Mentoring 'can help pupils win university places'

Giving poorer children help through mentoring and extra classes improved their social skills and made them more ambitious, research has shown.

The study found a scheme aimed at 1,500 children aged eight and over in a deprived area of London had encouraged more youngsters to raise their aspirations.

An evaluation of the IntoUniversity programme, by the National Foundation for Educational Research, found the scheme was "having a positive transformational impact on children".

Kerensa White, one of the researchers, said: "We observed that IntoUniversity encouraged children and young people to aspire and progress to university, or another chosen educational ambition". The programme, which began in 2002, was aimed at children and young people who were most at risk of failing to meet their potential.

The Sutton Trust think-tank, which was the major sponsor for the scheme, called for the project to be expanded. Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said: "IntoUniversity provides a role model of how young people from deprived areas can be inspired to achieve their full potential.

There are lessons here for government, universities, local authorities and others who are seeking to tap fully the nation's talent in the hardest areas to reach."