Bellbrook Middle School highlights peer tutoring, mentorship and mental-health peer support programs

Bellbrook Middle School staff and students presented four programs they said promote student leadership and peer support: a peer tutoring program, an eighth-grade mentor program for incoming students, Hope Squad for mental-health peer outreach, and the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS).

"Kids helping kids" was the theme the principal introduced and staff detailed how the programs operate during the school's Eagle time. Lindsay Allen, a middle school teacher who oversees the peer tutoring program, described tutors helping classmates in intervention and in the main peer-tutor room where teachers can assign students who need study time or retake preparation. Former peer tutors and current students gave examples of academic improvement credited to tutoring.

Assistant Principal Scott Killen described a new eighth-grade mentor program that pairs older students with incoming sixth-graders to ease academic and social transitions. Killen said the plan calls for small mentor groups and repeated contacts through the school year to build confidence and familiarity with routines such as retake policies and hall passes.

Ben Trick, Hope Squad advisor, said the program is student selected and meets twice a month to train peers in Question-Persuade-Refer (QPR) techniques, to spot signs of students in crisis and to route referrals to counselors. "We bring students in who are student selected ... and we go through the Hope Squad program and we try to teach them how to help their peers who may be struggling with their mental health," Trick said.

NJHS advisors described applications and committees in which students raise funds, run spirit and positivity campaigns, and propose projects such as mapping a two-mile cross-country course on school property or updating the on-campus frisbee-golf signs. Advisors said NJHS provides leadership experience and community-service requirements that prepare students for high school National Honor Society paths.

Board members thanked staff and students for the presentations and for building a culture of student support and engagement.