“We had three trainers from MADE working with year 11, 12 and 13 over two days this week. It was the first or second day back for most students and a few were new to St Wilfrid’s sixth form. The sixth form students really seemed to enjoy the creativity tests and the games used to start off the session which woke them up and got them ready for some more serious work. The ‘Active Reading’ methods will be very useful for their upcoming revision and assignments; one of the teachers in Joe’s session commented ‘I wish I had been taught this in sixth form’. Both trainers were really enthusiastic and connected well with the students. A staff member who was observing James’s session commented on how well he engaged his audience and maintained their interest. On the second day the trainers Danny and James worked with year 11 students on ‘Goals and Aspirations’. I think this was a really good session to start students off at the beginning of their GCSE year as it really made them think about what they want to achieve and how they might do it in a realistic way. The students seemed to find the section about ‘visualisation’ really interesting. I was in Danny’s sessions most of the day and it was really good that he went round the groups and spoke to students individually about their own goals and interests. We hope to build on the work done in these sessions over the next academic year. Thank you MADE!“

Lucy Holehan, NCOP Higher Education Progression Officer. Go Higher West Yorkshire