Kawtar’s story

Kawtar was in Year 9 at a school in West London when she did a 3-day intensive Grit workshop followed by five months of coaching from a volunteer life coach.

I was on a Pre-Trustee Warning [one of the last warnings before being permanently excluded]. I was on the edge of being kicked out of school. I was getting detentions every day, spending a lot of time in isolation.

In the Grit workshop I did a lot of thinking. We did a lot of talking about how we could improve ourselves. Listening to what other students had to say about how they had increased attendance, how they improved themselves in so many other ways, it got me wondering if I could do that to.

The coach really, really, really, really helped me. We went through scenarios and talked through how I should think before I speak, take deep breaths and count to five to stop me getting into bad situations with teachers. We talked about how I was doing and she would tell me when I was doing well. And we talked about what I had to do to excel academically.

I met the coach during the school day so when she gave me tips and advice I could put them into practice immediately in the next lesson, rather than having to wait until the next day when I would have forgotten them.

Now I’m off the Pre-Trustee Warning. My behavior is much better. I’m not getting many detentions and I’m not going to be excluded. I don’t have the stress or worry about getting excluded from school and starting all over again somewhere else. That was really intense. I used to worry about that a lot.

I’m learning better in class, specially in science. Before I’d often be taken out of class but now I’m listening and focusing more. Just yesterday, in maths got a warning for something I’d not done but instead of creating a scene I counted to five and decided not to escalate it.

Grit is a great programme that helps you in your learning at school and in your learning about yourself. It’s changed the way I think myself and it’s changed the way I think about school. I’m proud to have been able to improve myself.