In April 2023, SkyWay began a pilot project to work with young people in year 6 at Thomas Fairchild School and support them through the transition to secondary school.
15 young people were referred to receive additional support throughout the transition period, some were also identified as being at-risk of exclusion. The project was sports-focused, but a crucial element was to include 1-1 and small group mentoring sessions that took place before, during and after the sport activities.
The young people immensely enjoyed the sessions and at the end of the year, they returned the favour and fundraised for SkyWay with an after school cake sale.
During summer, SkyWay took the young people on three, sport focused trips to provide experiential learning and a good dose of fun!
At the beginning of the new school year, we started working in the secondary schools that the young people had joined, continuing our transition work with the group at a crucial time in their lives. The schools have been very forthcoming and are keen to work with SkyWay to improve the outcomes for these young people.
The pilot project has blossomed into a multi-school transition and mentoring programme. Sport is still used as a method of delivery, but we have adapted to young people’s interests to include creative elements such as arts and crafts and creative writing.
Since November 2023, we have started with a new cohort of year 6s at the primary school and plan for our year 7s to offer them peer support and advice on the transition to secondary school.
It has been a pleasure working with all the young people on the project and watching them grow over the past year.