Teaming up teenagers and young pupils in Forres

A mentoring system which pairs teenagers with much younger children is about to expand to Forres.

Both Forres Academy and Applegrove Primary will take part in the Growing2gether programme next year.

Its aim is to match up a group of older and younger pupils so that eac benefits.

The teenagers, who have become disengaged from education, gain in self-confidence and skills.

Meanwhile, the young children, who have been identified as needing extra help, gain a role model.

The two groups will be carefully paired up by the staff at Growing2gether

The academy pupils will then visit the Applegrove for half-a-day a week over the course of 18 weeks,

Growing2gether, since it was founded in 2017, has reached more than 1700 youngsters across 13 different schools in the north of Scotland.

Based in Findhorn, the charity began working at Elgin Academy in September.

Kyle Scott, Elgin Academy's head teacher, said: "Growing2gether is hugely appealing to our school as it meets the needs of a targeted group of pupils.

"It will provide an opportunity to achieve but, more importantly, to develop skills that will help them in future."

While on the programme, the young people have the opportunity to earn a Level 4 SCVQ in Personal Development.

A spokesperson for Growing2getherwe said: "We are delighted to be working in our local community.

"This is the only programme in Scotland to connect young people to their community by pairing them as a mentor to a child needing additional support."