Leadership and taking opportunities is a key part of life at Costessey High School in Norfolk.  This is one of the reasons why year 10 students from Costessey High came along to a Future Foundations programme at PGL Grantham.  This experience gave them the opportunity to practice their leadership skills with their fellow year 9 Costessey students.

Students were put through their paces in groups mixed with year 9 and 10’s by participating in trust exercises. How hard is it to fall off a 3ft high wall backwards into the arms of ten people? Well…quite, actually!

What’s the deal with University? Well, that is the question Future Foundations helped year 9 students from Earlham School, Norfolk, discover and answer for themselves on the 14^th July 2009.  Rather than going through the last few years of secondary school with only an idea of what University is, Future Foundations took 45 students to Loughborough University, one of the top Universities in the UK, to change those ideas into a reality.

We have been working with Courtney and her year group for the last year and at the programme last weekend (3-5th April) she stood up and read the following, I think it speaks for itself.

The taste of the chocolate on my tingling tongue. The sounds of the Jacksons echoing around the room. The smell of the musty rooms as we literally jump in and collapse on the bed. The feeling of this shirt brushing against my skin as I dance around like crazy. This feeling is amazing. I actually think I may have seen the top of the world today and I'm not even kidding.

Feel good music. The best friends in the world. More support than I could ever imagine. A family that love me to pieces. A realisation that I am somebody. A belief in myself, and chocolate. Man I've got the world. And I'm not gonna lose it now. I just seem to keep taking skips, jumps and leaps forward. Now I'm gonna try to build a wall behind me so I can't fall back. I don't want to fall back. This means willpower.