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.