Hi, my name is Corron. In my blog, I’m going to be reflecting on the Resilient Move, ‘Making school or college work as well as possible’ – and this means, making it work for you!
When I first started high school, it didn’t really work for me as I didn’t really have a connection with many people. I’d left a primary school where I was head boy and I knew everybody and how my school worked, inside and out! The thought of going to a huge high school, with lots of students and lots of rooms was pretty daunting. The thoughts going through my head were plenty; what if I got lost? Would my teachers like me? Would I like them? How would I feel having several different teachers instead of one? You can tell I like to think things through and I really thought about everything – but instead of focusing on the good things, I worried about what bad things might happen instead of putting on my positivity glasses and focusing on what good things could happen!
High school is a really big stepping stone for everybody – that is why it is called a transition. It’s a time of change and upheaval but that does not mean it isn’t manageable.
As I am writing this blog, it might be easy to see that I have really made school work for me. I’m really happy where I am and the progress I have made in such a short time. As it turns out, once I got to know my tutor, I quickly got to realise that the school was really going to work for me – I have a proud headteacher and supportive teachers and friends who understand me, as I understand myself and some of this is down to my involvement with HeadStart.
Within HeadStart, I have realised the value of co-production and getting my voice heard and this has impacted my confidence, given me courage, ambition and developed my ideas of resilience. I am a proud co-leader of the Resilience Revolution across Blackpool and I am proud of myself as each day, I make my resilient moves that help me succeed.
My resilient moves which help to make school work for me are, all of the moves found under the ‘Belonging’ section, such as ‘getting together with people you can rely on’, ‘predicting a good experience of something new’ and ‘making friends and mixing with other people’. I am a proud member of YPEG (Young Person’s Executive Group) and I have attended events such as the Youth Engagement Conference, the opening of the Resilience Pathway and I have had opportunities that other young people in Blackpool might not have had, this includes speaking to the BBC, The Guardian and BBC Germany and my journey has only just begun!
My advice to people wanting to become more resilient and make school work for themselves, is find a place you feel you belong. This could be with a group of friends, with an individual, at a club, or spending time doing something that you are passionate about. I would also suggest just getting to know people, because, who knows? That one person that you want to make a good relationship with (but possibly are scared to) might have things in common with you that you couldn’t have dreamed of!