Rock climbing, necklace-making and drawing self-portraits: Islington schoolgirls build confidence at City

“I have taught some children that have never seen the river Thames,” said Sarah-Jane Kennedy, who is a schoolteacher and school governor at Hugh Myddelton Primary School, just north of City’s campus.

Hugh Myddelton is one of many schools that City’s Widening Participation and Outreach (WPO) Team works with. As an innercity London school, its demographic ranges from families struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, to others which are middle class.

The WPO team’s goal is to help support underrepresented communities access higher education and thrive in their educational journeys, and colleagues work closely with each school to determine how to best support their needs.

Teacher Sarah-Jane identified that Year 6 schoolgirls would benefit with a final confidence boost before they head off to one of eight different secondary schools scattered across London.

She worked with Hannah Bowles, City’s Senior Outreach Officer, to come up with a weeklong programme.

Throughout the week, the girls reflected on their strengths and the areas in which they wanted to grow skills. They made bracelets to give as gifts and toured City’s campus with undergraduate students.

On the final day of the programme, they went rock climbing and bouldering at the Castle Climbing Centre. The Green Lanes climbing wall got its name because of its imposing appearance: the repurposed Victorian pump station looks like a castle with its towers turrets jutting skywards.

Rock climbing is an act of trust: the climber must trust their belayer to keep them safe if they fall of the route. Together, the girls built trust and pushed their own limits. They gained confidence to try, to fail and fall, and to try again.

One 11-year-old student who was selected to take part in the Confidence Club dreams of being an author or an engineer.  “This week taught me to appreciate the things I’m good at and to try get better at the things I’m not good at,” she said.

For this student, who was the only one in the group who had tried rock-climbing before, the sport helped her overcome her fear of heights.

“We may be different, but we’re all people,” reflected another 10-year-old student. “I learned to appreciate myself, to be confident and to be kind.” She is creative and enjoyed the drawing sessions during the week, which she hopes to continue doing more of in the future.

Teacher Sarah-Jane was impressed with how confident and boisterous the girls were. Many of them who presented as very shy in school were keen to put themselves forward to try new things out first.

“I love the fact that this programme focuses on the personal and social side of things as well as the educational angle,” said teacher Sarah-Jane. “The girls have been coming back to school from these sessions energetic, happy, open-minded and bright-eyed.”

One of the goals of programmes like the Confidence Club is to invite the schoolchildren to develop new interests, broaden their horizons and begin imagining themselves as future university students.

For some of these children, no-one in their families will have been to university, and visiting City gives them the chance to think about how school and university could impact their futures.

“If you don’t see it, you struggle to be it,” says Ben Copsey, who heads up the WPO Team at City.