The Boost Programme, developed by Gloucestershire Constabulary, encourages young people to make positive life choices, and to build the confidence and resilience they will need to thrive and realise their potential.

KLB sixth form students had their Boost training earlier in the year and recently put their training into practice when they supported the full cohort of Year 8 students through the course. The programme uses a series of activities designed for young people to recognise when their emotions are getting out of control and introduces them to techniques to help regulate their emotions.

The activity sessions started with ice-breaking activities – setting up camp and playing primary school games, such as bulldog and catch, to help the students to bond in their groups. Other activities included shaking up a bottle of fizzy pop and then taking the top off to watch it explode to illustrate the build-up of emotions prior to snapping. The students also played out the releasing of tension by punching a hole through newspapers and, in their teams, tried to lower a stick to the ground using only their fingertips to show how important it is to communicate our thoughts with others.

The final activity involved the students writing a time capsule postcard to themselves to open a year into the future. What do they want to achieve in the next 12 months and how will they go about doing this? Many of the students may be interested to open their postcard in a year’s time to discover whether they reached or changed their goals and to reflect on how they overcame any obstacles they may have met along the way. We hope they will have put into practice many of their Boost skill.

A few Year 8 students have written up their experiences from the day:

The Boost course was designed to help children to boost their confidence and mental health. We learned through a series of fun activities that were led by helpful sixth formers. We were split into random groups so it was interesting spending time with people we didn’t usually talk to. Overall, it was fun and I hope the next year group will have as much fun if they get the chance to do the course.

We split into groups and each had three or four sixth formers leading us. We came up with team names including Boostasaurus Rex, Puss in Boost, Boost Bars, B.O.O.S.T (Big Orange Octopus Stealing Tents). The programme made us more alert about our feelings. For one activity, we assembled torches. Everyone in the group said something about their feelings and, if anyone else agreed, they would put their own torch on to show that we are not alone.

For the year 12 students, leading the sessions was a steep learning curve but most came away feeling that they had developed a range of skills including teamwork, resilience, communication and leadership, as can be seen form their comments below:

We had to work as a team to gain and keep the attention of the younger students. We were in charge so we needed to be good role models, explain the tasks clearly and remain proactive.

We wanted to have the Year 8s make the most out of it and learn things from each other so, when one of the children said he de-stresses through dance, we let him teach everyone how to pirouette.

I really enjoyed leading a group of year 8 children. It was amazing to see them inspired and engaging with the activities, we were running for them.