The introduction of "peer mediators" at Bradford's Challenge College to help younger pupils to sort out their problems and keep an eye on activities during breaks and lunch periods might seem to many people to be not unlike the idea of prefects and playground monitors with which earlier generations are very familiar.

However, many an old idea is well worth recycling in new garb, especially when it is accompanied by special training. This is an initiative to be applauded. The staff will no doubt find it a great help to have these mediators working at grass-roots level to appraise difficulties as they arise, serving as their eyes and ears and bringing to the attention of teachers only those problems they feel unable to deal with themselves.

From the point of view of younger pupils, it might well be very comforting to have people closer to their own age group to turn to, easily available and identifiable in the playground and around the school. Youngsters will often confide in their near-peers rather than in their teachers, particularly if they have the aura of responsibility and authority about them that the 15-year-old mediators bring to the task after their training sessions.

However, the benefits work both ways. The young people who have volunteered for these extra duties will hopefully gain quite a lot from the experience themselves. It will help to develop their sense of social responsibility and their skills as mediators, and encourage the sort of conciliatory attitudes which might well stand them in good stead later in life.