Back to back
Welcome to our autumn newsletter. You can see that the term ahead is packed for Grit and this is exactly how we like it to be. We’re excited to be broadening the number of universities, schools and local authorities we deliver our work with this year. At its heart our mission is about giving people the opportunity to transform their lives by transforming their thinking so – with this principle in mind – it really is a case of more is better!
We’re particularly excited about the growing number of programmes we’re delivering for staff teams in colleges, charities, schools, universities and local authorities – by working with staff to examine how they can move past their own limitations, we open up the possibility of creating a ripple effect that impacts many more young people than we could do directly.
One question we’ve been grappling with in Grit is the concept that ‘everyone is a leader.’ We’ve been looking at this as a team, realising that we all have assumptions and biases about what leadership is supposed to look like. Some of us are more comfortable with seeing ourselves as leaders than others, and yet, as an organisation setting out to create transformation we have a high bar and it requires leadership in some capacity from everyone that works with and for us. This reflects some of the work that we do with students in university – really unpicking the idea of leadership and locating where it lives in them and where they would like to develop it further.
So as we move into autumn and navigate this busy time, we’ll be doing so as a team of leaders, willing to stretch and challenge ourselves and each other. I hope you can use your own leadership capacity for whatever challenges you currently face and that the autumn is a productive and fulfilling time.
Ellie
Back to back
As we go into the autumn we’ve got back to back workshops. There’s programmes with Black Leaders and Students of Colour at Nottingham Trent (NTU), Bath Spa and Edge Hill Universities and at the Universities of Manchester, Winchester, Hertfordshire and Exeter.
At NTU too, we’ve been working with recent graduates on mindsets for employability and we’ll be working with mature students. We’ve run a Back to Uni workshop at the University of Leeds and we’ve got 1-day workshops coming up at Southampton Solent University. Meanwhile, at NTU, Sheffield Hallam and Liverpool John Moores Universities, we’ll be working with postgrads.
We’d love to bring Grit to your team, your school, college or university. Get in touch and we can have a chat.
Grit on Instagram
As part of University Welcome Weeks, our trainers have teamed up with past participants – attending Freshers Fairs and Welcome events at universities up and down the country, promoting our programmes for Students and Staff of Colour.
Follow us on Instagram @grit_breakthrough for the latest, especially if you’re a student or staff member at Bath Spa, Edge Hill and Nottingham Trent Universities, and the Universities of Bristol, Exeter, Hertfordshire, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and Winchester.
A taster of Grit for Virtual Schools
Calling all Virtual School Heads, Deputy Heads and leads!
Join us for a free Grit taster on Zoom from 10am to 11.30am on Tuesday November 4th.
Hear from a former DCS and a Virtual School Assistant Head about where they see Grit’s work might benefit Virtual Schools
Get a taste of Grit and a flavour of the difference it can make
Share the unique challenges your Virtual School faces and hear from other Virtual School leaders about the approaches being taken – particularly around staff development
Learn about the conclusions of the independent evaluation of Grit’s work with local authority staff teams
Email vicky@grit.org.uk to book a place.
Be great to see you …
In conference, in press
We’ve been out and about at conferences again already this term. At the RAISE (Researching, Advancing & Inspiring Student Engagement) Network conference at the University of Glasgow we led a session on Empowering Black Student Leaders. We looked at what works in empowering and recognising Black student leaders, the transferable learning is there, the role it can play as part of wider institutional efforts to develop and support student leaders…
…And we’re thrilled that Action on Access (the information hub for university access and participation) have published an article we co-authored with Ailsa Wilding, Head of Access at the University of Sheffield about working class boys and attitudes to university. We explore how the right mix of support, challenge and encouragement can change the way they think about themselves and the way they think about higher education. Read it here.