Bounce Forward Archives

Bounce Forward continues to deliver resilience training as part of the Gravity Skills Charter in partnership with Bridgwater & Taunton College

30th April 202430th March 2024 by Rob Stevens

Bounce Forward continues to deliver resilience training as part of the Local Development Order in partnership with Bridgwater & Taunton College

Lucy Bailey, the Founder of Bounce Forward, conducted a workshop as part of the Gravity Smart Campus development which benefits from an integrated Environment and Social Governance (ESG) policy and Skills Charter. This provides a focus on local training and development to shape a future workforce to meet occupier needs

Bounce Forward is a UK charity home to experts in psychological fitness. The workshop focused on the ‘Resilient Futures‘ programme, which is designed to equip young adults aged 16 to 25 with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive.

The Resilient Futures session hosted at Bridgwater & Taunton College is part of Bounce Forward’s “train the trainer” model which equips local stakeholders with their own “Resilient Futures” champions. The provision will support the development of a future workforce for Gravity and wider Somerset.

Gravity’s Claire Pearce and Salamanca Group’s Esther Croft were joined in attendance by staff from across Bridgwater & Taunton College, representatives from Stantec and Bristol Port.

The core focus of the session was to build mental resilience and emotional wellbeing, using hope theory as the structure to the programme. The content is appropriate for schools and colleges and can be extended to support the workforce including employers working with young people, indeed everyone can benefits from the principles covered. This session continues to build upon the Gravity sponsorship of Bounce Forward during the pandemic to work in local schools and colleges, this training will help to further embed and strengthen skills to develop a workforce for the future.

100% of session attendees agreed or strongly agreed with four impact statements:

I found the training useful personally.
It has prepared me to facilitate Resilient Futures.
It will be useful for the young adults I work with.
I would recommend Resilient Futures to others.

Ideas for implementation included; for delivery of training to staff and students, applying the content to future STEM events, aligning with other offers where Resilience Futures would complement, and a working group has been established to plan dissemination strategically.

Feedback from attendees

‘What I’ve learnt today will be invaluable to all, on a personal level, educational and occupational. Thank you for this opportunity to develop my skills in order to better support others.”

“I liked the fact that it is about empowering students and giving us a tool kit to help them improve their psychological fitness.”

“Particularly enjoyed the variety of attendees and differing experiences.”

This is Gravity’s Director – Planning & Economic Development, Claire Pearce commented: “Seeing Bounce Forward continue its important work following their introduction to the locality in 2021 is important to us and continues to build a positive legacy. Building the confidence of local young people is a critical component in the creation of a happy healthy workforce of tomorrow. We look forward to seeing further partnerships between stakeholders and schools to support our young people into the future”

Bounce Forward Founder & Chair, Lucy Bailey commented: “It was wonderful to have a broad mix of organisations and experience in the room together. So many rich conversations and having been equipped with a full suite of learning resources, those attending shared lots of creative ideas for taking the work forward. What we offer at Bounce Forward will add value and complement the full range of support already available to students at the college and I am excited to see how it evolves.”

Bridgwater & Taunton College Executive Project Lead, Chris Ridgwell commented “We were pleased to be able to host this event through the Local Skills Improvement Fund; bringing together employers from our region who are supporting young people as they begin their careers.

Bounce Forward’s expertise has given our employees the skills and abilities to support their colleagues, demonstrating the significant impact of such partnerships on local skills development.”

Learn more about Bounce Forward’s work in Bridgwater here.

Visit the Bounce Forward website here.

About Bounce Forward

Bounce Forward is a national charity delivering inspiring and practical train the trainer programmes to develop the next generations of psychologically fit children who will become psychologically fit adults. Our training programmes engage teachers, parents and others around children and young people to develop psychological fitness. Psychological fitness combines mental resilience and emotional wellbeing, both key attributes needed for success in the 21st century. We provide a framework of skills, based on a development model so that young people are better placed to face the complexities of tomorrow and make the most of their future. Our core offer is a five-year, evidence-based curriculum that can be embedded in the secondary school offer. Our impact and passion go beyond the delivery of training and teaching resources – at the heart of our work is research and we are driving a movement to influence UK policy around education to form a positive system of change. (Charity number: 1170591).

