21st October
Blog Stories
Teatime is a noisy, chaotic affair in our house. Three children fighting to be heard means that on occasion, even I have been known to put my hand up to get a word in edgeways. (And yes the photo is a stock image – no one ever looks that polished at the end of the
14th October
Blog Stories
As a mum of four children I have seen their confidence ebb and flow over the years. The onset of the teenage years clearly heralds the age old battle between self- doubt and confidence. You look at your children and see their strengths, their potential, their best qualities and you wonder why they aren’t more
23rd September
Blog Stories
So, it’s officially autumn. Google’s said so*. And here at UFA we’re well into the swing of it – from UFA National and the many programmes we’re out delivering in schools this term, our Top Tutors team who, from September, began providing tuition services in Birmingham as well as London and our regional NCS teams are
26th August
Blog Stories
Recently, I had the chance to walk round a secondary school and see it in action on an ordinary day; the everyday of what our young people experience at school. I was pretty excited, it was an outstanding school and one that sounded great on paper. It talked about how it built character and
11th August
Blog Stories
One of UFA’s key charitable objectives is to promote the citizenship education of young people. “Citizenship education can be defined as educating children, from early childhood, to become clear-thinking and enlightened citizens who participate in decisions concerning society.” (Unesco). The shockingly low turnout of younger voters (estimated at 36% for 18-25s) is said to
4th August
Blog Stories
UFA have been working with Investing for Good (IFG), an advisory company based in London that supports organisations who want to take on social investment. Back in January UFA were successful in their application to the ‘Big Potential’ grant programme, run by the Big Lottery. This grant was used to pay for UFA to develop
26th July
Blog Stories
It’s a packed summer of activity for UFA as the first waves of young people taking part in our NCS programme are already making the most of the sunshine and enjoying the fun and challenges NCS brings. Our UFA teams are working with young people across the country from Suffolk to Durham via Accrington, Northampton
14th July
Blog Stories
At UFA we love metaphors. We often use them in our team meetings either as energisers to stimulate creative thinking or help our understanding of a challenging concept. They are useful as tool for reflection too and are peppered throughout our training, resources and conversations with young people and schools. Metaphors can be used in
8th July
Blog Stories
The results could be even better than you’d ever hoped for… as one school explains. Our Young Researchers and Evaluators (YRE) programme, like all UFA programmes, is about giving young people a voice, but also allowing them to take some responsibility in researching, evaluating and improving an aspect of their school/organisation. We’ve seen some extremely
29th June
Blog Stories
After nearly thirteen years of working for UFA it feels very surreal to be completing my last few days. A few months ago I was offered an exciting new opportunity to work with a group of schools, which I felt would be a new challenge for me and the opportunity to continue contributing to making a
