Kingsbury Green Academy in Calne, Wiltshire, is harnessing the power of its students with the new cohort of Power of Ten pupils.
The Power of Ten is an innovative scheme designed by the school to give pupils leadership skills as well as helping develop relationships and smooth the transition from primary school to secondary school.
Originally developed as a programme for 10 students, this year’s group has been extended to 12 due to the enthusiasm of those applying.
The selected pupils are tasked to help out and organise events for younger children and they learn to coach primary school pupils in sports such as netball, cross country, football and even paddle boarding.
Power of Ten member, Victoria, explained why she wanted to apply to be part of the programme, “I’ve always enjoyed sports and thought it would be a great opportunity to learn new sports and different aspects of games.
“I play football and cricket and although I’m not a massive fan of netball I actually enjoyed learning about netball umpiring. I like refereeing training especially and would now like to go on to do football refereeing.”
Whilst sports are at the core of everything the group does, the skills reach much wider. Fellow pupil Lauren added, “I applied for the Power of Ten as I was interested by the idea of helping out with youngsters, as well as developing leadership skills and getting to know the others who were selected.
“It’s been very enjoyable so far; I didn’t expect to be involved this much but I’m learning to do new things and gaining new skills and opportunities. Our induction day was on a lake in Royal Wootton Bassett where we had to build a raft to sail to an island and come back with eggs, potatoes and popcorn. Once we knew how to do it, we then did it with primary school children, which was great fun.”
Principal of Kingsbury Green Academy, Jason Tudor, said, “As well as developing their sports skills, over the course of the school year the Power of Ten team will also work on skills such as time management, event organisation, communication and being great role models – all skills that will stand them in good stead for their careers and life outside of school.
“They work with younger years from our feeder primary school and so it’s a great opportunity for those who will be joining the academy in future years to get to know us and what to expect – and even whether they’d want to join the Power of Ten too.
“This is the third year we’ve run the Power of Ten programme and we’ve found that they thrive on the extra responsibility and variety of challenges that they’re given. It’s a great way of developing pupils to reach their full potential and be the future leaders of our community.”
Kingsbury Green Academy is part of the Ascend Learning Trust, formerly the Royal Wootton Bassett Academy Trust.