Leighton Park school

Head of Athletic Development at Leighton Park school, Andy Gallacher, used the youHQ platform with his top athletes group (called the advanced performer programme or APP). He used it during lockdown to help keep them on track and motivated towards their specific goals. He said;

“The youHQ software was invaluable for me to connect with the 30 students we have across years 7-13 playing elite level sport. We have always asked them to set challenging goals but never formally tracked them. The youHQ platform holds the students accountable and by being able to add descriptions, actions and a time scale, they and I can monitor, review and see progress regularly.”

“We could easily do this online by sharing our screens and the students could access all the additional content easily. Normally we produce seminars, videos and advice ourselves but the lifeontime content and preloaded resources were an excellent help. The students were able to set sport specific goals under the health value and their own personal targets under any of the values headings. All students were super positive when asked about using the platform and it has given us valuable data moving forward.“

The school also used the youHQ platform to help with pastoral care with year 8 students. Member of staff and tutor Zoe Macpherson said;

“We had to check in with students 3 times per week using video conferencing. The first 2/3 weeks was tricky to get much information from students. When we started to use the youHQ app it was far easier for me to get dialogue started as I could reference the goals they were setting.“

“It also really helped me get to know the students at a deeper level. One of the girls set the goal of working towards her grade 3 violin. She wasn’t playing the instrument at school and is very quiet so I wasn’t even aware! We had so much more to talk about which really helped me connect to her in such a strange time.”

Bryntirion Comprehensive school

Bryntirion Comprehensive school also used the youHQ platform with a year 10 GCSE PE group. Head of year and PE teacher Andy Farrell said;

“My GCSE Group started to use the app simply to help them stay motivated through lockdown. We then realised it could help with the coursework section of the course where students need to analyse their strengths and weaknesses in a sport of their choice. The content was helpful and applicable to the group and the way the screen is set up was really easy for students to set specific goals to help them improve as performers. I was also really pleased to see the quality and quantity of well-being and health related content which for me as a head of year would prove very useful as a pastoral tool.”