Schools meet for Dragon’s Den presentations

The mid-point events for the AQA Unlocking Potential school programme took place in Reading, Milton Keynes and Manchester in March as schools from different parts of the country took part in a Dame Kelly Holmes Trust style Dragon’s Den to pitch their social action projects.

AQA Unlocking Potential is a transformational mentoring programme for students aged from 11-19 years of age, delivered in partnership between education charity AQA and Dame Kelly Holmes Trust. The programme puts athletes' shoulder to shoulder with young people, aiming to raise student's aspirations and expectations for future life goals, equipping them with a winning mindset that’s ready to achieve. Whether that’s moving from school to Further Education, Further Education to Higher Education, or into training and employment, our athlete mentors will help students move forward with confidence.

Roundhay School in Sheffield has been part of the AQA Unlocking Potential programme for several years now and has seen the immense benefits it brings to young people.

Tim, who leads on the programme at Roundhay said: “We have been a part of this programme for several years now and it is something that we are delighted to offer as part of our character curriculum. It is rewarding to see the pupils make so much progress in terms of developing their own skills and confidence throughout the programme. This is a truly life changing experience for young people, not just a brief school intervention, but one which has long term impact with positive end results and fond memories.”

Speaking about the progress his students at St. Lawrence Academy and Lawnwood, Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, athlete mentor, James Kirton said: “The students have been a pleasure to work with so far. The engagement from both schools has been great from Day 1, and the progress has been particularly impressive. The creativity shown in the social action plans, along with the self-motivation to get them off the ground, has provided a strong foundation for a successful journey ahead. Additionally, all of the young people have been highly focused on the self-development aspect of the program, reflecting on their experiences and planning to implement changes that will help them improve both in and out of school.”

In Kent, Claire Bennett has been working with Chatham Grammar School for girls: “They have connected through shared experiences and have supported each other throughout the programme. I feel proud to have seen their growth and development throughout each mentoring session. Their social action project will continue to have impact far beyond the programme and the skills that they have developed, confidence, and an ability to speak openly and vulnerably about the challenges young people face, is inspiring.”

Since the programme started in September, schools have been working with their athlete mentors to identify, plan and execute a social action project that will help within their local community.

Roundhay presenting their social action project

Dragon’s Den designed to improve young people’s confidence

With the help of AQA volunteers, Dame Kelly Holmes Trust Trustees, and athlete mentors the young people presented their projects. This can be a nerve-wracking time for the young people, but this opportunity is one of the many the programme offers to help young people develop skills that will help them progress to future life goals.

Across Reading, Milton Keynes and Manchester we heard some amazing projects from the young people.

One social action project from a group of four girls from Roundhay school in Sheffield presented a plan on how they were going to tackle the issue of bullying. All four girls have experienced various extremes of bullying during their school life and working with their athlete mentor, Jenny Wallwork they shared with the Dragon’s the effect bullying has had on them and how this project will help.

Elsewhere across the mid-point events we saw a range of different social action projects, a flavour of projects identified by young people across the country can be found below:

• John Madejski School – Tackling Anti-Social behaviour and vaping in school

• Easington School – Wellbeing Day for a local primary school

• Lutterworth High School – Tackling Food Poverty in Leicester

• The St Lawrence Academy – Helping new year 6 student’s transition into secondary school.

These are just four of many other social action projects which will be delivered over the coming months, and when all the schools join us for our celebration event in July they will hear and learn about what the other schools across the UK have been getting up to.

Schools continue to praise the benefit of Unlocking Potential programme

The Unlocking Potential programme continues to bring about positive change in the students which take part.

Head of Year 10 at John Madejski school in Reading, Miss Corianne Burgess said: “We have really enjoyed working with the AQA Unlocking Potential programme again this year. It has really benefited us that the welcome and mid-point events have been in Reading so has really helped us to get to them.”

She continued by saying: “It’s great to be able to see and meet other students who are also on the mentoring programme and understand what they are trying to achieve through their social action plan. We had a surprise visit from the Reading MP, and she was really interested with what the boys social action plan is and even invited them to parliament. We are super excited to run the social action plan and see what the boys can do to support their community. I am personally really looking forward to the end of course event at London Zoo again as last year it was amazing.”

Maths teacher, Kashaf Hussain at Stanground Academy said: “It was great to see our Year 10 students take a bold step forward recently at the AQA Unlocking Potential mid-point event, as they presented their social action project, standing before a room full of people to share their vision of creating a wellbeing club at the academy.

“As expected, our students faced challenges, particularly the daunting task of public speaking. However, their resilience and growth have been phenomenal. A huge thank you to Liz Cann, who has been mentoring and working with students at our academy. I can’t wait to see their social action project come to life,” continued Kashaf.

Next up for all the students is putting the final preparations to their social action project in preparation of delivering them, and then the final celebrations can begin in July, which will mark the end of the programme for this year.