Being a Programme Officer at CoachBright usually entails organising coaching sessions with schools and making sure pupils and volunteers have the best experience possible. However, there are times when we get to step into the shoes of the volunteers and actually do some coaching ourselves!
During the Spring term of 2022, I was drafted in to help out on a programme taking place at Jewellery Quarter Academy, a stone’s throw away from Birmingham city centre. My colleague Ugbaad (currently doing a PhD at Cambridge so shoutout to her!) was responsible for the programme and placed me with a small group of Year 8 pupils who needed more support with English. I was excited to get the chance to coach but perhaps a little nervous - our volunteer coaches do a fantastic job so I knew I had big shoes to fill.
Once I’d gotten to know the pupils a little bit, learning about them and what made them tick, we decided for the next few weeks that we’d like to do some work on speech writing as this would complement what they were covering in class. I spent some of the following week wracking my brain about what speaker might be worthwhile studying and gaining inspiration from. We eventually settled on JFK and his Massachusetts twang. I’ve always found the American optimism of the ‘60s appealing (the Space Race, Civil Rights Movement etc.) and JFK’s 'We Choose To Go To The Moon' speech encapsulates that perfectly. We went through the speech together the following week, looking at the various persuasive techniques that made the speech so impactful, picking out the use of repetition and inclusive language as its cornerstones.
The next week we turned our hand to writing our own speeches, crafting speeches about something that each pupil cared deeply about and wanted to convince others of its importance. The group dived straight into it, choosing to share some really meaningful parts of themselves, and having the bravery to be vulnerable. For pupils from low-income backgrounds, showing vulnerability can be especially tough, so it was a real privilege to see the group open up so willingly. The pupils wrote speeches about the value of story-writing, the dangers of rugby, and, in true JFK-style, why you should follow your dreams.
Have a read of some of the speeches pictured below, as they’re a good reminder of the creativity and passion within our young people if we give them the chance to express it on their terms.
The following week, we took things one step further and practised delivering our speeches! We discussed some of the key aspects of public speaking beforehand, like maintaining eye contact and pausing for effect. In particular, I remember the speech of a boy called Mumen. In our sessions thus far he had been quite reserved but his speech championing the benefits of faith revealed a tremendously thoughtful and enthusiastic young man. To see him stand in front of his classmates and deliver a speech with confidence about something that mattered to him was honestly one of the highlights of my time working with CoachBright. You could see at the end of the speech just how proud he was of himself; Mumen had found his voice.
At CoachBright our mission centres around this goal - creating the conditions for young people to realise their potential and develop into confident, independent, and resilient learners. My time with the Year 8s at Jewellery Quarter Academy was far too short, but I was grateful to get to see a snippet of their journey and receive a timely reminder of why we do what we do.
