This ground-breaking project helps raise the aspirations and achievements of children and young people by focusing on the child as an encourager.
It is a package of tools for teachers and youth leaders to encourage children to take responsibility for their own learning, improve their own focus and effort, and to encourage those around them.
The children act as ‘encouragers’ or young coaches in ways that coaches encourage people in sport or business for example.
The package encourages children to find their “red rubber ball” - a metaphor for our passions; the things that interest and excite each of us, whether it be sport, music, art, business, fashion, animals, journalism ……
As Richard Branson says, “If you can indulge in your passion, life will be far more interesting than if you're just working. You'll work harder at it, and you'll know more about it”.
Focusing on the four elements of Choice, Passion, Vision, and Action – children support each other through open discussion and questioning to establish their hopes, aspirations and dreams for the future.
The children appreciate the benefit of having higher aspirations for themselves, understand what motivates them and discover what they need to do to achieve their dreams and aspirations.
‘That you have to chase your dream not just sit there!’
‘You have to work to get your goal’
‘It’s never too late to change’
Here’s just one example:
A young boy, Tim, identified that he’d like to be an architect. We encouraged him to think about what he might do to make that happen and he concluded to become really good at science and maths. So we encouraged him to explore this further, to become more specific and he decided to start with fractions.
Later that day his teacher approached me. “Do you know what just happened?” she said. “Tim came and asked if I could give him some extra fractions to practice at home”. She could not recall a boy EVER asking for extra maths homework!
It will be a while before we know if Tim does become an architect. But we do know that he understands that HE is the one who’ll make it happen and he’s started to do something about it.
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