Education · Teachers
Safe mentoring and referral boundaries set out what an adult working with students may and may not do.
The boundary document for everyone who meets students through a GullyFuture programme — contributors, volunteers, facilitators and the school staff who coordinate them. Approved roles, supervised group formats, a single communication channel, and a referral in place of an opinion.
In short
Safe Mentoring and Referral Boundaries sets out the conduct rules for every adult who meets students through a GullyFuture programme. Mentoring happens in institution-approved roles and supervised group formats, with no private messaging and no one-to-one meetings. Disclosures and concerns go to the school's designated staff member, and needs beyond the role are referred, not advised on.
Why this matters
A rule nobody wrote down is a rule somebody will test
Most boundary failures do not begin with bad intent. They begin with a reasonable-sounding exception, made quickly, by somebody who meant well and had nothing written to point at.
The exceptions are where the risk sits
A lift home in the rain. A phone number given so a student can send a project. A private chat because the subject was serious. Each is defensible on its own, and each removes the supervision the whole arrangement depends on.
A student cannot be asked to judge what is appropriate
The adult carries that judgement entirely, including on the occasions when the student is the one proposing the exception, and including when the request is completely innocent.
Clear limits protect the contributor too
An adult who is never alone with a student and never messages one privately has a record that answers for itself if a question is ever raised about a session.
The relationship with the student belongs to the school
We bring a session and the people to run it. The continuing relationship, the follow-up and the duty of care stay with the institution, and these boundaries exist so that remains true in practice.
Referral is a boundary, not a refusal
A contributor who says that something needs somebody qualified, and names the person in the school who can arrange it, has done the right thing — including when the student wanted an answer instead.
What we cover
The boundaries, stated plainly
These are not aspirations. They are the terms a contributor is briefed on before a session, and the terms a school can hold us to afterwards.
Approved roles and an agreed scope
A contributor works to a role the institution has approved, on the topic agreed beforehand. Mentoring here means structured, group, time-bounded work — not therapy, not personal advice, and not guidance on medical, legal or financial matters.
Group and supervised formats only
Sessions run in approved settings with a school-designated adult present throughout. There is no one-to-one meeting with a student, in person or online, and no exception is made for a student who asks for one.
Screening and briefing before anybody meets students
Contributors are screened and briefed for the specific role before a session, including these conduct rules. The school approves who attends and may decline any contributor without giving a reason.
One communication channel, through the school
Arrangements travel through the school's coordinator. No personal phone numbers, no private messaging, no direct messages on any platform, and no following or accepting a student's account afterwards.
Gifts, transport, premises and social contact
No transport in a personal vehicle, no gifts, no money, no meeting outside the school's premises or hours, and no personal social contact with a student or with a family met through the programme.
Photographs and recording
Images are taken only where the school already holds the necessary permission, at the school's direction. Contributors do not store images of students on personal devices and do not post them.
Disclosures and mandatory escalation
A contributor who hears anything about harm, abuse, severe distress or risk acknowledges it, does not promise secrecy, does not investigate, and reports it to the designated staff member the same day. This is not discretionary.
Referral rather than advice
Where a need exceeds the role — clinical, legal, financial or personal — the contributor names the school's route or a qualified service and stops there. The school makes any referral, with the consents its policy requires.
In the session
How the briefing is run
A boundary briefing is short and specific. It is held with coordinators and contributors together, before the first session of a programme.
- A read-through of the conduct rules with the school's coordinator, line by line rather than as a summary.
- Scenario rounds: a student asks for your number; a student waits behind to tell you something; a parent asks for a private meeting; a student adds you online a month later.
- Agreeing the single communication channel, with a named coordinator and a named alternate.
- Confirming the designated staff member and deputy, and how quickly a report is expected to reach them.
- Walking the room a session will use, and deciding where a student who becomes distressed goes, and who takes them.
- A short written confirmation from each contributor that the conduct rules have been read and understood.
- A question round for coordinators on anything the school's own policy states differently.
What students leave with
Modest, and all of it observable
What a briefing produces is agreement in writing before anybody meets a student, which is the only point at which it is worth having.
- Every contributor can state the communication channel and name the person a concern goes to.
- The school holds the conduct rules in writing before the programme begins.
- Each contributor's scope is agreed and recorded, including what is explicitly out of scope.
- Contributors have practised declining an exception a student or a parent might reasonably propose.
- The school has a named complaints route, and knows it will be stated to participants.
Formats
Ways this can run at your institution
Pick what fits the group, the hall and the time you can give it. Most schools start with one session and decide afterwards.
Interactive workshop
Classroom-sized. Scenarios, discussion, reflection, and an action worksheet the student keeps.
Teacher orientation
For staff: facilitation, what to watch for, how to follow up, and where the referral boundary sits.
