Amberley’s Story
This spring and summer, a group of young people from Ursuline College have been working hard on building their confidence, resilience and self-esteem with athlete mentor, and former Commonwealth gold medallist fencer, Claire Bennett on our On Track to Achieve programme. The wellbeing programme is designed for 11-19 yr olds who would benefit from the support of a positive role model to achieve their potential, and, thanks to the generous support from funder Peter Harrison Foundation, the young people at Ursuline College have also had the opportunity to spend time 1-2-1 with Claire working on their personal development plans.
The group joined together to deliver a fantastic social action project, helping year 6 pupils with their transition to secondary school, and also enjoyed an amazing day at Marsdon Airport where they were treated to a helicopter ride, archery lessons and learnt more about employment opportunities in engineering. Many amongst the group are now motivated to find out more about this route to employment!
We caught up with Amberley, from the group, to hear about her experience on the programme and what’s brought her to being part of it. She told us:
“I wasn’t very confident about being around people (before doing On Track to Achieve) but after the social action project where we stood up in front of a primary school to present a session on student transition, it made me feel more confident and helped me to realise I could do anything I put my mind to.”
In our recent survey of 2000+, 60% of young people told us that they ‘always’ or ‘often’ feel worried about maintaining good mental wellbeing. Amberley echoed these thoughts as she told us:
“I wish more young people had access to therapists and someone that they can actually trust to talk to.
I liked having someone to talk to in Claire, this programme has given me a lot more confidence and I liked doing the team building activities to make us feel better and stronger about ourselves.”
On the benefits of the programme, and the differences she feels she has noticed in herself, Amberley added:
“It’s made me focus more on sport, I’ve started going to the gym now and it’s helped me to feel more comfortable and confident in my own skin. It’s helped me to focus more in lessons. I was so naughty when I first started this programme but I realised that’s not the person I want to be. I now want to work hard for a good future for myself.”
Athlete mentor Claire has been impressed with her progress, she told us:
“Amberley really shone on our OTTA programme at Ursuline. She always engaged really well in sessions and grabbed the opportunity she had with both hands. She committed to the programme and pushed herself outside of her comfort zone in order to get the best from herself.
She participated so well in our social action project and had the confidence to speak out in front of the whole of Year 6 (which is something she would have found challenging to do before this programme), helping primary school students to transition successfully into secondary school.
Amberley is a kind and wonderful young person, I couldn’t be more proud of her perseverance and determination to achieve her goals and improve in every area of her life. Well done Amberley and well done to all students at Ursuline College.
I felt really honoured to be part of this special programme and it was so rewarding to see all students step up and deliver an incredible social action project at the end of the programme.”
Zoe Billings, lead teacher at Ursuline College, agrees that this has been a hugely positive experience for the group and Amberley, she said:
“The group really responded well to Claire. They have all been asking me each week when she is back in and when they have their next meeting etc. They really enjoyed being part of that transition project and given the chance I think they would have liked to stay longer and really engage with the Year 6’s. The fact they got up and shared stories, gave answers on the spot and spoke to staff is quite frankly amazing and they did this with no previous experience.”