Year 9 students successfully graduate Future Pathways programme

A group of our Year 9 students have recently taken part in the Future Pathways programme. The programme is designed to enhance students life and employability skills, enabling them further when entering the world of work. It is about enhancing those skills in a safe and fun environment.

Students pictured at their graduation ceremony

The programme took place over six weeks last term, and involved lots of different character building skills and activities. These took place both in school, and with Whitehaven Harbour Youth Project with visits to The Rum Story and also King Kong climbing wall. They took part in activities such as climbing and abseiling, archery and a team building exercise called Scaffolding the world which is delivered by Kaefers.

The sessions were all designed to push the students out of their comfort zones and get them to challenge themselves and each other. The aim of these sessions was to build confidence and self-esteem as well as communication and teamwork, all vital skills in the world of work.

The final part of the Future Pathways programme involved the students putting together a presentation. This highlighted all the challenges they had taken part in, and gave a fantastic example of how their confidence had grown over the last few week.

The presentation concluded with a graduation where they received their certificates. Well done to all of the students involved, listed below:

Kitty Rooney, Ava McLuckie, Sammie Kerrush, Grace Armstrong, Heather Gravett, Isobella Robson, Josh Travell, Coben Regan, Kyron McDonald, Lucas Gibson , Jordan Richardson and George Towers

Mrs Ennis, Learning Mentor for Year 9 said:

“We are so proud of all our students who took part in this programme. They have all shown real maturity and grown in confidence throughout the process. It is a great learning process for them and we are really grateful for the opportunity.”

PC Roxanne Schofield commented:

“It was a pleasure working with the students from St Benedict’s school over the six weeks, watching them grow in confidence each week and push themselves out of their comfort zones, all whilst having fun and learning valuable life skills.”

“When watching the presentations at the end of the programme, it was nice to see that each student identified something that they would take away from the programme they can use in the world of work.”

The programme was delivered by Cumbria Police, Morgan Sindall (who also fund the programme), Whitehaven Harbour Youth Project, Inspira and Kaefers, along with a number of volunteers from different organisations.