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Case Study - Coaches make school transition less daunting

5 mins read Mentoring Education
Sports mentoring helps pupils who contend with a range of issues transition from primary to secondary school, improving both wellbeing and behaviour
Takeah’s ‘most valued player’ award

PROJECT

Positive Transitions

PURPOSE

To boost children’s engagement with education and ease the transition from primary to secondary school using sports coaching and mentoring

FUNDING

The project was awarded a four-year grant of £509,000 from the charity Impact On Urban Health, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

BACKGROUND

Greenhouse Sports is a youth development charity that places full-time sports coaches in schools in deprived areas. It is working with schools in the London Borough of Lambeth to deliver the Positive Transitions project, which provides targeted support to children with a range of needs including low self-esteem, behavioural issues and special educational needs.

The scheme comes amid a nationwide surge in mental health issues among young people and a rise in school absences. Currently, 37% of young people in Lambeth reach the age of 19 with no Level 2 or 3 qualifications.

Positive Transitions aims to use sports coaching and mentoring to tackle these issues and make the move between primary and secondary school easier for pupils who may struggle. “There are pressure points in people’s lives, such as the transition to secondary,” says Greenhouse Sports business insight manager Nick Dunnett. “There hasn’t yet been a study on how sports mentoring helps to impact this transition, so this is a groundbreaking bit of work.”

ACTION

Under the programme, three Greenhouse coaches work across the four primaries and the secondary school, providing 25 hours per week of breakfast, lunch, after-school and holiday clubs, mentoring and group work.

At primary level these sessions are a chance for children to try a range of different sports and play group games while at secondary they focus on particular sports such as table tennis, basketball and cricket.

All sessions are planned using the Step (social, thinking, emotional, and physical) skills framework devised by Greenhouse and the University of Bath. This focuses on areas like problem-solving and teamwork as well as fitness and physical activity. Coaches devise a code of conduct together with each cohort of children at the start of the year to help set expectations about standards of behaviour.

Children are also referred into “intervention groups” by teachers and coaches. These are weekly sessions during the school day for up to 12 children who play different sports or do non-sport activities such as making a poster describing emotions.

Children are grouped based on need. The intervention groups take place in the playground or a spare classroom, depending on the activity and children help decide how they use this time. “It’s not a PE curriculum where we have to hit targets – if the children say they want to play dodgeball they can,” says coach Laura Scully. “School has a lot of structure and rules and can be overwhelming. This is their time to be who they are.”

The project aims to provide positive role models. Coaches have similar life experiences to the children they work with and many attended similar schools. Some 56% of coaches are from ethnically diverse backgrounds and 7% are former Greenhouse Sports participants.

They aim to be a trusted adult and help children who need extra support in the classrooms. All have undergone a three-day mentoring course. “Mentoring is scheduled one-to-one time – a safe space to speak and listen,” says Scully. “Maybe the children just need to burn energy or feel validation.” This may include a coach sitting with a child in lessons to help keep them focused, sometimes with the reward of going outside to kick a football around for 10 minutes.

As well as developing children’s confidence, social skills and focus, the project aims to make the transition to secondary school less daunting by enabling children to mix with peers from other primaries through sports tournaments and transition events where primary school pupils get to meet the secondary school coach. A “sports leaders” scheme also provides secondary pupils with the chance to design and lead sports coaching sessions for primary age children. “Our primary children love it because they get to come and explore their secondary school, get familiar with the coaches and with the other children, helping that transition,” says Scully.

Coaches and teachers target children who meet certain criteria such as those with poor school attendance, behavioural issues or English as an additional language. Programmes are then designed to align with a school’s priorities. Coaches may devise tailored activities for children with special educational needs and disabilities or support those children to participate in mainstream sessions.

Parental feedback is sought through surveys and in-person events, which are also a chance to get information and advice about doing sports at home and to build relationships with Greenhouse staff.

OUTCOME

Greenhouse Sports coaches have delivered 5,000 hours of free group sports coaching and mentoring for 616 children aged seven to 14 since 2022. There is evidence to suggest the project is helping to boost school attendance. Data from the project shows that in 2023 children taking part in the Positive Transitions project attended five to seven more school days per year than counterparts not taking part in the programme.

Data suggests the project is also having a positive impact on children’s mental health. A survey of 292 participants in May this year found 79% recorded improvements in their mental wellbeing. Meanwhile, a survey of 24 parents found 83% said the programme had improved their child’s happiness and behaviour at school.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Greenhouse Sports plan to gather further data to help understand how the project has helped with the transition to secondary with the aim of developing a model that other schools can replicate.

If you think your project is worthy of inclusion, email supporting data toderren.hayes@markallengroup.com

EXPERIENCE: GIRLS-ONLY SPORTS GROUP ENABLES TAKEAH TO GROW IN CONFIDENCE

Takeah, aged 11, started on the Positive Transitions project in year 5. She took part in a weekly “intervention group” for able and talented children and an after-school girls-only club.

“We did a lot of sports – hockey, cricket, basketball, tennis. I enjoyed playing different games and being able to contribute more,” she says. “Being in a girls-only group helped me feel more confident: the coach was there and heard everyone’s voice and let everyone speak. This hadn’t happened so much in class.”

Encouraging more girls to take part in sport and physical activity is a key aim of the Positive Transitions programme and 45% of participants are female.

“Girls understood me a lot more than the boys did,” says Takeah. “If I was playing a sport and the boys didn’t know what I was doing or thought I was doing something wrong like missing a pass they would get cross.”

She says she looked forward to the sessions. “If you are in a bad mood you could cool down and have some time to yourself if you wanted to,” she says.

Girls who are good at PE, like Takeah, don’t always shine in standard mixed PE lessons and can lose interest, explains Laura Scully, one of her coaches.

“PE was clearly something she was good at and we wanted to keep her motivated,” she says. “She can be quite reserved in a PE lesson, but here she had the opportunity to be quite involved and vocal – she would say ‘we want to play this game’.”

Takeah won a “most valued player” award in a year 6 basketball tournament and received an “outstanding contribution” award for girls as part of her primary school graduation. She has now joined the mixed basketball team in year 7 at her new school.

“Takeah demonstrates everything that is right about sport,” says Scully. “She always gets involved, is reliable and super respectful.”

Takeah is still in contact with Scully who offers support when needed. “If she faces challenges in future, she knows there is a safe space for that to happen,” says Scully.


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