7th February 2023
St Brendan’s is proud to be a part of the Bristol Educational Partnership (BEP), a collaborative arrangement involving 6 state secondary schools, 7 independent schools, St Brendan’s Sixth Form College, University of Bristol, University of the West of England and Bristol City Council – all working together to enrich education and improve outcomes for young people in the city.
Projects, events and activities are organised in partnership with a wide range of organisations from across Bristol, giving young people access to the best that our exciting and vibrant city has to offer. A number of teacher networks have also been set up to enable collaboration across partner schools so that best practice can be shared.
Late last year Vicki Haigh, our in-house BEP representative and Head of Pedagogy, Professional Development and Innovation, shared an exciting opportunity for four students to become BEP Oracy Pioneers. Successful applicants would undergo two training sessions with Unique Voice, an organisation based in Bristol which delivers creative projects to improve young people’s social and emotional development. The purpose of the training sessions is to build our pioneer’s confidence and oracy skills in order for them to then go on to deliver workshops to younger students at schools. Applicants had to complete an interview process in order to become a pioneer. We received an overwhelming response and are proud to announce our four Bristol Educational Partnership Oracy Pioneers are: Kazamir, Jefferson, Bee and Emma who all performed brilliantly in their interviews.
The four pioneers will be undergoing their training over the next few months and will then begin to deliver sessions at schools with the support of Vicki. The pioneers will also help lead new BEP initiatives around the College. We will be catching up with Kazamir, Jefferson, Bee and Emma once they have completed the training and have delivered the workshops to see how they got on!
Take centre stage with Youth Talks
Following the success of the Oracy Pioneers scheme within the College, we were delighted this month to share another opportunity for our students via BEP – Youth Talks.
Youth Talks is an opportunity for all of our students to have a platform to communicate their passion for a topic, hobby or activity. To kick start the programme we welcomed Anthony from the Carrot Foundation onsite to explain the scheme in more detail to everyone.
The programme will begin with ten Year 12 students who will receive training, coaching and support in public speaking from Ignited Presenting who are a professional training and coaching company, based in Bristol. They will guide each of our students on how to prepare for their 'YouthTalk' which will take place in the summer term. As well as delivering their own YouthTalk, the ten students will also go on to support others who would like to deliver a YouthTalk over the coming year.
The programme will begin at the end of February with the aim that the talks will become a termly event for all students current and new to get involved in.
We encourage all students to watch the short video below to hear the introductory talk from Anthony and to learn more about this exciting new opportunity and how to get involved:
Apply today
If you are a Year 12 student who would like to learn how to become a great speaker and who has a passion, interest or issue that you want to tell people about click here to fill out the application form.
The closing date for applications is Friday 24th February.
