Castle student is inspired to do better with the support of Huddersfield Town Foundation.
Sam, along with other Year 8 students, was put forward by Castle Hall School to attend the Premier League Inspires programme in the 2023-24 academic year. Each student had different reasons for the need for intervention, in Sam’s case this was mainly for behaviour. Sam was regularly getting detentions for being disruptive and challenging in and outside of classroom environments, during social times, and also for not being prepared for lessons.
We delivered a group mentoring programme in school working on life skills such as resilience, communication, respect, and behaviour modification. It challenged the whole group to think about the consequences of their actions and encouraged them to make better choices.
Sam became a real leader within this group over the period working with the Foundation, this led to the development of a project called “U Can Talk”. This idea was created by Sam and the rest of the group with the idea to provide peer support to other students within the school. The intervention encouraged pupils to talk about their mental health and provided more access to Safeguarding leads, Heads of Year and the Huddersfield Town Foundations delivery staff for mentoring support. Giving him this ownership and pride in a project gave Sam something to aim towards and through fostering positive relationships with school staff during the implementation of the project, alongside tracking data on the school system it was clear Sam’s positive behaviours improved. We saw a visible improvement in Sam’s confidence and communication skills, he delivered assembly talks to both Years 7 and 8 regarding the project, standing in front of around 170-180 students per year group.
Sam Wadsworth
"Me and the boys have come a long way with the support of Huddersfield Town Foundation, from going to the John Smiths Stadium to Wembley, so I would like to say thank you Jonny (Huddersfield Town Foundation Project Worker), me and the boys can all agree you have helped us all.
"When I first started in year 8, I wasn’t having a good time, getting detention after detention which ended up stressing my mum out, until Mrs Bonham called the boys names out to have our first session with Jonny (Huddersfield Town Foundation Project Worker). We would have two sessions per week, they were workshops around mental health (different topics). Ever since that day I gradually started to behave better not over a week time but gradually got better. This was good for me, my mum, and my teachers."
Louise Ashton – Sam’s Mum
" I can not praise Jonny (Huddersfield Town Foundation Project Worker) enough for the work he has done with my son, Sam. He is truly an inspiration and has been an amazing support to him and the group of lads he has been working with. Sam was really struggling, and this was greatly affecting his behaviour in school, myself and his teachers Mrs Bonham, Mrs Jefferson and Mr Jackson worked with me through this challenging time and supported both myself and Sam and suggested that they put Sam forward to work with Jonny through the Huddersfield Town Foundation. It truly has made a massive difference and Sam is like a different lad now, the impact has been amazing and as a parent I feel extremely grateful to the teachers for and Jonny for all of their support and everything they have done. Sam’s confidence has improved, as well as his behaviour and outlook on things, I can’t thank you all enough, long may it continue."