Empowerment and personal choice As Children and Families Manager at Rowhill School Dave Sandford has been involved in supporting vulnerable children and young people for over thirteen years. Throughout his career in education Dave has seen his students take part in many early intervention and extra-curricular programmes facilitated by external providers.
You give certain people the confidence to do what they want to do and empower them to make a decision that is right for them.”
Furthermore, Dave then described how influential building that confidence in the students is, as it makes them feel valued. Children as young as 5 years old are being identified using terms and conditions Ten years on from when Dave first encountered as labels, and when these children aren’t offered Burning2Learn he is still supportive of our support in the right way, this very often leads to social programmes, as he has seen the impacts they breakdowns. Burning2Learn’s programmes reverse these social breakdowns, Dave explained, as they have had on his students first-hand. give young people a purpose. Having a purpose “Your impact was from day one - I felt - because it instills a desire to learn as they start to understand was different. Your programmes give trust and create the relevance of different topics and how it can help independence that enables young people to try some- them in their own lives; thing new.” “I think it was the practical side of the learning that We asked Dave what made our programmes stand was different as you gave them that confidence to out and why he believed they were effective on see that there are things out there that they can do. the lives of his students, to which he responded by They may not be the best writer or good at Maths, saying, “Burning2Learn is child and young person but you opened their eyes to the other skill sets focused, rather than being done for your own ends.” that they didn’t even know they had, like catering, landscape gardening and ICT.” Dave went on to explain why he believes the Burning2Learn approach was particularly effective Dave’s continued support has been overwhelming for Burning2Learn and reinforces the strengths with more isolated students; in this approach to learning and personal “Your programmes had the most impact with the development of young people as individuals. students that were isolated with the lives they had.
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