An Interview with Kizzi Keast, Access & Outreach Manager @ University of Reading

What do you like about CoachBright’s mission and work?

It’s very individual – a young person gets the support that they need as an individual which means it has a great impact. There’s a time and place for whole-year group or cohort interventions but when it comes to attainment and coaching, an individual approach is key. Since working with CoachBright more closely I have also seen the amount of energy and effort that staff put into building positive relationships with the young people and just how powerful that is.

Why did you want to partner with CoachBright?

We were looking for other ways to support our internal Attainment Raising work, especially at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 and wanted something that was explicitly targeted at the students who would most benefit – not just the “easy wins”. CoachBright was also already working with some of our partner schools and it seemed like a logical decision to join up for greater impact.

What does your current partnership with CoachBright involve?

We currently fund coaching for 200 young people across 5 schools in our local area – a Year 9 and a Year 11 group in each school. We also host graduation trips on campus for these schools and other schools that CoachBright is working with, in the South East. CoachBright makes it really easy to work with them – there’s not that much extra work for us to do.

What impact have you seen on both the pupils on the CoachBright programmes and your own students?

Our partnership is still new but the results from our first coaching cohorts have been really positive in terms of attainment for the pupils involved. We’re excited to see how it progresses over time!

Why do you think other universities should partner with CoachBright?

CoachBright really does have the interests of the young people at heart and the programme has clear evidence of impact. In terms of partnership work, the team at CoachBright are easy to work with and happy to flex and meet your requirements as well as their own. And the young people are amazing – graduation days are always wonderful!