Rep London 2010/11

The Rep London programme provides learning, skills, employability support and voluntary experience for young people from at least three schools across five of the Olympic Host Boroughs: Greenwich, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham Forest.

Above: Young people attending the Legacy Company’s office as part of the Rep London programme 2010/11

The core objectives for the Rep London programme are to:

• Raise career aspirations and knowledge of the world of work
    
• Challenge perceptions and real barriers to achievement
    
• Build confident, assured and savvy young people; and
    
• Prepare young people to represent London through volunteering opportunities.
     

The learning is provided in the form of modular learning units by organisations from within the public and private sectors. These include significant companies linked to the Games and the long-term regeneration taking place in East London, including The British Broadcasting Corporation, City of London Police, Deutsche Bank, Historic Royal Palaces, London City Airport, Queen Mary University of London, Societe Generale and UBS.
  

Module

We developed an interactive module entitled ‘Olympic Legacy – Thinking Beyond the Games’ encouraging the young people to think about the challenging issues the Legacy Company were facing. The debate explored how to keep the spirit of East London at the heart of the regeneration being planned; how to maintain momentum and energy in the Park following the Games through a series of events and programming; and how to improve the skills of East London’s communities and residents, so they are able to compete for the jobs that will be made available in the Park in years to come.

The module helped the young people attending to discover more about the long-term impact of the London 2012 Games on their local community. In addition, the young people learnt about the purpose and impacts of regeneration and the process of local democracy. Through the module, the students were encouraged to become active members of their community by using the skills and knowledge gained via participation in the programme.

We worked with 80 students from the following four schools and colleges listed below, with our session at the Legacy Company followed by an exclusive bus tour of the Olympic Park to highlight the venues and how they will be developed and used post-Games:

• 10^th December: Central Foundation Girls’ School
   
• 1^st February: George Mitchell Secondary School
   
• 5^th April: Waltham Forest College
   
• 9^th June: Sarah Bonnell Secondary School.

   
Feedback

From the feedback collated, 86.6% of students agreed or strongly agreed that what they had learnt on the module was ‘useful and practical’. In addition, 100% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they had ‘enjoyed’ the session.
  

“The students remained engaged and were full of questions throughout the session, allowing for an interesting debate. Overall, a very enjoyable and interesting module.”

Holly Fitt, coordinator at Central Foundation Girls’ School
  

“Through this module, I have learnt about what will happen post-Games and its importance to the people of East London.”

Syeda Hussain, student from Central Foundation Girls’ School
  

“Today I learnt that the Olympic site will benefit business and us positively.”

Ngoc Nguyen, student from Central Foundation Girls’ School
   

Evaluation

The overarching purpose of the programme is to raise aspirations and improve employability, as well as to secure opportunities for the students to volunteer, primarily through:

• the London Ambassadors programme, which will provide volunteers to work at Games-time, but outside the boundaries of the Olympic Park. For further information you can visit the London Ambassadors website 
    
• within the Olympic Park during Games-time, as part of the Games Maker programme, coordinated by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog). Again, for further information you can visit the Games Maker volunteering section of the London 2012 website

   
In addition to this, young people were offered the opportunity to apply to join the Legacy Company’s Youth Panel. Two members of Rep London have been successful and are now working with us to shape our vision and plans for the Park after the Games.

Further to this, the winners of our 2010/11 Schools Programme, Lammas Technology College in Waltham Forest, have also been given the opportunity to join the management committee for Rep London’s sister project ‘In the Parks’, which involves planning mass participation sports events in parks across London in the lead up to the Games.

You can read more about our 2010/11 Schools Programme in our dedicated section

You can read more about the ‘In the Parks’ project on their website

    
We are now working with Rep London to identify a further four schools to work with in the next academic year.

For more information, please visit the Rep London website: http://www.replondon.org.uk/

    
Return to ‘Schools Programme’