‘Nick Dougherty’ Award for Unleash Your Drive School of the Year
ST JAMES THE GREAT
St James the Great were celebrated at the GF President’s Awards for their fantastic year delivering the Unleash Your Drive initiative in their school. The programme was launched in September 2023 at Wentworth, so it was fitting to celebrate a school have had such an impact on the first anniversary.
The award was part of the President’s Awards at Wentworth Club, hosted by Nick Dougherty as part of a fantastic week at the BMW PGA Championship. Read more about our President’s Awards 2024 here
Visitors at the evening, which saw over 100 people come together to celebrate junior golf, were treated to a welcome from the St James the Great choir, all of whom have taken part in the programme.
St James the Great applied for our first round of Unleash Your Drive in Schools after our initial launch in September 2023, after seeing the launch event online. Their application for the fully funded programme was successful.
The school is located in Thornton Heath and the school location deprivation indicator is in the 5th quintile, the most deprived of all schools. The children’s starting point is not equitable to many others as they simply don’t have the same access to what they need in order to succeed. Children at the school have a diverse community and ethnic mix with 95.3% having English as an additional language, and many children face challenges from the beginning in terms of socio economic hardships, being in care, experiencing childhood trauma and some face the risk of being moved due to living in social housing.
After receiving the fully funded programme, St James the Great PSHE lead Michelle Reagan helped to deliver the sessions to Year Three and Year Five pupils, with a total of 115 taking part in the first terms. The impact was instant, with the youngsters embracing the mental toughness tools and enjoying the games that came with it.
Reagan and deputy head Chris Andrew were both impressed by the impact on all of the kids, indicating that some of the pupils with difficulties concentrating in class or regulating their reactions to stress have really benefitted from the sessions. One pupil with selective mutism struggled with the early sessions, then used mental toughness to overcome the difficulties and eventually thrive.
Over the six weeks, pupils showed a 22% rise in mental toughness tool understanding, and a 10.5% rise in mental wellbeing. Highlights included a 65% rise in persistence and determination, plus a 58% rise in confidence when speaking in front of peers.
The school now plans to roll the initiative out to further pupils across a number of years, and as well as treating our visitors to a rendition from the choir, St James the Great also joined us at our Westminster celebration earlier in the year, with the juniors speaking in front of 100 adults about the impacts that the programme has had on them.
Following their sessions, the Golf Foundation arranged for PGA coach Alex MacGregor to attend the school and deliver a session to a cohort of Year 5 pupils who had been going through the Unleash Your Drive training. These groups were then invited to a golf festival at Addington Court Golf Club, where they got to experience a golf course and hit real balls at a driving range – perfectly showcasing the link we are trying to create between schools and golf clubs.
“It’s really exciting,” said Reagan. “Obviously we haven’t done this programme for recognition, we’ve done it for the joy of trying something new and being blown away by the impact. But we’re super excited to receive this award, and you can see how excited the children are. Their ability to be ready to learn has grown, and they’re much kinder to themselves. As well as that, they’ve really worked well as a team and supported each other. The kids talk about the square of concentration in their learning and the ‘What Went Well, Even Better If’ has become a mantra across the school. It’s genuinely been life changing for some kids, and it’s been incredible to see it in action. We can’t wait to share it wider!”
