I was an Academic Coach on the GCSE Bristnall Hall Programme in Birmingham last term and have progressed to be Head Coach on the Year 13 West Walsall programme this term, whilst also coaching in A level biology.
CoachBright has been an extremely valuable experience for my professional development as an aspiring teacher by giving me the opportunity to work with students of different age groups in two different schools. This has developed my critical skills in a teaching context, such as how to motivate students and help facilitate their learning and progression.
CoachBright has opened the doors to this personal development by providing excellent training sessions, and the programmes involved me delivering 1:1 coaching sessions with another pupil for a total of 7 weeks, allowing me to witness how students develop their skills and knowledge to achieve their end goal.
The Head Coach role has improved my leadership skills by allowing me to lead and motivate a successful team of 14 coaches on my programme, partly achieved through organised socials. The task of monitoring 14 coaching pairs has really widened my perspective when it comes to finding successful teaching techniques and provided me with a lot of experience in organisation management and problem solving.
I also feel extremely passionate about tackling social mobility issues through working with students from ‘underprivileged backgrounds’ like myself and helping students aspire to achieve their long-term goals such as university degrees and beyond, irrespective of any social mobility barriers. I strongly believe social mobility should not be a factor preventing an individual to succeed to their strongest potential. It was only because of the excellent outreach support I received as a school student myself, from University of Birmingham students with UCAS applications and my studies that I felt confident in my personal and academic abilities to achieve my future goals.
CoachBright has been my first major opportunity to reciprocate this support to people who are in the same position I was in over 2 years ago. This personal connection is what has driven my passion to be a part of CoachBright and has made the experience ever so rewarding. I have really enjoyed working with Coachbright so far and I look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.
Blog Post by: Mark Perry, Head Coach on the Birmingham West Walsall Programme
