Over the past two weeks, 75 Lower Sixth students have stepped up to train as Peer Coaches, launching our brand-new Merchant Taylors’ Peer Coaching Programme. Each Lower Sixth coach will be paired with a younger student in Fourth Form or Divisions, meeting fortnightly to support their wellbeing, academic progress, friendships, motivation, confidence—or anything else they’d like to explore. This marks the next step in our ongoing journey of embedding a strong, supportive coaching culture across the school.
We sat down and spoke with three of the aspiring coaches to understand why they wanted to get into coaching and what they are looking forward to.
Why did you want to get involved in the Peer Coaching Programme?
Udhay D. (L6th): I was mainly interested in it because coaching is a foundational skill. It’s important for younger people to speak fluently about their emotions, and being able to help your friends, overcome certain obstacles and ask questions of yourself are all really valuable skills. I believe reflection is the most important thing you can do, so the programme helps me develop that.
Ansh A. (L6th): Being able to ask yourself, “how can I improve?” or asking questions to get yourself to your aspirational destination is what coaching is all about. It really helps you to gather your thoughts. I really want to give back to the school and the younger years. I’ve been in their position and I would love to just give them give them some guidance and support on how to thrive in their younger years.
I think it's such a brilliant opportunity both for us learning how to work with students and for them to feel more confident about what they're doing. I think it's a learning opportunity for us and a formative experience for the Fourth Formers.
What have you all got up to at the workshops over the last few weeks?
Udhay: So, the first workshop was primarily just thinking about what coaching is and seeing the difference between that and mentoring. One of the big distinctions is how mentoring is kind of bi-directional, whereas coaching is more about asking them what they have done and helping them find ways to help themselves. We learned how it all kind of ensures that the person we are coaching and mentoring advances on the right path, but on their own. It’s about simply suggesting next steps and asking questions so that they discover what needs to be done themselves.
Ansh: I think it’s more of a guiding sort of process rather than telling. We’re trying to get the students that we’re working with to think of the answer themselves – it’s more organic this way. In the second session we just practised coaching skills with our peers.
What are you looking forward to most when you get paired up with your Fourth Form mentees?
Ansh: I can’t wait to be able to ask them questions, help guide them and discover themselves. It’s probably the most important part of what I’m looking forward to. Obviously, seeing them develop along the weeks and understanding the importance of reflection and being able to question themselves will be really powerful as well.
I think there are some brilliant young men in the Fourths. At that age, you tend to be quite ambitious but obviously - because you’re younger - you haven't had that much experience to channel that ambition. You're not completely sure of the path that needs to be taken to reach the destination.
Xander: I think it’s going to be really cool to maybe see myself in someone that I’m coaching and see someone else also take that path and succeed.
Finally, if you could be mentored by someone from throughout history, who would you choose?
Ansh: For me, I think it would be Isaac Newton.
Xander: I think it would be Wernher von Braun so he could talk me through how he led his team during the development of the NASA Apollo Programme.
Udhay: I’m going to go with Lebron James. I think his work ethic is amazing. Plus, if you’re able to play the way he plays at his age, he must know something. He must be doing something right and I’d love to know how he got over the obstacles in his career, to become one of the best, even arguably the best player in the NBA.
Find out more about the Coaching Culture at Merchant Taylors’
