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20 March 2022
Over the past few months, Lower Sixth students from across the OX14 Learning Partnership have been receiving training in safeguarding, listening and counselling to help support the pastoral care and growth of their peers. Leni (L6B) who is taking part in the initiative shares her experience and some of her learnings from interacting with students from other schools.
“At the moment, myself and a group of other students from Lower Sixth are taking part in an OX14 Learning Partnership Academic Coaching project where we are being trained and then will individually work with a Year 9 student to support and guide them to achieve a personal goal.
For the first few weeks of the project, we’ve been developing our leadership skills and training to become effective coaches with other students from schools within the OX14 Learning Partnership. In the first week of training, we discussed and learnt about what makes an effective leader, and then moved onto how to engage with an individual and help them reach a goal in the next session. We’ve also looked at safeguarding, and after half-term will be paired with our Year 9 students.
Overall, I’ve found the training to have really helped me improve my leadership skills and interpersonal skills. I found it particularly interesting when learning about how to be an active listener, which can involve reflecting the speaker’s body language, giving room for silence and asking questions to help someone figure out the problem on their own terms. I think this skill is incredibly useful to use not only when communicating with the student that I’ll coach, but also for talking with my friends, family, teachers and even in the workplace in the future. I’m looking forward to being paired with and getting to know a student, and helping them to reach their goals.”
Leni, L6B
The OX14 Learning Partnership is a mutually beneficial and impactful partnership for the young people, staff and parents of Oxfordshire that ensures better outcomes in education for all, creating equal opportunities and realising that collaboration really is the key to success. St Helen and St Katharine has been working closely with John Mason, Radley College, Fitzharrys, Abingdon and Larkmead over the last five years, on an informal basis, however through their new, formal partnership, the group is helping to provide a strategic plan for how the schools can ensure impactful partnership activity takes place.
For more information on the OX14 Learning Partnership.
