After a powerful and inspiring keynote speech from the care experienced author, Jenny Molloy, the younger members of the Participation Team, many of whom are still teenagers themselves, took over! They wanted to help the foster carers and practitioners in the audience understand what it is really like to be a teenager today and the pressures and challenges they face, particularly if they are growing up in care. Many of them shared their own personal stories about growing up in care and reflected on those things that helped them the most. Mark Vening, head of Fostering, also discussed the development of teenagers’ brains and how this can affect their behaviour and there was a trip back in time to the 1980s to remind foster carers of their own teenage years!
Then, on 21st November, the team presented to over 200 Kent headteachers at the Kent Association of Headteachers Conference in Ashford. With the theme of the conference being how to create schools that are inclusive, aspirational and supportive of learners and staff, the Apprentice Participation Workers were pleased to be able to share with the delegates the voices of vulnerable learners. They wanted the headteachers in the room to really put themselves in the place of a vulnerable learner whether this is a child in care, an adopted young person, a child for whom English isn’t their first language or one that may be suffering upheaval or trauma in their lives. The Apprentices shared the strategies and ideas that young people have told them support them at school to learn so they can do their best.
The team was pleased that at both conferences the voices of young people were kept at the centre!
posted by Mark Butcher