Summer Sunshine
20th July 2021
Dear Everyone
I hope you are enjoying the sunshine! Here at Grit we are winding down a little as things get a bit slower over the month of August. We have realised how important it is to top up our resources by resting, relaxing, laughing with friends, doing the things we need to do to switch off and restore after a very demanding year.
We’re really excited by the expansion of our work with new university, college and school partners, we are seeing a growing appetite for Grit programmes. We talk about this in our blog piece below: there is a real opportunity that is presented by ‘emotional learning’ being brought on to the map much more significantly. I really hope it will stay a priority, that we will make space to give our young people the chance to get to know themselves better as they transition into adulthood, this is so crucial to their sense of belonging and the degree to which they value what they’ve got to offer.
I hope that all of you can find some rest, enjoyment, peace and fun this summer.
Looking forward to ‘the new term’ in September and to staying connected with you in the year ahead, come what may.
Ellie
Covid and emotional learning: building back better
As we go about re-imagining the University experience, there’s a huge opportunity to invest in emotional learning much more.
Read our piece published on the Student Futures Commission website here
Thank you to Neil!
Last week the Grit team and some of our extended family got together to wish our former CEO, NeilWragg, well on his retirement. Here our Chair, Ben Rose, pays tribute.
In 1991 Tony Morgan (our former Chair) and I persuaded the London Borough of Enfield's then CEO, Marilyn Arnold, to work with Youth at Risk (YAR) (as we then were) to run our first programme. Marilyn asked Neil (then working for Enfield) to take the lead in partnering with YAR. He and I met. I recall he was wearing a tight black leather jacket, smoking a cigarette, and, as a I now know, trying to work out how to sabotage the programme.
The course was a steep learning curve. So far as I recall Neil and I worked on the 'situation intervention team,' whose name speaks for itself. Physically restraining an unbelievably large angry young man, gently seeking to engage with him proved to be a bonding experience for us all. The course proved to be the most extraordinary success. Neil saw the light, gave up his secure job in Enfield and joined our fledging charity. We have not looked back.
Over the next three decades Neil and I have worked together in countless meetings, courses, presentations before Ministers, lawyers, judges, social workers, young people, teachers, you name it, we have done our Laurel and Hardy show. We have passionately argued, disagreed, agreed and had some of the funniest times I have ever had. In some ways our lives have paced each other, from no children, to children, schools, universities and beyond. It has been the best of friendships, in some ways incredibly close, in other ways wonderfully different. I would not swap a moment of it. Grit would not be here today without Neil. His joy, creativity, and relentless commitment are gifts I treasure and salute and now miss.
Neil you are more than a friend and I cannot thank and honour you enough for all you have contributed to me, my life and Grit. Thank you.
Talking About Grit
Recently we've had a lot of university Personal Tutors getting a taste of Grit. Here is what some of them have been saying.
