Case Study
Charlotte Lees - Foundation Learning August 2010
Charlotte Lees started the new Foundation Learning course after finishing
Year 11 at Eastwood Comprehensive School. We weren’t
complete strangers to her as she had been on our schools
Work It Out programme during her final school year and had
attended a taster session organised by her Learning Mentor,
Jean Whitehurst.
On her own admission, Charlotte had been a bit of a horror at school
and had been excluded countless times, starting as young as
Year 7. She said she was easily wound up, found the work
boring and generally thought she could do as she liked as
she knew the teachers had so few sanctions.
She had blossomed on the Work It Out programme mainly because she saw it as a
chance for her to prove herself. She now realises that the
school was trying its best to help her and even admits to
feeling sorry for some of her teachers!
The work experience she had at Alexandra House, a Care Home for the Elderly,
made her appreciate school more. She knew if she broke the
rules there she would lose her placement so she learned to
bite her tongue a few times and to act in a more mature
manner. She says “I did not want the school to be right
about me” and this was the motivation for her to change her
ways.
She enjoyed the work and found that she could get on with the more difficult
residents and that she can be a very caring person when it
matters. It therefore made sense for her to start a
Foundation Learning course with us as she could choose a
Health & Social Care pathway and progress with us if she
wanted to. She knew that she would need extra help with her
Maths and English and Jean encouraged her to apply.
Now that she has received her GCSE results, she realises how much better she
could have done if she had tried. She is delighted that she
got the equivalent of 5 GCSEs with C grades in Food and
Science and is now aiming for an apprenticeship in one of
the caring professions.
Since being with us, she has found out that she is dyslexic and so is getting
extra help. She has learned new IT skills, enjoyed playing
memory games to stimulate her learning, meeting new people
and working with new tutors. She found a recent visit from
a nurse very informative and is determined to continue to
prove herself.
Charlotte receiving her certificate from Antony May at our Celebration
Event in May 2010
UPDATE JANUARY 2011
Charlotte has now been on the programme
for 6 months and is more than half way to achieving the
Certificate in Health & Social Care and is very much looking
forward to her work placement in a Nursing Home next month.
As she is quite a vocal member of the group, we were all rather pleased that
she agreed to take part in a “Sponsored Silence” for
Children In Need and even more delighted that she
successfully completed this, raising over £100 from her
efforts!
As part of the Personal and Social Development course, Charlotte has
visited a Hindu and a Buddhist Temple to help understand
different cultures and religions.
