Local school student turns his education around thanks to Foundation mentoring
Sun 12 May 2024, 09:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
A local secondary school student has explained how mentoring from Tottenham Hotspur Foundation helped him go from not wanting to take part in lessons to excelling in his work and behaviour.
Dwayne, 13, whose story featured on BBC’s Match of the Day over the weekend, took part in the Premier League Inspires programme last year, his confidence having taken a blow after developing alopecia.
The programme was launched in 2019 and the Foundation has since delivered it across 29 schools in Haringey, Enfield and surrounding London boroughs, with 673 young people benefiting from 4,665 hours of targeted support.
Premier League Inspires uses the power of football to inspire young people to develop the personal skills and positive attitudes needed to succeed in life.
Participants are empowered through a series of regular face-to-face group sessions, mentoring, workshops and social action projects, providing students with the help they need now and supporting them to plan for their future.
Dwayne, a student of Holy Family Catholic School, in Walthamstow, explained how mentoring was 'like a friendly chat' and helped him open up about developing alopecia - a trigger for behaviour change teachers had initially struggled to identify.
He said: “I was distant at home and I wasn’t really communicating, and in school I wasn’t being focused or participating.
“I liked the mentoring, though. It showed me how to identify things, open up and communicate with people.
“This has helped me out a lot - I’ve been able to get myself some awards at school and stopped being distant with my mum and nan.
“Out of 10, I’d give the mentoring a 10!”
The school’s head of personal development & PSHCE, Emily Sayer, said: “Before Dwayne took part in the Inspires programme with Spurs, his behaviour had deteriorated, he didn’t want to be in lessons and he was spending break times in the assistant headteacher’s office instead of socialising on the playground.
“We saw a significant change in Dwayne when the Foundation got involved. From being shy and putting up barriers during his first couple of mentoring sessions on the programme, we saw him become very receptive to the group sessions and he looked forward to them.
“Being engaged and taking learning seriously, we started to see Dwayne smile, laugh, gain achievement points for great work, prizes for lots of effort and socialising on the playground playing football, and attending sports club.
“He seems to not only have regained his confidence, but have more than before. He no longer isolates himself from the year group and has really enjoyed having his achievements publicly celebrated.”
Upon completing Premier League Inspires, students are invited to a collapsed curriculum day at the Stadium, where they take part in workshops and enjoy a tour.
Emily explained: “They know if they put themselves out of their comfort zone and really give the programme a go they’ve got that amazing outcome at the end, getting to go to one of the most amazing stadiums in the world. Regardless of whether you’re a Tottenham fan, you can’t argue walking round that Stadium’s awesome!”
The most recent collapsed curriculum day also included a surprise visit from Timo Werner, who took part in a Q&A on resilience.
Dwayne had been invited to attend as an example of the positive difference the programme can make and, in a demonstration of his renewed confidence, was first among some 60 other schoolchildren to raise his hand and ask a question, quizzing Timo on how confidence levels affect performance.
Dwayne dreams of being a footballer and described meeting Timo as 'amazing', but after his Premier League Inspires experience Dwayne also has an eye on a career involving the skill of communication.
Premier League Inspires is funded by the Premier League and Professional Footballers’ Association through the Premier League Charitable Fund.
