Our school support plan to prevent a lost generation of young people - Sue O’Brien

The Government has recently announced plans to spend £1bn on tutoring and coaching to help vulnerable pupils catch up at school as they return after lockdown. Whilst the initiative is welcome, the idea that subject tutoring alone is the answer is doing our young people and schools a disservice.

We know that doing nothing extra will mean that the coronavirus pandemic will leave thousands in real danger of believing the narrative surrounding them. For many vulnerable young people school was their safe place, their escape, their structure. Young people who already felt they were being left behind are now hearing it’s too late for them to catch-up and that their future employment chances are bleak. Doing nothing could make this a reality.

Our teachers and school leaders are brilliant and resilient, and we will support them through this with wider support from the education sector. We do not believe that this will be a tale of a doomed future for a lost generation – unless we allow that to happen.

We should be in no doubt that pupils will be returning to school affected in a variety of ways as a result of the lockdown. It will impact how they manage their behaviour, it will impact their relationships and their self-esteem, and it may well leave many defensive, angry and unable to learn.

At Sheffield Hallam University we are working with schools across our region to help these young people to understand they have the power to change the world and build a bright future from this period in our history. Through our social mobility programme South Yorkshire Futures, we are providing support – including a generation of local graduates who are finishing their degrees this summer and who aren’t sure what the jobs market holds for them right now.

We have been working with the Northern Powerhouse Partnership to train and mobilise those graduates and to connect them with schools so that they can help ensure next year’s GCSE cohort reconnect and thrive in school, as part of a new initiative called the GROW Mentoring Programme.

In September, we aim to deploy graduates from the ‘Class of 2020’ across schools in South Yorkshire. Each graduate will mentor a small number of pupils for a fixed period, forming a network of support at this critical time in their lives. Our approach is backed by solid research evidence. Public Health England highlighted in a briefing for head teachers just how strongly a child’s level of wellbeing is linked to academic success, good behaviour and motivation. A further review by the Education Endowment Foundation concluded that measurable factors such as self-control and school engagement correlated not just with attainment but also with improved finances later in life, and reduced crime.

The research shows that these approaches can give pupils between four and seven months’ additional progress on attainment – but only if they’re embedded and used in a sustainable way. We also know those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, who are less likely to have the support of positive role models at home, are more likely to lack confidence and to doubt that they will succeed: so they need this help more than most.

The GROW Mentoring Programme will match those young people with graduates from their own local areas. Graduates who understand what they’re going through and who are young enough themselves to remember and connect with all those feelings. These graduate mentors will undergo comprehensive training to ensure they have the skills to motivate, engage and build positive relationships with pupils. They will need to show qualities and skills that go far beyond subject knowledge.

The graduates will benefit too: at a time of economic turmoil, they will gain work experience and life-skills along with an impressive addition to their CVs.

We believe our programme is scaleable – and we ask that Government and Ministers take note. We need an approach that recognises the potential achievement and aspirations of a generation that could so easily become lost. We see them as the solution. Our plan is to support them to make good choices to realise their potential.

Sue O’Brien is South Yorkshire Futures Strategic Lead at Sheffield Hallam University.

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