Member Article

Hill Dickinson hosts peer mediation training

Hill Dickinson’s schools’ team sponsored and hosted a mediation skills training session in association with TalkingWorks on 29 November. The one day session, which was attended by 26 students from two local schools, took place at Hill Dickinson’s Liverpool headquarters.

Founded by Janine Edge in 2009, TalkingWorks trains sixth form students in mediation skills through role-plays and interactive exercises. The one day session was coordinated by lead trainer Jackie Miller, assisted by Robert Still and a team of professional mediators.

David Rawlinson, Head of Hill Dickinson’s schools’ team and an accredited mediator, commented: “We are delighted to sponsor this mediation session in association with TalkingWorks. The training is excellent in giving students new skills with which to explore the resolution of internal school disputes and take into their future education and employment environments. It gives them the mind set to approach conflicts and disputes in later life in a different and less confrontational way.”

Janine Edge from TalkingWorks said: “Mediation is a way of resolving disputes with the help of an impartial person, which helps people reach their own solution. It is both a method of conflict resolution and a set of skills transferable to many aspects of daily life. We greatly appreciate firms such as Hill Dickinson which give young people in their community the opportunity to acquire these key developmental skills.

Suzanne Scriven, law teacher at Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy, commented on the session: “The mediation day was a great success. We spoke to our students after the session and they all said they found it very helpful and that they now understand how mediation works on a practical level.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hill Dickinson .