Develop Your Way: A leadership project for secondary schools and colleges in Birmingham
Introduction
Young people often perceive careers within the sports sector as focusing on becoming a performance athlete or a coach. This perception can create a barrier, which can discourage young people from discovering the breadth of opportunities and roles with the sport and physical activity sector can provide. To address this, Sport Birmingham launched the Develop Your Way project – an initiative designed to empower young people through leadership development with a focus on the range of wider roles within the sports industry.
Delivered in both school and college settings, the project encouraged young people to take ownership of sport-based activities, enhance their transferable skills, and explore future careers within the sport and physical activity landscape.
Background
The school engagement aspect of the project was targeted at young people, who are accessing Free School Meals and have a passion for sport but do not participate in sports teams or aren’t considered ‘gifted and talented’. The ages of people involved focus year 9 and 10 students.
Schools joined the project with the ambition of developing their pupils’ confidence, teamwork, and organisational skills using sport as the facilitator. Simultaneously, the college engagement was designed to bridge the gap between education and employment by highlighting the skills and attributes that are essential in future job roles. College students acted as role models and leaders, facilitating sport activities for the secondary schools whilst gaining professional experience and training. We wanted to start building more relationships between the schools and their local colleges with the idea of showcasing the variety of pathways students can take which potentially lead into a career in sport i.e. photography and media (AS and A Level).
Programme Structure
Upon signing up, schools committed to attending three event days during the academic year and setting up a School Sports Forum to deliver their in-school project. The event days included a launch event featuring workshops and Q&A sessions with Birmingham-based industry experts, a local college away day, and a final celebration day. On the college side, students were supported by Sport Birmingham staff in a series of workshops exploring careers, transferable skills. These skills were then applied to the design of their own sports activities. These activities were then delivered to the school pupils during the second event day.
Initial Challenges
During their in-school projects, pupils were encouraged to assign roles and responsibilities after discussing each other’s strengths and weaknesses within the group. At times, this proved challenging, as overlapping roles and a lack of tasks for everyone led to some disengagement.
One school also faced logistical difficulties in arranging staff support during delivery, resulting in some sessions being over capacity for the sports leaders to manage alone.
In the college programme, students encountered challenges such as low confidence, discomfort with public speaking, and uncertainty when planning sessions. This meant additional support from Sport Birmingham staff was needed to prepare for the school visits.
Progress and Development
At King Edward VI Camp Hill school for Girls, after gathering the views of students within their school, students launched a lunchtime benchball club which they advertised to the younger year groups.
Within their forum they independently assigned roles such as coaching, equipment organisation, and leading warm-ups. Participants displayed significant growth in leadership, communication and confidence.
The college students developed and delivered full sport sessions to 40 students and began to identify career interests. The development of Sport Birmingham’s relationships with college tutors and students provided new insights into future projects.
Outcomes
Through this project, Sport Birmingham wanted to expand young people’s perceptions and passion for a potential career in sport as well as showcasing the many pathways on offer to achieve this. The other main focus was to develop young people’s transferable skills; confidence, teamwork, communication, problem-solving and organisation.
KE Camp Hill students enjoyed the rewards of peer leadership and fostered a close-knit community through their forum and lunchtime club. They also expressed interest in launching more clubs, and in seeking more support from Sport Birmingham in connection with equipment and activity access.
College students plan to use their new skills to seek employment or access further higher education in sport. Partners involved in this project are considering how to embed these initiatives into regular programming in the next academic year.
Why should schools and colleges get involved in leadership projects?
‘It allows you to build more bonds with people from your year and it helps you build bonds with people from other years too. It also feels very rewarding when leading the projects.’ – Sports Leader from King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls
To find out more information of how to get involved with future leadership opportunities please email lucy.pearson@sportbirmingham.org