ReachOut is Kingsley Napley’s Charity of the Year

This year, ReachOut has been lucky enough to be Kingsley Napley’s Charity of the Year. We've had some great events over the last 12 months. In April, Kingsley Napley held a mini-carnival in their offices to raise money for ReachOut. There were sweets, cakes and party games, the most popular of which was the Buzz Bar Competition. The person who completed it in the fastest time won a life size teddy bear, so competition was fierce. The staff also held a silent auction to raise money for ReachOut.

In July, we were invited to the Kingsley Napley Summer Party. With the help of four young people from the ReachOut Academy, we ran a very popular pick-a-mix stall and some games including a giant connect four, table football and the Kingsley Napley favourite – the Buzz Bar. ReachOut helpers, Tolu and Mustapha also won a few medals in the three legged race and sack race.

A big thank you to everyone a Kingsley Napley for a great year!

ReachOut Summer Projects 2014

Throughout the month of August, ReachOut has been busy delivering summer projects in our partner schools. The summer projects are designed to ease the transition from primary to secondary school for target groups of year 6 mentees, as well as consolidate the Maths and English they have learnt during the previous year. At the projects we delivered high quality literacy and numeracy support and provided positive activities to over 400 mentees.

We recruited current ReachOut mentees in year 10 and above to help out as junior mentors, supporting the delivery staff and acting as role models to younger mentees. To supervise and support the junior mentors we hired university students to work as senior mentors. 

Getting young people to study during their holidays is not always easy and can be a huge challenge for even the most experienced mentor, but both junior and senior mentors worked together successfully to deliver several fantastic summer projects! Below we have shared some of their experiences.

Fatimah Nazir worked with us in Manchester on the MCMA project and The Barlow High School as a senior mentor. In that role Fatimah delivered literacy classes in the morning and assisted with fun activities in the afternoon.

"During the ReachOut Summer Project I had the responsibility of teaching English to the children in the mornings. Alongside this I ran sessions of Sports and Arts and Crafts in the afternoon. 

The great thing about this experience is the confidence it has given me in speaking in front of big groups of people, as well as allowing me to develop the ability of communicating with people of different ages. Ultimately ReachOut has benefitted me by giving me the chance to build on skills I already had and allowed me to put these into practice.

Through working with kids starting high school I believe ReachOut is helping the community in a greater way than just through this transition. ReachOut instills a sense of respect in each person for people of different backgrounds to themselves. Through this it enables the children to develop their empathy as well as making new friends. Ultimately it is providing young people with skills such as fairness and good judgement which they then go on to implement in their lives in the future."

Molly is currently on her fourth summer project as a junior mentor, this year at St Pauls. Earlier this year she also attended our year 12 – 13 Junior Mentors Project where she develop teamwork and leadership skills in preparation for the role.

"My role as a junior mentor involved working closely with the children, and assisting them in whatever they needed over the course of the two weeks. As a junior mentor it was my responsibility to help the senior mentors run lessons, ensuring that the kids were involved and happy. Having this role has benefited me in many ways, it has taught me many skills that are useful in the everyday life such as patience, listening and teamwork. 

Whilst volunteering with ReachOut there is a real sense of community and this is what I enjoyed the most, not just getting to know the children, but working closely with other mentors.

I think the ReachOut projects are very beneficial to the community due to the noticeable change in the children as they go throughout the weeks. They grow in confidence, in character and have often become better individuals from doing the project." 

Owura attended the ReachOut Academy for 3 years in his early teens, he returned this summer as a junior mentor in London and did a great job!

"My role as a junior mentor was to be a 'helping hand' towards the staff and an exemplary role model that the children could socialize/ interact with academically and sports wise.

I was able to benefit from the experience immensely because I was given an opportunity to be given adult responsibilities. It also allowed me to improve my interactive skills, patience and adaptability in different situations. 

It also gave me experience of a working environment.

I enjoyed my time with ReachOut because I felt that I contributed towards the impact achieved by the project. I felt I had a direct impact on developing the young people’s academic ability, confidence, and all round enjoyment of the project.

I believe ReachOut is a very valuable organisation. Instead of wasting your time you could effectively use that time for something positive. ReachOut can help you academically, it’s fun, offers a wide variety of activities with staff who are devoted towards the organization and passionate about guiding you to strive for success."

