Students, parents and staff from Hobmoor Primary School, Leigh Junior School and St John’s Primary School in Birmingham spent a fascinating day at Birmingham City University along with their mentors as part of Mosaic’s primary school mentoring programme.
The 34 girls and their mums spent the day looking around the university’s facilities, and talking to Student Ambassadors about the courses they are studying and what life is really like at “Uni”.
Ten-year-old Anisa from Leigh Junior School said afterwards: “Mosaic opened my eyes to a lot of paths towards careers, it’s given me confidence to speak out and stand up for myself, it’s a fantastic project”.
During the course of the visit, the girls and mums – with encouragement from their mentors – produced a wonderful array of posters about the day, depicting what they had learnt from the Mosaic programme and their first taste of university life.
Take a look at these wonderful photos from the day:
Lynn Fulford, the Associate Dean at Birmingham City University, said: “It is an enormous privilege to work with Mosaic and to support the highly motivated girls so that they can develop their aspirations and set high goals for their futures. It is inspiring to work with the girls, their mothers and their very committed mentors and teachers. Our students also benefit from working with Mosaic as it provides them with the opportunity to share their experiences of education and to act as role models for the young people involved.”
In the afternoon the participants heard from both Najma Hafeez, Mosaic National Board Member and Primary Programme Champion, and inspirational speaker Jag Kular, the Senior Operations Manager at Lloyds Banking Group. Jag spoke passionately to the girls and their mums about her job, and the challenges she herself had faced in achieving her dreams.
Later, Jag told us: “I believe that such programmes as Mosaic are extremely valuable as it equips the mothers and daughters through mentoring support and access to inspirational speakers to understand and realise their potential. Mosaic works with the mothers to help them nurture and encourage their daughters to keep believing in their dreams and aspirations, whilst encouraging the daughters to see themselves as achievers with unlimited potential!”
Kate Lyne, Assistant Head Teacher at St John’s Primary School – who have been participating in the programme for the past three years – added: “The Mosaic programme has given our school an opportunity to target able girls and encourage them to develop high aspirations for their futures. The sessions have also built the confidence of the mums involved, and the university visit was inspirational for all who went!”
Long-standing mentor Susan Noori told us that “mentoring with Mosaic is a journey of joy, pride and fulfilment. Enjoyment to see the relationship between girls and their mothers develop over the course of the program; pride for seeing them build on self-belief, confidence and aspirations; and fulfilment for playing a small part in their successful future. It is a privilege to be a member of the Mosaic community.”
Mosaic West Midlands are currently looking for female mentors (link to ‘mentoring’ page) to volunteer in four primary schools. The mentoring programmes will run from March to June 2013. Could it be you? Or someone you know? If you are interested in getting involved, please contact annalisa.lockett@bitc.org.uk for further information. Thank you!
