Achievement For All ambassadors David Gandy & Joffre White Sponsor COVID-19 Fundraising Campaign
Achievement for All ambassador David Gandy is urging the
members of the general public, parents, carers, businesses and school alumni to
help fund the highly impactful AFA programmes for schools in their local areas.
David shares the importance of young people’s mental health and wellbeing
during Covid-19 and has stepped up to contribute towards funding these
extensive AFA programmes for his junior and senior schools. Not only are the
AFA programmes tailored to support students, but they also support parents,
carers, teachers and senior leaders in the school during these unprecedented
times to help boost their mental health and wellbeing.
Schools reported Improvement in Achievement and Success after AFA
Wellbeing Programmes
David shared how the schools he has sponsored have reported improvement in
achievement and success after being involved with previous AFA programmes.
“Sometimes you donate money but you don’t know the effects it has. It’s great to
see the direct impact of your contributions which is rewarding and this gives
businesses, alumni, members of the community and public an opportunity to be
truly involved in supporting their schools,” said David Gandy, Model and AFA
Ambassador.
“In this current situation in which we find ourselves in, we are still in isolation
because let’s not forget, there's a lot of people out there that are still not brave
enough to go outside and take risks and a lot of these people are children who
are vulnerable that need our support more than ever,” said AFA Ambassador and
Writer Jofree White “At this moment in time their emotional health and wellbeing
is at risk.”
Reading can help overcome loneliness during Covid-19
AFA, is an educational charity that advocates for reading and writing, launched a
200 Million Minute Reading Challenge in March to encourage children and young
people, especially those who are vulnerable, to read more extensively to help
them during this period of isolation in Covid-19.
“A book in the hands of a child can be as powerful as making sure that they’re
fed because reading is at the end of the day, is food for the mind. There are 3
Million single-parent families and a lot of those children are vulnerable and we
can’t always see that loneliness in a child and introducing a book in their lives
allows them to relate to characters and start conversation making them feel
brave to opening-up and feeling less lonely” said Jofree.
Supporting Parents, Teachers, Carers and Senior Leaders Emotional Health and
Wellbeing during Covid-19
“Anxious and frightened minds don’t learn, Anxious and frightened minds
don’t teach, Anxious and frightened minds don’t lead. This has been the
focus in developing the wellbeing programmes so it meets the outcomes for
schools as they work towards preparing schools re-opening post-Covid-19
lockdown,” said Deputy CEO Karen Iles.
Achievement for All has created special programmes to support teaching
assistants, carers, teachers, headteachers and governors during this
pandemic as currently there is nothing out there to support them during this
difficult time. The programme aids young people and staff to best deal with the
emotional and wellbeing challenges they face. The AFA team can support with:
● Policy Development
● Curriculum Development
● Blended Learning Approaches
● Virus Education
Achievement for All has developed a programme to accelerating academic
progress amongst vulnerable and disadvantaged learners. This ultimately closes
the performance gap and raises standards. Core Strength is all about the
mental toolkit you can develop as you grow. The achievement for all
emotional toolkit is easy to talk about and easy to apply at home and at school.
The programme covers:
- Maths and Me
- The Finding Out Me
- The Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Me
- Other people and Me
- The Digital Me
- The Creative Me
- Building the best Me
Schools working with Achievement for All, have great parental engagement
systems in place that enable them to communicate effectively with parents and
carers, which is essential during Covid-19. They will continue to support those
schools in developing further strategies, to help troubled families and how those
parents can support the young person at home, what does informal learning look
like, identifying intrinsic motivations, reviewing goal settings and establishing a
deeper partnership with the parents. This is going to be key to not only helping
with emotional health and wellbeing but also with raising student achievement
and success.
Achievement for All is a leading not-for-profit organisation that works in
partnership with early years settings, schools and colleges to improve outcomes
for all children and young people. AFA Education’s proven ability to accelerate
academic progress closes the gap for all ages and stages, regardless of their
background, challenge or need. AFA Education offers coaching programmes,
step up reviews and regional CPD events to improve achievement and empower
students and educators across the country.