All in all it was another great summer of mentoring. Now we look forward to starting our new mentoring projects in October. If you're interested in becoming a mentor please visit our website.

We hope to meet you soon!

The ReachOut Team

ReachOut Girls' Football Cup

Saturday 30^th August was a clear and warm summer’s day, perfect for ReachOut to organise a girls’ football tournament at the Mabley football pitches in Hackney.

The event saw two age groups, U13 and U15, take part in an action-packed and fun day of football.

Teams came from as far as Acton and the motivation was high among all the players to win the prestigious ReachOut Summer Cup. All the matches were very close and the hard work that the coaches put in during the season was repaid by spirited games and a display of beautiful football by all teams.

The U15 tournament was particularly competitive with Kinja FC and Young Hackney reaching the final after a tight group stage with Limehouse Park, Old Actonians and ReachOut all just missing out on one of the two top spots. Despite the disappointment of an early elimination Karace (ReachOut U15s player) declared: “It was good! We played well as a team and showed good staying power”.

Kinja eventually came out the stronger side in the final but had to go to penalty shootouts to subdue a battling Young Hackney.

The U13 tournament was dominated by Tower Rovers B who went undefeated all the way to the final by convincingly beating My FC, Young Hackney and Tower Rovers A. The final was no exception and Tower Rovers B was victorious despite a good performance by Young Hackney.

The final trophies were presented by the ReachOut London director, Peter Blackwell, and special guest from the Arsenal Ladies, Danielle Carter. Danielle, interviewed by the Hackney Citizen said: “I’ve been impressed by the talent. It’s nice to see the rise in women’s football. This is where it starts”. She also added: “It’s great that ReachOut have combined sport with education so successfully”.

At the end of the event, players, coaches, parents and ReachOut staff all left Mabley very enthusiastic and looking forward to next year’s ReachOut Summer Cup.

Roger Stiell, the Manager of cup competitors Young Hackney, praised the drive, commitment and talent of the competitors: 'The competition was played within the spirit of the game and in traditional high octane style'.  

By Arrigo Beino

ReachOut volunteer and referee!

Heartlands High School invests in mentoring for new starters

ReachOut has teamed up with Heartlands High School in Wood Green, north London to provide one-to-one support to 32 young people in Year 7 and Year 8 at a brand new ReachOut Academy project!

By reinforcing in their students the belief that school matters, Heartlands encourage them to succeed through effort, responsibility, citizenship and high aspirations, an ethos closely aligned with ReachOut's mission to develop character strengths as well as raise academic attainment.

Earlier this year Tristram Hunt, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, delivered a speech in which he said that character can and should be taught in schools, to prepare young people for the future. His announcement followed similar findings by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility, whose report¹ concluded that schools should focus as much on developing the 'soft skills' of our young people as much as academic achievement. So Heartlands High School is doing just that.

The project, called the ReachOut Academy, aims to improve academic ability and ReachOut’s character strengths (Staying Power, Fairness, Good Judgement and Self-Control), by pairing young people with a mentor from the community, often young professionals or university students, for a nine month period. At the project they work together on activities with a combined academic and character focus. For example, creating comic strips where the hero triumphs thanks to his Staying Power, or taking part in debates on topics where there is a clear link to Self-Control such as “Should pupils be allowed to have their mobile phones in class?”.

Although new to Haringey, the project has been running in a secondary school in Hackney for several years and has made a significant impact; 84% of ReachOut young people in Year 11 achieved five A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths² compared to 60.8% nationwide³ in 2012/13.

ReachOut London Director, Peter Blackwell said “At ReachOut we recognise that it takes more than Maths and English skills to achieve your goals in life. A ReachOut mentor can help a young person to develop the character strengths needed to see a task through to completion, to work as part of a team, or to try again after setbacks. These tools are invaluable.”

ReachOut is now looking for committed and enthusiastic volunteers to become mentors at Heartlands ReachOut Academy project to help make a real difference to young people in the borough. The project will run on Wednesday evenings from 6-7pm at Heartlands High School, Station Road, Wood Green, N22 7ST. Volunteers will receive pre-project training and on-going support as well as travel expenses.

To find out more or become a mentor visit the website www.reachoutuk.org or email the Project Manager Chloe Holness at chloe.holness@reachoutuk.org.