Going for Gold Mentor Launch

Thursday 31 January 2013 saw the official launch of the Going for Gold Mentoring programme at the flagship new headquarters of Fabrick Housing at Hudsons Quay in Middlesbrough.

This launch event brought together targeted high ability Year 11 students from Freebrough Academy and volunteer mentors from Fabrick Housing and Academy sponsors Teesside University. The purpose of the launch was for the mentors to meet the Freebrough students that they will be working with through the rest of the year, and for the students to form the small peer partnership groups that will help them to achieve in their final months at the Academy.

The Going for Gold cohort currently comprises of more than 40 Year 11 students who are all targeted to achieve at least five A*-A grades at GCSE. It is vital that these high ability students are properly challenged and supported through their examination preparations to give them the best possible start to the next phases of their lives after leaving the Academy.

The brand new mentoring programme will provide a mix of hard and soft skills for each of the students, all aimed at maximising their evident potential. Volunteer mentors will work with the students weekly after school, following a programme set by the Academy. The weekly sessions will begin with career aspiration planning before moving on to interview techniques and team building skills. As the exam period looms in the summer the sessions will focus more on specialist skills such as managing stress, revision planning and exam techniques.

In addition to these life skills, students will also undertake the Fabrick Challenge – a team building exercise that will put all their newly learned skills to the test.

Gordon Cameron, Director of Science at the Academy who is coordinating the project said: “The involvement of our Academy sponsors along with Fabrick is testament to the partnership nature of the Going for Gold programme, as both organisations have made a commitment to support the programme in terms of time and resources.

After the launch, Heather Ashton, Director of Finance at Fabrick has this to say of the young people she met:  “Awesome is the best word to describe the group of students we met this evening at the launch of the Going for Gold programme mentoring project, they are an absolute credit to you and your team. My mentors loved every minute and left the office this evening with a real spring in their step, a huge smile on their face and cannot wait to get into the programme over the next 12 weeks. I am sure this cohort will do you proud!”

This is the first group of students to participate in the Going for Gold programme but we plan to roll the programme out to all year groups and so extend the aspiration and attainment of many more of our students. Watch this space…