Gravity congratulates Bounce Forward on its partnership with the Harry Kane Foundation

16th October 202312th October 2023 by Rob Stevens

Gravity congratulates Bounce Forward on its partnership announcement with The Harry Kane Foundation

This is Gravity is proud to share the World Mental Health Day announcement that Bounce Forward has entered a far-reaching partnership with the Harry Kane Foundation. Their shared mission is to inspire and transform a generation’s thinking about mental health and how to nurture and build psychological fitness.

The partnership will provide free psychological fitness training and educational resources, designed to nurture and build mental resilience, and emotional wellbeing, proven to have a positive impact. These resources will be available in schools, workplaces, and to a broader audience through Harry’s influence, platforms, and networks, with the goal of promoting positive mental health across generations.

The partnership kicks off with 17 schools across nine regions in England gaining access to Bounce Forward’s Healthy Minds teaching resources, featuring bespoke content co-authored by Harry and his wife, Kate Kane.

Gravity introduced Bounce Forward to Bridgwater in 2021 as an integrated part of its transformational strategy to create a new era of employment. During the pandemic, Gravity worked with Bounce Forward to support local schools and young people and initiated a ‘Gravity Young People’s Design Competition’ in collaboration with MOBIE.

To date, Bounce Forward has trained 229 teachers across 10 schools, including; Bridgwater & Taunton College, Bridgwater & Taunton College Academy, Quantock Education Trust (4 schools), Puriton Primary, North Petherton Primary, Willowdown, North Newton Community Primary. Bounce Forward has also reached 215 local families through their ‘Raise Resilience’ online course.

In parallel with Bounce Forward, Gravity is driving further social value outcomes through its ‘Sphero’ initiative with Bridgwater United Football Club (BUFC) Community Trust, promoting STEM opportunities by using football as a medium to develop skills in coding and robotics.

Bridgwater and Taunton College Trust is one of the 17 schools involved from the outset of the Bounce Forward & Harry Kane Foundation partnership, it is the only Multi-Academy Trust at launch. Bounce Forward will work with all 6 schools within the trust (3 secondaries and 3 primaries) through a central strategy.

Gravity looks forward to exploring how our community stakeholders can achieve the optimum outcomes for young people through these exciting initiatives with Bounce Forward and BUFC.

This is Gravity, Director – Planning & Economic Development, Claire Pearce commented: “This announcement is a huge step forward for Bounce Forward and with a supportive institution such as the Harry Kane Foundation I’m sure that it will enable them to reach more young people and help equip them with skills needed to live happier healthier lives, the whole team at Gravity couldn’t be more pleased for them.

To have a local trust included in their launch given our introduction into their area is a huge boost and look forward to seeing what other initiatives local schools can be part of going forward.

Ensuring local young talent develops in a secure and nurturing environment that stimulates emotionally intelligent adults will be part of jigsaw of the requirements for a fulfilled and productive workforce at Gravity for years to come.”

Clare Lewis, Personal Development Lead at Bridgwater & Taunton Trust commented: “Healthy Minds will become an integral part of our Personal Development programme as we build our student’s confidence, resilience and knowledge so that they can keep themselves mentally healthy. The Bounce Forward programme will help to facilitate the development of skills and qualities that will enable our students to become independent and thrive in society.”

