"I feel really lucky to have had these sessions with you!” - Mintridge and Persimmon Homes Building Futures Silver Mentoring Programme with Nekoda Davis

Throughout this past year, so many young people up and down the country have been adapting to a forever changing environment. According to The Youth Sports Trust, over a third (37%) of young people said that they now see sport and Physical Education as more important to their lives than they did before lockdown.  

Over the last six months, Team Mintridge have been working hard to increase that percentage and support young people up and down the country, including students from Rushey Mead Academy, who were selected to receive a fantastic Silver Mentoring Programme with our Olympic judo Ambassador Nekoda Davis.

This programme has been kindly supported by Persimmon Homes, who joined forces with Team GB - the British Olympic Association - to give away over £1 million to help support projects for young people aged 18 and under across England, Wales and Scotland. This extremely generous funding from Persimmon Homes meant that Rushey Mead Academy could nominate two of their students to be put forward for this once in a lifetime opportunity with Nekoda Davis. Two students received six months of remote mentoring with Nekoda as part of this programme and we are so grateful to Persimmon Homes for funding this programme, and for making this programme happen. It has been great to see Nekoda’s two mentees grow and better themselves over the past six months!

The impact of this mentoring programme can be seen below.

Due to Covid - 19 restrictions, we were unable to visit in person as we would have liked, but Nekoda was determined for as many of the Rushey Mead student to gather the very special insight of an elite athlete seen below.

Olympic superstar Nekoda Davis has been an incredible positive role model to her two mentees and has enjoyed supporting them through this mentoring journey. With one of her mentees, who wants to improve their fitness, strength and power, Nekoda gave them advice on a balanced training plan as well as highlighting the importance of having a balanced diet too. From this, they then spoke about nutritional benefits and how small lifestyle changes can result in marginal gains, which can then lead to success.

With her second mentee, Nekoda spoke more about positivity and mental wellbeing and how to create a positive growth mindset when dealing with different situations, whether that is in school or at home. Nekoda gave her mentee some incredible advice about how to work on her resilience and what to do if she felt anxious or stressed in certain situations. During this journey and these sessions with Nekoda, this particular mentee grew in confidence and by the end of the six months of mentoring, they were having in depth conversations about what they have both learnt from this incredible experience.

At the end of the programme, Nekoda’s mentee spoke to her about how much she had learnt from her mentoring programme and how excited she was to hopefully one day meet Nekoda in person.

 Our bespoke Mentoring Programmes can cover a wide range of topics to suit the individual needs of the mentees. This is why our mentoring programmes are so special, as our Ambassadors can relate to most things a young person may be struggling with and help them with their own personal or academic journeys. With the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown being a popular topic of conversation, Nekoda also spoke about the impact of this to both her mentees and her own personal life. Nekoda shared some top tips and advice about how to deal with uncertainty and the restrictions which were in place at the time. Nekoda gave some great advice to them both explaining, “this won’t last forever”, and how they must accept that it is happening and be patient in the meantime.

The last six months of mentoring has flown by, but it is great to hear from the mentees about how they found the experience and what they have learnt from it. One of the mentees said…

“I have enjoyed listening to your story and life experiences, I feel I have learned a lot from you, and I can relate to your experiences”

“I know so much more about areas I was weak on, such as nutrition and progressive overload with training”

  “You have shown me what is capable if you have a goal and you work hard at it, you have really motivated me”

“I feel like I know how to train and fuel better”

  “I have loved our sessions; this time has gone really fast. I feel really lucky to have had these sessions with you”

Nekoda’s second mentee has also developed so much during this programme with Nekoda and has said she has improved on the following; 

“Communication, being able to word my problems to someone I can trust. I have also improved being kinder to those around me and I have gained more trust from those around me. I now understand where my strength and weaknesses are and trying to improve them. I understand how to set goals and achieve them. I have improved on my grades and I am clear on what I want to aspire to be when I’m older, I am aspiring to be a singer and a P.E teacher.” 

As part of the Mentoring Programme, Nekoda has also set her mentees some individual goals, that they can aim to reach beyond their mentoring programme. The two students have been in a very fortunate position and are the only two students in the UK, to have been involved in a Mintridge Mentoring Programme with Nekoda during this time. Nekoda also had an incredible time mentoring these two inspiring students and looks forward to hopefully visiting them in person in the near future. 

Nekoda made the following comments about one of her mentees, that really shows the special mentoring relationship that has formed during this time…

My mentee has continued to mature since we first started our mentoring sessions, taking more and more ownership and with my help, understanding of his training, physique and nutrition. He set out a goal at the start of our sessions to put on muscle mass and getting stronger in the gym! Which he has already begun to achieve…all in all he has been a pleasure to mentor!”

The teachers at Rushey Mead Academy also commented on the impact they have seen during this programme and we are delighted that the programme has positively impacted the students at home and at school.

“I have definitely seen an increase in my students’ confidence. He seems to have more friends and is happy to engage with peers and staff more than prior to engaging in the programme…he has valued the conversations very much.”

When we asked this particular teacher if they thought their student was more capable of setting themselves achievable goals and targets because of this programme, the teacher responded with, “Definitely - he has set himself targets for revision and is better organised to achieve them.”

This programme from Persimmon Homes, was created with the intention of building and supporting better futures. The teacher who has selected this particular mentee for this programme has been delighted with the impact it has made on him. When asked ‘Since the start of their mentoring programme, do you believe that your student’s communication skills with those around them, whether this is in school or at home have improved?’, the teacher responded, '“Definitely at school he is more able to communicate better with his peers and staff. He is able to approach the staff if he needs help or to ask questions about the activities being delivered. He works well with his peers and has formed very good bonds with them.”

At The Mintridge Foundation, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to hear the stories and experience the power of our exceptional Mintridge role models have on the young people we work with. We know that having a role model who can support you, influence you and offer you advice that can help you on your own journey and pathway, can be extremely beneficial.

We are pleased that these two mentees could take part in this bespoke Mintridge Programme and could benefit from Nekoda’s experience and knowledge. We know that hearing the words of advice from someone that has already successfully made it through the pathway that you are trying to follow, can boost your aspirations and change your mindset when faced with future challenges. It is always great for young people to hear how the Ambassadors have dealt with setbacks and how that can help others to understand that sometimes those journey’s aren’t the smoothest and that you should never give up!

Some of the final comments made from the school who benefitted from this programme can be seen below.

The Mintridge Foundation has been excellent in providing additional support for our students. They are extremely approachable and always able to provides solutions to issues that students may be experiencing. Students have really valued their experience of working with the Foundation and especially the mentor and they feel they have benefitted considerably from being a part of the mentoring programme. Both students are grateful and feel privileged to have been a part of it…I feel that the programme is very thorough. It would have been nice for the students to meet their mentor in person to consolidate the bonds they have developed, but we completely understand that this wasn't possible due to the pandemic.

We are extremely grateful for the funding from Persimmon Homes to allow this Mentoring Programme to take place and to enable us to support young people up and down the country, especially during times of uncertainty where our support has been needed more than ever.
If you are interested in a Programme with Nekoda Davis or any of our other Mintridge Ambassadors, or you are interested in a Virtual or Physical Programme with one of our team of inspirational Ambassadors, then please get in touch via the Mintridge website at www.mintridgefoundation.org.uk or with Katie at katie@mintridge.org.uk.

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