Students from Carmel College recently completed the AQA Unlocking Potential programme in partnership with the Dame Kelly Homes Trust. They had a great time celebrating all their hard work at the QEII Centre in Westminster.
AQA Unlocking Potential is a mentoring programme for young people aged 14 to 19 who have faced personal challenges or disadvantages. The programme is delivered in partnership with the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, whose specially trained mentors competed at world-class sporting events – including the Olympics and Paralympics – and who have overcome their own significant personal challenges.
Over the last eight months, the selected students have been working with amazing athlete mentors from the Dame Kelly Holmes trust to help unlock hidden attributes and skills. As part of the programme all students had to deliver a social action project to help people in their community. These included raising awareness of mental health issues, helping the homeless and collecting for food banks, fundraising events for various good causes and lots of sporting events to get more young people active and engaged in sport.
Upper Sixth students, Jamie, Jacob, Kylie and Nathan organised a fantastic show of ‘Macbeth Rebooted’ as part of their project and Lower Sixth students, Lauren, Kai and Harry decorated and customised the Zimmer frames of elderly people in Greenfields Care Home and raised money with a bake sale in college.
Toby Salt, AQA’s Chief Executive, said “AQA Unlocking Potential is an amazing programme and one that AQA is very pleased to be part of. Every year the young people taking part continue to amaze and impress us and it’s fantastic to see how far they have come over the last 8 months.
“Most people see us as just an exam board, but our motto is ‘realising potential’ and that goes for all young people, not just those taking our exams.
“This is where AQA Unlocking Potential really is very special – to be able to help these young people to truly realise their own potential is what AQA is all about.”
Dame Kelly Holmes, double gold Olympian and founder of Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, said “AQA Unlocking Potential is not aimed at developing the potential of future sports stars, but is targeting young people facing disadvantage to help raise self-esteem, confidence and aspirations. Today is about celebrating their achievements.
“Listening to the journey these young people have been on is truly inspiring and they should all be really proud of what they’ve achieved. The athlete mentors know what it takes to overcome adversity and have the will to succeed not only in sport, but in life too.
“I really can’t believe that AQA Unlocking Potential is now in its seventh year; it’s a fantastic programme and every year students excel. To see more young people transformed through this life-changing programme is amazing!”
“We’d also like to thank players of People’s Postcode Lottery for supporting us to reach even more young people on the 2017/18 programme”
