It’s been a fantastic first term for ReachOut projects across London, Manchester and Oldham. We wanted to hold a competition to recognise the fantastic work our volunteers do, so we invited our project leaders to nominate someone from their project who have been outstanding throughout the first term.
In Manchester and Oldham we had a “mentor of the term” for each session so had a total of 21 fabulous winners! Due to having a lot more project sessions in London, we decided to pick the standout nominee from each borough we work in… so this is a very prestigious award! Nominees for London were: Lexi Beeken, Charlotte Fountaine, Chris Babalol, Erandi Hetti, Francis Scalbert, George Welburn, Harry Lin, Jay Hong, Kate Rutland, Melissa Berry, Natalie McCullen, Naz Turgot, Polly Ogden-Wallis, Steph Bailey, Sheryl Ke En Ng, and Summer Hoilett. Thank you all for your hard work this term!
Now onto the winners in London, Manchester and Oldham…
London
CLUB PROJECTS
Takura Mtandari – North Harringay Year 6 – for his excellent attendance, enthusiasm and communication with mentees.
Noel Anderson – Wellington Year 5 & 6 Girls – for her balance of behaviour management, positivity and fun! For grasping and using character language in every session.
Rita Eton – Tufnell Park Year 6 – for having 100% attendance and bringing much-needed consistency and positivity to her mentees’ sessions.
Savannah Flynn – Jubilee Year 6 Boys – for attending the first session despite only getting an email about it hours before! She is a positive role model for her mentees.
Alex Ross-Skinner – Netley Year 5 – for her willingness to get involved and go the extra mile (by keeping up-to-date with the football so she can chat to the boys!).
Great work Rita Eton, our Club project winner in Islington!
ACADEMY PROJECTS
Alex Hon an-MacDonald – Haggerston Year 8 – for building up a rapport with all of the mentees and being a great support to the project leader in organising the group.
Michael Kreft – Heartlands Year 9 Boys – for being committed to ReachOut after being a mentor for 8 years. He engages brilliantly with his mentees.
Amel Boukabous – Regent Boys – for always being proactive and consistent. Her mentee loves the sessions because she supports him and his individual needs so well.
Paul de Bruin – Wapping High School Year 9, 10 & 11 – for providing his mentee with excellent advice and guidance. His mentee has shown very rapid and noticeable development so far due to Paul’s consistency.
Tori Taylor – Lilian Baylis School group 2 – when one of the sports sessions fell through (due to lack of dodgeballs!), she took charge and rallied the mentees to play a group game which they really enjoyed and engaged with.
Manchester and Oldham
CLUB PROJECTS
Keira Rafferty – Armitage Year 6 group 1 – for working well with two mentees and getting stuck into every activity.
Sophie Heaton – Armitage Year 6 group 2 – for always having such a positive attitude and for building a supportive relationship with her mentee who looks forward to seeing her each week.
Mary Ferguson-Briggs – Rolls Crescent Year 5 – for being very consistent and for putting a lot of effort into building a bond with her mentee.
Yasmin Mohamed – Rolls Crescent Year 6- for engaging with every single mentee and providing the project leader with feedback at the end of sessions.
Alice Yarwood – St Chrysostom’s Year 6 group 1 – for being such a great support to the project leader and for offering to do one of the presentations.
Kimberly Hanson – St Chrysostom’s Year 6 group 2 – for showing excellent commitment to her mentee by helping to set goals and a real desire to develop a mentoring relationship with her.
Shahad Alsaif – St John’s Year 6 group 1 – for helping to get her mentee who was very quiet to become more confident.
Emma Rees – St John’s Year 6 group 2 – for building a great relationship with her mentee and being helpful with other mentees when her own was absent.
Nurhanani Saidi – St Luke’s Year 5 – for having 100% attendance and for being great at bringing out mentees’ confidence with their academic work.
Maria Vizcaino Begueria – St Luke’s Year 6 – for building a lovely mentoring relationship with her two mentees and for being extremely committed to the project.
Mentors and mentees at Armitage Primary School
ACADEMY PROJECTS
Paige Nuttall – Failsworth Year 10 girls – for making a huge effort to get to know all of the mentees and encouraging them to make good choices. She has been a huge help to the project leader.
Sarah O’Flynn – Failsworth Year 8 boys – for always getting involved and motivating her mentees
Samirah Kausar – Failsworth Year 9 boys – for showing up to every session with buckets of enthusiasm, energy and drive. Samirah enters each session with the same growth mindset we ask of each mentee.
Lily Bernstein – Dean Trust Ardwick Year 8 boys – for building a great bond with her mentee, which is evident through his improved academic performance as well as social confidence.
Kimberly Hanson – Dean Trust Ardwick Year 8 girls – for participating wonderfully in all of the activities and making special steps to build her mentoring relationship with her mentee.
Adam Flint – Dean Trust Ardwick Year 9 boys – for attending every session and for engaging with his mentee well. He’s made an extra effort to go through all of the academic work prior to the sessions.
Najma Mohamed – Dean Trust Ardwick Year 9 girls – for her efforts, enthusiasm and commitment to the project – she has been very inspiring to the other mentors.
Richard Cavey – Newman Year 8 boys – for being extremely helpful towards the project leader and helping her to manage the whole group, especially when they were low on mentors. He has bonded well with all of the mentees.
Ayesha Begum – Newman Year 8 girls – for taking the time to get to know all of the mentees and for her consistency and commitment.
Joseph Kennedy – The East Manchester Academy Year 8 boys – for always being prepared to get stuck into any activity, no matter how small, big or challenging.
Noor Nasseri – The East Manchester Academy Year 8 girls – for attending every session and always having a positive attitude. Her mentee is quite shy and does not want to speak much in the session, but Noor supports her to overcome that.
Congratulations to all of the winners! You should have all received your certificate and prize over the last couple of weeks of the term. With almost 700 volunteers in total, it’s testament to your hard work and commitment that you’ve been nominated out of all these people as mentor of the term. To those who weren’t nominated this time, you are still very much appreciated and your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed! We look forward to giving out more mentor of the term awards at Easter!
Mentor Takura Mtandari with mentee Kevin Fernandes and project leader Zoe Manzi. Congratulations!
Ayesha and Saira – mentors at Newman School
Richard was a popular winner of mentor of the term at Newman School!
