Principal's Reflection - 20 February

Having Good Mentors

You may be aware that since last year, students at St Luke’s undertake The RITE Journey during Year 9. The RITE Journey is a pastoral program that supports our young people through adolescence using mentoring, reflection, and shared experiences. Today, our Year 9 students participated in the Calling and Departure ceremony. This is the first major event in the RITE Journey and is a special time, shared with family, as students symbolically reflect on their childhood and take their first steps toward adulthood. 

Researchers such as Steve Biddulph, who authored Raising Boys and Raising Girls, among many other influential works, have demonstrated that teenagers have better outcomes as young adults when they have access to multiple adult mentors outside their immediate families. Beyond good outcomes, other authors (Bowers et al., 2015, Pekel et al., 2018) have described supportive relationships with non-parent adults as absolutely essential to the healthy development of adolescents, as these relationships promote resilience and confidence, and protect against negative developmental trajectories. 

While it is widely accepted that non-parent mentors are critical for children over the age of about 13 years of age, it is also the case that the number of young people who have no adult mentor except for their parents or carers is unfortunately increasing. When I think back to my youth, I had many caring adults around me besides my parents. Coaches, church elders, neighbours, aunts and uncles were readily available, and I spoke with many of them on a daily or weekly basis. I suspect that most parents and carers in our community would also be able to name several adults from their youth who were positive influences in their lives. Sadly, more and more young people report not connecting regularly with adults outside their immediate family. A 2023 study by MENTOR found that almost 40% of 18 - 21 year olds reported having no mentor growing up. There are many factors put forward to explain the growing mentoring gap; impacts of COVID-19, the shrinking of community life outside of immediate family, and growing tendencies for people to only associate with others who share similar ideas are just some of them. Whatever the reason, it is important to try to reverse course in this regard. 

One requirement of the RITE Journey is for students to identify and connect with an adult mentor besides their parents. We also encourage students not to pick a member of the St Luke’s staff, though sometimes this is unavoidable. As above, some students find identifying a mentor to be a challenging task. For parents whose children are not yet in Year 9, I encourage you to consider who your child’s adult mentors are or what adult connections they have that might grow into a mentoring relationship. These people will become extremely important to your child when they reach adolescence. The RITE Journey creates purposeful opportunities for students to build meaningful relationships with trusted adults. Through guided conversations and reflective practices, students are encouraged to expand their network of positive role models beyond parents and teachers, strengthening their sense of belonging, resilience, and identity as they navigate adolescence with greater confidence, purpose, and emotional maturity.

Last year, I witnessed the incredible growth of our Year 9 students as they progressed through the milestones and completed the program. This year, I have a child in Year 9, and I am excited to experience the RITE Journey from the other side.