Telford students 'graduate' from new mentoring programme

Fifteen students from the Hadley Learning Community have been working with the Jon Egging Trust – a youth work charity set up in honour of Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging, who lost his life following a display at the Bournemouth Air Festival.

He was coming to the end of his first year with the world-famous Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team – the Red Arrows – flying in the position of Red 4.

And now, the Trust has realised Jon’s dream of inspiring young people through his love of aviation, STEM, teamwork and leadership, helping them to overcome adversity, identify their strengths and work towards their dreams.

The students from Hadley Learning Community are following JET’s three-year Blue Skies programme, and took part in a ‘graduation ceremony’ to mark the end of their first year.

Guests at the ceremony included partners that had helped to deliver out-of-school workplace visits for the students including the RAF Museum Access and Learning Team, RAF Cosford Station Commander Wing Commander Penny Brady, and personnel who had volunteered on the programme.

Parents and guardians of the young people who took part also attended with school staff that have supported the project, and the Mayor of Telford and Wrekin Ian Preece.

Vicky Petrylak, for the Jon Egging Trust, said: “We work with students over a three-year period delivering our Blue Skies programme.

“We work alongside students to promote the social and emotional aspects of learning such as confidence, teamwork skills and resilience. The Hadley Learning Community students have completed their first year focussing on teamwork activities.

“Their second year will centre around leadership, and their third year on employability. We have worked closely with our partners at RAF Cosford, the RAF Museum and Collins Aerospace to ensure the students have access to inspirational workplaces and the excellent role models in them that volunteer their time to support our programmes.”

At the graduation, the students presented speeches on the progress they had made in each of the JET objectives – working with others, resilience, communication, leadership, setting and achieving goals, and confidence.

Guests also heard from Vicky who spoke about the Trust and what the programme entails – five in-school sessions, five out-of-school sessions, one graduation and one evaluation session.

Lucy Watkiss, from the RAF Museum, spoke about her experience of working with the JET students, noting how their confidence had grown hugely since the beginning.

Chief tech Adam Edwards, from RAF Cosford, explained the sessions they had run on camp such as a glider challenge, crossing shark infested custard and completing equipment challenges, and said the students had done extremely well with each task.

Teacher Steve Dawson also praised how well the students had engaged with the programme, the progress they had made, and said they had been a real credit to the school.