Bounce Forward CEO, Lucy Bailey commented: “When it comes to mental health, prevention is so much better than cure, and our psychological health is as important as physical health. It is increasingly challenging to navigate our changing and complex world. For adults, it is hard, for children it is even harder. We need to teach our children, as part of their core education, and there is no better way than with Healthy Minds. Teaching our children about the brain, the role of positive emotions and the value of optimism and human connection is vital learning for the world we live in. We need to help young people not only to deal well with the setbacks they will inevitably face throughout life, but also equip them to embrace opportunities around them. Its impressive evidence base includes improving attendance, which is of growing concern for schools reducing fixed term exclusions as well as improving health and wellbeing outcomes.”

Harry Kane commented: “I’m proud of the work my foundation has achieved over the last year and am excited that we will extend our reach and impact through a new partnership with Bounce Forward. Kate and I have worked closely with Bounce Forward to strengthen their curriculum. Together we have designed lesson plans that support young people to explore how resilience can help them recover from setbacks, deal with challenges and make the most of opportunities. We are supporting Bounce Forward because they are experts in their field and have developed evidence-based resources that align perfectly with our aim of promoting the benefits of positive self-belief and the connection between physical and mental health.”

George Clarke announces winners of Gravity building design competition for young people

1st March 202226th November 2021 by Rob Stevens

Talented schoolchildren produce inspiring designs for gravity place making challenge

Renowned architect and TV presenter George Clarke has announced the winners of the Gravity young persons’ design challenge for schools in and around Bridgwater, Somerset.

The challenge, created by his education charity MOBIE – Ministry of Building Innovation and Education – asked young people to let their imaginations run free by designing an innovative and inspirational green place with jobs and homes that meets the changing needs of future generations, including promoting wellbeing, quality of life and healthy ageing.

The Gravity project will create a unique place: a sustainable, connected smart campus that delivers economic transformation, a sustainable environment, between 4000 and 7,500 jobs in cleaner, green businesses, with up to 750 new homes for the workforce.

Located near Bridgwater, in Sedgemoor, Somerset, just south of Bristol, it is an amazing development that is seeking to accelerate a response to addressing climate change whilst creating new jobs and homes. Gravity will create a new location for clean, large-scale advanced manufacturing industries. It will be a place where people can choose to work and live – ‘a blueprint for a smarter, greener future’.

The presenter of Channel 4 programmes Restoration Man, George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces and Old House New Home said: “Home is the most important piece of architecture in our lives. It crafts the way we live, and how we grow as families and communities. Well-designed places and communities like Gravity can enhance the way we live and promote good health and wellbeing”.

Clarke added: “The communities and homes of the future will be lived in by today’s young people. That is why I am so excited to announce the winners of this young persons’ design challenge. We asked young people, aged between 11 and 18, to design a place and home of the future – a sustainable, adaptable, green place that promotes wellbeing, quality of life and healthy ageing.

“From past experience I expected to see amazing design talent and imagination come forward, and I was not disappointed. It was hard for the judges to choose the overall winner, age group winners and the runners up. They were genuinely wowed by the standard of the work that these young people produced. The winners created some incredible and inspirational, future thinking designs. The future of the built environment and homes is in great hands with young talent like this around – I can’t wait to see what they do next.”

The overall winner of the challenge is Alyssa Ghio of Chilton Trinity School, Bridgwater with her amazing Pythagoras House design.

Claire Pearce, Director of Planning and Economic Development for Gravity commented “re-imagining the Gravity site ensures we can fully consider how we respond to climate change and in doing so to attract international businesses to the South West. Occupiers require an accessible workforce so our approach of enabling a new era of clean growth together with dedicated homes for the workforce, within a campus and community is really exciting. We hope the design challenge has inspired young people about Gravity, and motivated them to aspire to learn, live and work in Somerset in the future”.

Gill Slocombe, Deputy Leader for Sedgemoor District Council added: “The competition has encouraged young people to think deeply about place making; what do they want from Gravity and places of the future? What kind of workspaces and homes create a happy, healthy and well-connected place to live and work? The high quality of the competition entries demonstrates that young people are full of ideas about how we can create better, greener and smarter places. I would like to congratulate the winners and to thank everyone who has taken part.”

