FEEDBACK: Making a Difference in Thurleston – A Great Testimonial 30 Mar 09

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 Sander De Groot, our very own Head of Training, recently ran an intervention training day for under-achieving students at Thurleston High. The school was so impressed with the remarkable work he did there, they wrote this piece of tremendous feedback – testament again to the way Positively MAD really does “make a difference.”

The following is a brief summary of the feedback and responses from the session that was run by Sander for a Year 11 intervention group.

“ Along with an Assistant Head teacher,  Sander worked with small groups of individuals who have been identified as close to the borderline for 5 A-C grades at GCSE who have the potential to achieve these grades,  but for a variety of reasons presently may not. 

Each session was in small groups maximum 10, in an informal setting (with refreshments provided) and ran for 100 minutes. In these sessions, Sander skilfully got each student to reflect on what barriers to learning they had, whether it be poor behaviour, low motivation or lack of aspirations. He then tried to think about ways forward and to get them to be more positive about the fact that they were in control of their own achievement.

The students responded very well to Sander, he has an extremely warm, friendly personality that makes them feel secure and with his help they were able to explore their own feelings and emotions. They were extremely honest and open in the responses they gave and Sander skilfully probed them with more questions which at times were uncomfortable, but necessary to really get them to reflect on what was holding them back.

The students and Assistant Head teacher felt these sessions were of great value in allowing individual time to explore their own thoughts with the help of a sympathetic, trained professional. Several feedback that it was extremely worthwhile and was the most useful part of the whole programme that the school has put together to try and raise the attainment of these students. The Assistant Head teacher was also of this opinion and I have passed on all our thoughts to the Aim Higher team in Suffolk so that other schools and students could benefit from this sort of intervention.

We all love working with Sander at Thurleston High School, he has such a positive attitude and engaging manner that it really is infectious and both the staff and students who work with him really feel that they can achieve their goals once he has skilfully and gently pointed them in the right direction.”

Nikki, Organising Teacher, Thurleston High