Select and prepare students


The selection and the preparation of your students is an important stage in planning your project.

Sky Sports Living for Sport's main aim is to help those students who are becoming, or who already are, disengaged from school life.

The initiative has now been taken up by so many schools, and for such a variety of reasons, proving its flexibility over and over again.

Taking part in the initiative is going to help your students reflect on their behaviour and values.

Your group

You may already be clear about whom you want to target and why, but from other schools' experiences you may also want to consider:

  • Linking to existng school systems such as school attendance and punctuality records, attainment records.
  • Speaking to subject teachers about particular students whom they feel might benefit, and gaining support from colleagues for the project at the same time.
  • Thinking about which students may be motivated by sport or physical activity.

and also think about:

  • Including some higher achieving students in your group to help boost the confidence of the others, as well as making them not feel that they are being targeted. Mixed ability groups have worked extremely well in the past and have led to some great examples of peer mentoring.
  • The optimum size and mix of the group that will encourage both individual and group learning. The suggestion is that groups do not exceed 15 but even this may be too large for the majority of groups.
  • Taking students out of their everyday school or classroom environment can sometimes help build relationships within the group as well as between you as the member of staff and the young people as individuals.

Different schools have used different techniques to select pupils. There is no right or wrong approach.

What other schools did...

One school interviewed their students, thereby making them feel they had already achieved something by getting onto the project; the students felt that they already "belonged" to the group.

Another option could be to invite parents and guardians to be part of the initial selection process; having their support might increase chances of success with individual young people.