The Young persons’ design challenge was open to schools and colleges located near to the Gravity site in Sedgemoor District in Somerset with three age groups – 7-11, 12-15 and 16-18. It asked them to create houses and a space that they care about and want to live and spend time in. The place and home should be environmentally ‘super-green’, use sustainable building methods and materials, green energy and smart technology with an emphasis on health and wellbeing of people, the community and our planet.

The age group winners are as follows:

Age 7 – 11

Theodore Spreadbury (age 8), Erin Waghorn (age 9) and Darcey Pike (age 10), Spaxton Primary School

Age 12 – 15

Wolfetone Kelly, James Steinhardt and Max Brophy (15), Sidcot School, Winscombe, North Somerset

Sarah Ingram, Liv Jeffrey and Stephanie Hills, Haygrove School, Bridgwater

Age 16 – 18

Harvey Lawrence (17), Sidcot School

Alyssa Ghio, Chilton Trinity School, Bridgwater

More information about the design challenge at www.mobie.org.uk

ENDS

For more information please contact MOBIE CEO: Mark Southgate – (t) 07917 427474, (e) mark.southgate@mobie.org.uk

NOTES TO EDITOR

About MOBIE

MOBIE – The Ministry of Building Innovation and Education – was established in 2017 by architect and TV presenter, George Clarke. It promises to inspire new generations to join the building and construction professions and fundamentally transform the way we think about, design and construct homes both in the UK and abroad. An educational, research and development charity, MOBIE’s purpose is to focus on developing innovative ways to build homes, providing access to education and skills development and vitally, challenge the housing market to do better. Spearheading advanced home design and construction thinking, MOBIE will work with both industry and government to create homes that will genuinely transform the way we live in Britain. www.mobie.org.uk

About Gravity

Gravity will be one of the most sustainable smart campuses in Europe, addressing climate change whilst creating new jobs and homes, and reducing the impact that businesses have on the environment by providing a clean, low-carbon environment for them to operate in. It will create a unique place: a sustainable, connected smart campus that delivers economic transformation, a sustainable environment, between 4000 and 7,500 jobs in cleaner, green businesses, and with up to 750 new homes for the workforce. It is located near to Bridgwater, in Sedgemoor, Somerset, just south of Bristol.

George Clarke launches Gravity design competition for students in Somerset

22nd November 202120th April 2021 by Rob Stevens

Gravity is teaming up with two educational charities to launch a design competition that aims to encourage local youngsters to get involved with the project to create the UK’s first smart campus and community.

Gravity is launching the Gravity Young Persons’ Design Challenge in partnership with Bounce Forward, a charity dedicated to teaching young people resilience as a life skill, and the Ministry of Building Innovation and Education (MOBIE), a charity founded by architect and TV Presenter George Clarke to inspire young people to rethink the way we design and build places and communities, and offering them a window into a future career in the built environment.

Primary and secondary schools, and colleges across Sedgemoor are being invited to take part in the competition to imagine and design what kind of a place Gravity will be to achieve its vision of creating a zero-carbon community that integrates work, rest and play.

Claire Pearce, Director of Planning and Economic Development at Gravity, comments: “Gravity is committed to ensuring that this landmark project delivers benefits to the local community, even at this very early stage. We’re excited to be working with Bounce Forward and MOBIE, and engaging with local schools and colleges, to take advantage of the educational opportunities that Gravity is already creating.

“As a project which will create over 4000 jobs, it is important to think about how we can reduce the need to travel to work, what we can include as part of the scheme to help local people access work opportunities, and how to design in integrated homes and leisure opportunities, as part of a new integrated, and sustainable community.

“Through this competition, we’re encouraging young people to think about place making; what do they want from Gravity and places of the future? What kind of workspaces and homes create a happy, healthy and well-connected place to live and work?”

