series of academic stretching sessions for Holyport Year 8 students on Tuesday evenings throughout the school year.

The sessions are devised by the Eton students themselves to promote discussion, and tend to focus on off-timetable disciplines such as ethics (prison, death penalty, the “trolley problem”), philosophy (thought experiments), “fun” maths (probability, the Fibonacci sequence), linguistics (deciphering an invented language, the art of translation) and creative writing (writing a play). At the end of the year, Eton mentors encourage their mentees to come up with their own material at the end of the course – sometimes but not always drawing on one or more of the year’s sessions - which they present at Eton in front of mentors and parents.

Impact

The Holyport students respond exceptionally well to activities they know have been devised by their mentors. Many hitherto shy and retiring students come out of the shell by the end of the course, all become more confident about expressing their views in public, and although it is a daunting prospect for them, they feel a real sense of achievement once they have delivered their end of year presentations. 

 “Thank you for organising the HEMP sessions! I have enjoyed the challenges and meeting people I hadn’t really had a chance to speak to before.”  Holyport Y8 

 “It’s amazing how much our students look forward to these sessions”. Holyport teacher 

 “HEMP is the most worthwhile activity in a given week. It’s so refreshing to get out of school and spend time with such receptive kids”. Eton Y12 

 “What strikes me most is that the mentors enjoy these sessions as much as the mentees. I’d like to think it will equip students from both skills with some very important skills”.  Eton teacher