"Before the programme, Paris regularly got into trouble at school" - Paris' Rising Futures journey.

Paris, 14, was selected for the Rising Futures programme by her Head of Year to help improve her behaviour in classes. Before the programme, Paris regularly got into trouble at school, often receiving detentions and being put on report for talking over teachers in class. During the first coaching session, Paris’ volunteer Coach reported:

“Paris gives up in lessons when it gets hard. She then turns to disruption and rule-breaking because she is actually struggling with the work. In our first coaching session, she revealed she wanted to become more resilient and calm to overcome this.”

On the Rising Futures programme, Paris had her own personal Coach, Jane. Over the course of six months, during the turbulent times of the Covid-19 pandemic, Paris and Jane met regularly online for one-to-one coaching sessions. They explored essential skills like resilience and confidence, and Jane supported Paris to better understand her strengths and how to use them.

All students were asked to take part in a Play Your Part project, using their skills to support the local community. This was Paris’ opportunity to shine. Jane learnt that Paris was very creative, and so when introducing the project, Paris jumped at the opportunity to use her skills to raise awareness of a local charity, Shooting Stars Children’s Hospice, that had supported her cousin.

When Paris presented her project, Jane was really impressed:

“Paris was very proud of what she had achieved, which showed that she was growing in confidence in her abilities and starting to identify her strengths and what she enjoys doing.”

Throughout the programme, as Paris became more self-aware, she grew in confidence too. By reflecting on where her strengths lay, she learnt that more creative, arts-based subjects are well suited to her and this is where she sees herself succeeding in the future. This helped her appreciate that there will be subjects she is less good at, and this is ok, but it is important to learn from these experiences rather than turn to disruption in class.

Hannah, her Programme Manager said:

“At the end of the programme, we talked about listening to feedback that is constructive and learning from it. I have every confidence that Paris can work on this during her self-coaching. She is an extremely able, reflective girl who is determined to get to where she wants to go.”

Well done Paris!

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To find out more about our programmes, and how you can get involved, please visit our School Programmes page.