BIP work with the Secondary Support Centre

The Behaviour Improvement Project (BIP) works very closely with the Secondary Support Centre (SSC) to help support our students throughout their career at Kingsmead. Members of the SSC support students on Pastoral Support Programmes, run group work sessions and regularly attend the weekly BIP meeting. Recently a group of Year 10 students have been following a course designed to improve their organisational, leadership and presentation skills. These skills have been developed using the medium of football, something which all of the 10 students are very keen about. The course was run by Michael Donaldson, an SSC mentor but also a youth coach at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

The course ran from mid-March and offered the students a number of activities, based in both the classroom and on the football pitch, for them to enhance their skills. They completed tasks which required teamwork, motivation, communicating instructions, listening to others and self reflection. These were all skills that play a crucial part in a student’s personal and academic development. These skills should certainly be of use in the students upcoming GCSE modular exams and as they prepare for Year 11. The students continually impressed during the course and showed great dedication, much of the work happened at the end of the school day.

Upon completion of the course the 10 students were offered the chance to take part in a series of training sessions run by Tottenham Hotspur FC. Two of our students; Dillon Henry and Omid Roufi, were chosen to play in a match against the Tottenham Hotspur Academy U15 team. The match took place at the Tottenham Hotspur training ground in Chigwell. Our students were able to experience playing in world class facilities, against some of the future ‘stars’ of the game. Some of the Tottenham team have already reached international level in their age range.

I would like to congratulate all the students who took part in the course; Sebastian Berisha, Sean Laverty, Omid Roufi, Jordan Samudju, Kanku Saku, Jordan Slama, Dillon Henry, Mbuyi Saku, Leon Sinclair and Sandris Mazodila, for their hard work and dedication to the course. Thanks must also go to Michael Donaldson who worked so hard with our students and provided such a fantastic and unique experience for them. We look forward to working with him and other members of the SSC in the future.

P. Green

June 2010