How director's Stateside trip planted the seed for a Kinetic school

By Harry HudsonEaster's trip to the US for the Dallas Cup was going to be the 27th football tour I had been involved in running. So, although I was still very pleased to be visiting the US, there was no way I would have believed anyone if they told me this visit would change my path so drastically.Half way through our trip we visited Philadelphia Union (PU) ahead of a proposed fixture against them the following day. During a tour of the facilities, we entered into the school, which hosts nearly all the PU academy players.And we stumbled upon the YSC Academy and one of the most passionate, exciting and knowledgeable people I have ever met, Dr Nooha Ahmed-Lee.What was supposed to be a whistle-stop tour of the building became a two-day-long information gathering exercise and by the end of our visit, we had to be dragged back onto our minibuses to be bussed off to New York.The YSC Academy was not a ‘school’ as I knew it - yet I loved it. I never struggled in school and have had no reason to believe the current educational system doesn’t work but what I experienced was something special.The kids weren’t unhappy, teachers weren’t stressed, people weren’t moping about – the environment was so positive that I could only imagine people would excel there.Learning was going on in every area of the school, not perceived teaching in a classroom full of lines and boundaries, rather self-directed individuals learning to manage their time and ultimately their life.This immediately resonated with me and our charitable objectives to 'promote volunteering to create independent young people' – I was completely sold.The young people we work with at Kinetic typically dislike school and have been branded by society as 'low-achieving kids' with a ‘chip on their shoulder’.This is wrong. We do not provide an environment which values their talents, skills and passions – unless everyone believes that everyone in the world should be a mathematician, English scholar or scientist?The seed was well and truly planted – we were going to start a school which valued and supported the young people we engage with back in London.I am, and always will be, extremely grateful to the YSC Academy, Nooha Ahmed-Lee and Ritchie Graham (the founder of YSC) for opening their doors to us and ultimately opening my perspective on what ‘school’ can be.I avidly started watching TED Talks and listening to the hearing the views of Ken Robinson and Sugata Mitra, whilst networking in the sector.We were invited to attend the premiere of the ‘most likely to succeed’ documentary (thanks Tom Stephens!) which further explored the question: ‘In 20 years’ time what will people be able to do which computers cannot?’The initial thought that computers could take our jobs very soon is a daunting one. However the answer is relatively simple. Computers cannot work creatively, collaboratively, be innovative and certainly notcannot be empathetic.To quote Peter Hyman from S21: “If you know what you want your kids to be able to achieve, you start from there and work backwards.”High Tech High, the school featured in ‘most likely to succeed', showed their dedication to Project Based Learning (PBL) which seemed to help individuals develop the key skills stated above, which are going to be integral to employers in the 21st Century.Whilst chewing the fat after the premiere, we were recommended advised to visit S21 by Mark Blundell (Innovation Unit) and Tom Stephens – this was the next step in our journey. So back to me being bright eyed and bushy tailed.After brief introductions, our first step was to visit an Ignite coaching session (which is a phenomenally good concept by the way) where pupils were preparing and practising speeches about their passions.A randomised calculator whizzed around to select the next person.  It’s worth noting that the children had never seen this random bunch of people before them.I couldn’t help thinking if this was any other workplace, let alone a school, everyone would be secretly crossing their fingers, hoping that they would not be next to be selected, yet it felt like the complete opposite.The ‘coach’ even gave the pupils the chance to opt out, given the presence of a group of unfamiliar adults, but the young people seemed, if anything, more excited to be chosen.The speech which was then delivered by the a young lady will stay with me for a very long time.She spoke with fantastic poise, diction and confidence about issues and feelings that I would struggle to approach with a best mate over a pint.Something very special was being fostered by S21. I learnt the importance S21 gives to oracy, and that they believe spoken language skills and communication should be elevated to the same level of importance as numeracy and literacy.I fully subscribe to this school of thought (excuse the pun) and it made me think about how I developed my oracy skills and how I now consider myself to be a good communicator and listener.I thought back to my sports coaching background and how I learnt how to engage with an audience, speak in front of players, gesticulate. My oracy skills were ‘caught not taught’ but certainly without my sports coaching experience, I would be deficient in this area.Joe Pardoe, lead on PBL at S21, delivered an insightful presentation on how PBL can be implemented into educational environments – the S21 delivery seemed in-depth, thorough and certainly engaging.Having been at S21 for over two hours, I had noticed that there hadn’t been any mention of PE.We at Kinetic have been delivering cross-curricular learning in PE for a number of years. Believing that some individuals will learn their maths or science better through the medium of sport is a notion that we have aspired to, and demonstrated success with, across both primary and secondary schools.This led me to ask if PE is involved in PBL assignments across subjects at S21. They are just starting their first project after 4 years.I was very surprised by this as as PE naturally, and quite organically, develops key skills which are so integral to the heart of S21, I was pleased to hear staff members acknowledge that.To be fair, the staff acknowledged the need to develop PE as part of their delivery moving forwards.PE develops, if delivered properly of course, collaborative thinking, empathy, creativity and oracy skills.Historically, PE also leads to public exhibitions, an key aspect of PBL, being either competitive matches, sports days or gym shows.PE and drama have followed this model which is now being adopted, with adaptation, into PBL across all subjects. So why keep PE in isolation?My tour of S21 was even more inspirational than I could have hoped for.I had heard so many excellent things about S21 that I can only echo following my visit.Only educational establishments, who fully back their model, philosophy and delivery will freely open their doors and invite outsiders in.S21 and YSC Academy have shared with me their experiences and delivery models – for which I am very grateful.Our vision to put PE and Sport at the centre of our school is something I am truly passionate about and my visit to S21 further highlighted this for me.We have clear success in channelling disadvantaged and/or disengaged young people into further education, employment and training to combat youth unemployment.We are still in our early stages of school design but we are continually learning and are incredibly excited about making our dream a reality.Onwards and upwards with our application to New School Network.