Such was the call to arms from visiting speaker Mr Beezy to the captivated students and staff of Year 11 this week.
In an emotional and high-energy session, Mr Beezy shared his journey and his work ethic, relating powerful motivational phrases to the students’ real life experiences and aspirations. Using hard hitting messages, he convinced even the most hardened teenager that hard work really does pay off and the very personal and individual goals that they shared together are worth the effort to achieve.
Head of Year, Mrs Smith, who herself was very moved by the event, said:
“Year 11 were absolutely superb during Mr Beezy’s inspirational presentation and workshops. Students were hugely engaged, thoughtful, mature and reflective. Above all, what struck me was how supportive our young people are of each other. The day was filled with individual stories and commitment that at times proved extremely emotional.”
In follow up workshops, Mr Beezy ensured students found a lasting personal connection to a motivating factor that would keep them focused in the months to come.
The atmosphere in the room was electric as he went through numerous real life examples of what motivates young people, himself, and then asking the key question to every single one of them – What’s their Why? For many of them, this was clearly a very emotional exercise to put down on paper in the 15 minutes of silence that followed. Members of staff in the room at the time were moved by the experience, Mr Brown stated:
“For our students to then have the sheer bravery and guts to stand up and read out who they wanted to feel proud was without doubt one of the most moving and emotional moments I have ever witnessed at the college. An unbelievable experience that I will never ever forget.”
“This really made me realise the fortunate position I am in and why I must work hard in the months up to my exams.”
“I went into the workshop expecting him to say we need to do better and to feel no effect from it, however, he made me and my fellow colleagues all view our situation in a different light.”
Others spoke of the sense of connection as students opened up to each other:
“I felt that the workshop was really helpful with finding your motivation and I felt like it was a bonding experience with everyone.”
With Parents Evening the following night, it was a powerful show of the support that our young people have around them. A busy night, with almost every Year 11 parent in attendance, created a continuing buzz as students were given clear and constructive feedback from their teachers to ensure that they understood how they could achieve their goals by the end of the year – the necessary building blocks to move forward from the commitments they had made in their workshops the day before.
It was clear that all adults involved care deeply and believe that these young people can be enormously successful. A powerful show of the positive effect of community within Heathfield; as previous years have shown, when the collective strengths are galvanised to support our young people phenomenal things can happen.