What the school provides
Most of what makes a programme safe is arranged by the institution before we arrive. These are the pieces we ask for every time.
Start a conversation- The name of your designated child-protection or safeguarding staff member, and a deputy.
- Your own safeguarding and visitor policies in advance, so the briefing matches them rather than replacing them.
- A single staff coordinator, who is the only channel between contributors and the school.
- A supervising adult present for the whole of every session, in the room rather than on call nearby.
- Image permissions settled by the school beforehand, with a clear yes or no before the session.
- A room that can be seen into, and a plan for where a student goes if they need to step out.
- Thirty to sixty minutes with the coordinator before the first session of a programme.
- Your complaints route, so it can be stated to participants rather than improvised after the fact.
Safeguarding
How sessions with students are kept safe
The boundaries above are the substance of this page. What follows is what happens around them — when one is broken, who records it, and how anybody raises a concern.
- Programmes are arranged through the institution and run in approved group settings, supervised throughout by a school-designated adult.
- No unsupervised one-to-one mentoring of a student, and no private messaging or personal contact between a contributor and a student.
- Contributors are screened and briefed for the role they are given, and may not use a session to sell or promote anything.
- We collect only the information a programme needs, and seek institutional and parent or guardian consent where it is required.
- A student's photograph, quote or story is used only with specific permission obtained beforehand.
- Anything touching safety, abuse, severe distress or self-harm follows the institution's own escalation and professional-referral process.
- A contributor who breaches these boundaries stops taking part while the school's process runs. That decision is the institution's, and it does not wait for an explanation.
- Incidents and concerns are recorded by the school in its own system. We record only what the institution asks us to, and we hold no file on any student.
- A student, a parent, a teacher or a contributor can raise a concern about a session. The route is the school's coordinator, or our contact page for anyone who would rather raise it with us directly.
- A contributor's involvement ends when the programme ends. There is no continuing contact with a student afterwards and no exchange of contact details for later.
- Contributors are briefed that they may not sell, recruit, fundraise or promote anything in a session, including their own work or organisation.
- Where a session runs online, it is scheduled by the school, joined from the school where possible, supervised by staff throughout, and never arranged directly with a student.
Privacy, consent and child-data wording on this site is being reviewed against current Indian law before any student information is collected. See our privacy notice for what we hold and why.
Questions
Questions schools ask us
Can a mentor meet a student alone?
No, and there is no version of the programme in which that is arranged. Sessions are group sessions in approved settings with a school-designated adult present throughout, and the same applies online. Where a student needs individual attention, that is your counsellor or another professional the school involves, not a visiting contributor.
Can students message a contributor afterwards?
No. Contributors do not give students personal phone numbers, email addresses or social media accounts, do not accept contact requests from students, and do not reply to them. Anything a student wants to send after a session goes through the school's coordinator, who decides what is passed on. This holds once the programme has ended as well.
What checks are carried out on contributors?
Contributors are screened and briefed for the specific role before they meet students, and the school approves who attends and can decline anyone without giving a reason. Screening is proportionate to the role and to what the institution requires. A school with its own verification or visitor requirements should tell us, and we work to those.
What happens if a student discloses harm during a programme?
The contributor acknowledges what was said, does not promise to keep it private, does not question the student further, and reports it to the school's designated staff member the same day. Your safeguarding process then owns it. Contributors do not contact a parent, do not investigate, and do not follow up with the student themselves.
Who owns the referral once a concern has been raised?
The institution. A referral to a counsellor, a health service or any other professional is made by the school, with the consents its policy requires. A contributor's role ends at naming that something is beyond that role and handing it to the designated staff member. We do not refer a student anywhere ourselves.
Can mentoring be offered online?
Only in the same supervised group form. An online session is scheduled by the school, supervised by school staff for its full length, and joined through a link the school issues. Contributors do not invite students to a call, do not hold one-to-one video meetings, and do not use personal accounts to arrange anything.
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About GullyFuture
GullyFuture is an initiative of Gully Future Foundation, Bengaluru. We design practical, age-appropriate group programmes and bring suitable educators, professionals and mentors to institutions that invite us. The institution provides the student group, the venue, supervision and the local context; we shape the programme and find the right people to run it.
We are not a tuition centre, a counselling or therapy service, a diagnostic service, a course marketplace, or a motivational-speaking business. We provide educational guidance and programme facilitation — not tuition, therapy, diagnosis, crisis care or guaranteed career counselling.
More about Gully Future FoundationPage review
Last reviewed . Guidance pages are re-read as programmes run and as rules change.
Bring this initiative to your institution
Send us your safeguarding policy and the name of your designated staff member, and we will confirm in writing how a programme would run inside it before anything is scheduled.