We have recently trialled the ‘Your Time’ programme, developed by the Leadership Skills Foundation and funded by the Department for Education. The programme aims to remove barriers that young girls are facing when it comes to participating in PE or competitive sports, whilst also nurturing the key leadership skills they need to succeed at school and in life outside of the classroom. The programme has had an incredible impact on our girls: boosting their overall confidence and equipping them with essential skills such as self-management, teamwork and communication.
At the start of the programme, we were tasked with finding a group of motivated girls that would become Your Time leaders: responsible for planning and delivering sport activities for other girls. The aim of the programme is to distribute leader roles to students who have potential but wouldn’t usually put themselves forward for projects such as this, giving them a chance to change their narrative.
After choosing a group of ten girls to be leaders, they started planning their projects straight away: deciding what sports they wanted to focus on, the types of activities and events they wanted to plan and who they were going to deliver them to. This is what made this programme feel so different: it’s peer-led and organised collaboratively by the student leaders. The girls picked football, dodgeball, bench ball and relays as their chosen sports and decided to deliver two 2-hour sessions for year 5 and 6. This meant planning events for more than 60 girls per session – a huge group of participants! Taking the leaders out of their comfort zone and building their confidence and leadership skills from the offset of the programme.
Whilst the leaders were getting together to plan the sport sessions, Ms D Abdulkarim, Assistant Principal and PE teacher was there every step of the way to provide support and guidance whenever needed, particularly when it came to understanding the rules of the sports they chose. The blended learning approach of Your Time, combining eLearning with practical delivery, enabled the girls to go through the programme and work on online modules at their own pace. The modules used individualised avatars to guide them through the sessions, helping them to understand some of the barriers that negatively influence female participation in competitive sports. The eLearning platform gave the option to send reminders and check in with the students regularly – an easy and time efficient way for staff to make sure the students were on track.
When it came to delivering the sports sessions, the girls exceeded everyone’s expectations. They did a brilliant job speaking in front of so many students; developing their public speaking skills; and coordinating the participants through the sports sessions with an incredible ease; demonstrating their team and time management, communication, confidence and decision-making skills. They also had their own whistles, which we practiced using before the events. Tools like these helped them feel even more confident and helped establish their roles as session-facilitator. Seeing how far the leaders have come has left Ms Abdulkarim speechless, who couldn’t have imagined such quick progress when the students first started the programme.
Your Time has made a huge difference to the 10 girl leaders of the programme. One student has benefited hugely, and her transformation has been amazing to follow. Previously, she never participated or spoke up in class, and now she’s able to communicate directly with the head of primary and has led the other nine leaders, by facilitating the planning sessions and making decisions based on their conversations and deliberations. At the sports sessions, she stood in front of everyone and spoke to more than 60 students. It’s great to see how much being a leader has changed her!
She and the other nine girls have acquired essential leadership skills that will help them far beyond their time at school – from team work to time management and communication skills. It’s key to equip young children with these skills during their time at school as it sets them up so well for the world of work and adulthood. They also received an accredited leadership award for their hard work and participation in the programme. Your Time has shown them that they’re very capable leaders – something none of the girls would have believed before. They really do believe in themselves now and understand that they can achieve anything they put their minds to.
Overall, the programme’s legacy goes far beyond the two sports sessions. It's also made a huge impact on the students who took part in the sessions led by the ten girls. Our sport leaders have become role models for year 5 and 6. It’s so important for these young pupils to have such a diverse group of positive female role models to look up to. It gives them the confidence to try out sports that they previously didn’t feel they could participate in – because someone just like them has shown them how to do it.
And for the leaders themselves, they developed a passion for PE through leadership and are inspiring their peers to participate in sports at school. They’re already planning their next tournament!
Find out more about the Your Time programme and the Leadership Skills Foundation here.