Sometimes it’s good to take a break from your usual working day to do something different. Last week, CoachBright ran a captivating Team Away Day, designed to be inspirational, enjoyable, and memorable. It certainly was!

We were treated to a facilitation and improvisation training workshop by our brand new Head of West Midlands, Elliott McDowell, who knew we would bond well whilst performing spontaneous drama scenes during a game of Freeze Tag * in Pigeon Park, Birmingham! This, as well as other improv games certainly encouraged our creativity and quick thinking and were a great tool for building team spirit. Elliott ensured that the workshop was full of tools and techniques that we could all use going forward (see below for more information on these) so, on behalf of the team, a huge thank you, Elliott.

Returning indoors we heard from our Chair of Trustees, and headteacher of King Edward VI Handsworth Wood Girls Academy, Qamar Riaz. He spoke of the disparity between the most and least advantaged pupils with the recent A-level results, as well as the deepening North-South divide despite years of levelling-up rhetoric from the government. He also cited university as still being one of the most important paths to subject mastery, work experience and higher earnings for young people.

Qamar then spoke about stuck schools – those who have produced consistently weak Ofsted outcomes over a long period. He explained that the demographics and geography of such schools had led to multiple generations of children growing up filled with frustration because school appeared to have been of little benefit, and hadn’t offered a path to better opportunities.

Finally, he encouraged the team to look at how schools interpreted the term ‘disadvantage’, and to determine the characteristics of children who were being permanently excluded, coupled with the intersectionality of their protected characteristics (e.g. socioeconomic status, gender, race and disability). He said there was a need for more data from schools and that the most hard-to-reach, disengaged and underperforming group in communities today were most often white working-class boys living in some of the most challenging parts of the country.

Qamar ended his talk by reiterating the importance of educators working to break multi-generational cycles of low attainment and why he felt CoachBright’s work over the next ten years would be essential as we play our part in tackling these growing inequalities.

Following this thought-provoking talk, the team took off for a well-deserved curry at Asha’s, the Birmingham restaurant that has hosted a raft of A-list celebrities at its tables on Newhall Street in the city centre. Stylish, delicious and owned by the one and only Asha Bhosle, we were thrilled to be served their award-winning Indian cuisine and to meet the restaurant manager Nouman Farooqui. It was a wonderful end to a very different working day.

* AN EXAMPLE OF AN IMPROV GAME & ITS IMPORTANCE: https://www.hooplaimpro.com/freeze-tag