The challenge

Students will be challenged to design a zero-carbon home in a new employment led community that reflects Gravity’s vision of being clean and inclusive, considering the wellbeing of people, the community, and the planet. Youngsters will need to show their home in the context of its wider place, including connections to work, green space and transport links, and how smart technology would be used to support new ways of living.

George Clarke, MOBIE founder, says, “MOBIE is all about young people and the future of the built environment. I am delighted that we are launching this exciting design challenge for schools in Sedgemoor, to create a new home and place on the ground-breaking Gravity smart campus and community – a place for clean, advanced manufacturing industries and for people to live, a new place to live, work and play.

“By harnessing the talents, ideas and energy of the young people of today we can change the way we create places and how we build homes. The amazing student designs that I know will flow from this challenge will show that we have a future generation with the talent and the imagination to really make a difference for people and the planet.”

Support for students and teachers

MOBIE and Bounce Forward have already hosted a webinar to provide participating schools with information and support about how to get involved. Further webinars for schools are available on request. Bounce Forward will also run three webinars aimed at secondary school students to support their involvement with the competition and personal resilience. In addition, Bounce Forward will run webinars to support teachers’ personal development.

Lucy Bailey, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Bounce Forward, explains: “Our overall aim is to help young people develop resilience, not just to overcome setbacks, but to solve problems and think creatively. In the context of this competition, we want to support students, and their teachers, to be open and curious to new perspectives and have the confidence to let their imaginations go.”

Cllr Gill Slocombe, Deputy Leader of Sedgemoor District Council, adds: “This competition presents a wonderful opportunity for young people to get involved with Gravity – a project of national and international importance located here in their local area. As plans emerge to create this innovative and sustainable community in Sedgemoor, it’s important we listen to what young people want from Gravity, and for their future.”

The Gravity Young Persons’ Design Challenge has three age categories, 9-11, 12-15 and 16-18. The finalists will be announced on 18 June and the winners revealed at an event to take place in June or July 2021 (details to be confirmed). For more information, visit: https://www.mobie.org.uk/challenges/gravity.

Ends

For more information, please contact Tori Madine at 07508 917 477 or tori.madine@social.co.uk

Notes to editors

About Gravity

Gravity will be the UK’s first commercial smart campus and a blueprint for a ‘cleaner’, smarter future. It aims to attract the world’s most innovative companies working in the ‘clean growth’ sectors.

Based on the site of the former Royal Ordnance

Expected to create around 4,000 jobs, the 616-acre Enterprise Zone will be designed to shape connections between people and the places they work, supporting a culture of innovation and wellbeing. It will include diverse, flexible workspaces and resilient technologies along with enhanced transport links to, and within, the surrounding area.

For further information, visit https://thisisgravity.co.uk/

About MOBIE

Architect and TV Presenter George Clarke founded the Ministry of Building Innovation and Education (MOBIE) in 2017 to inspire young people to revolutionise the way we think about homes. We need younger generations to define how they want to live now and in the future, and MOBIE helps them do it. https://www.mobie.org.uk/

About Bounce Forward

Bounce Forward is a national charity that delivers inspiring and practical training programmes to support young people to reach their full potential in life. The charity believes that teaching resilience skills should sit alongside academic lessons and have spent 13 years working directly with more than 1,800 schools and delivering research to evidence what they do.

Core principles

Resilience is not just about overcoming setbacks, it’s also about making the most of opportunities
We base our approach and training on solid research, theory and evidence
We teach skills and strategies that work in the real world
The adults matter: their role is vital in helping children and young people be resilient and thrive

https://bounceforward.com

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Bounce Forward continues to deliver resilience training as part of the Gravity Skills Charter in partnership with Bridgwater & Taunton College

Gravity congratulates Bounce Forward on its partnership with the Harry Kane Foundation

George Clarke announces winners of Gravity building design competition for young people

Talented schoolchildren produce inspiring designs for gravity place making challenge

George Clarke launches Gravity design competition for students in Somerset

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Talented schoolchildren produce inspiring designs for gravity place making challenge

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