NCS Challenge – Calling All Parents of Students in Year 11
It won’t be long until your son/daughter finishes their high school education, and if you haven’t been through this life stage with any children before, you will probably be surprised to learn that they have a VERY long summer holiday, and although at the beginning it seems great and they have a good laugh at their younger siblings who are still at school, after a couple of weeks they start to get bored!
Let me introduce you to the National Citizen Service (NCS), an amazing opportunity for your child to learn and grow, whilst helping their local community, and stopping them muttering those words “I’M BORED!”
Established in 2011 NCS is a government backed programme to help build a more cohesive, mobile and engaged society. By bringing together young people from different backgrounds for a unique shared experience, NCS helps them to become better individuals, and in turn better citizens.
The two to four week programme, which takes place during the school holidays, includes outdoor team-building exercises, a residential for participants to learn ‘life skills’, a community-based social action project and an end of programme celebration event, NCS is open to 16 and 17 year-olds across England and Northern Ireland.
At a time of huge political uncertainty, where division is more evident than togetherness, (although this is seen more in the older generation than this age thankfully) NCS is a powerful tool to ensure the next generation see more in their similarities than differences, if you speak to my older children they are appalled by some of the comments and remarks they have heard and witnessed from the older generations, so the young people of today are certainly starting out on the right path.
The programme provides a progressive journey that hands over more responsibility to young people as the programme progresses and develops leadership skills necessary to succeed in the workplace, it puts young people through a series of challenging activities to take them out of their comfort zones and develop their strength of character and enables young people to connect with their communities through social action.
To date:
- Almost 400,000 young people have taken part
- More than seven million hours of community action have been completed
- For every £1 spent, NCS 2016 summer programme delivered between £1.15 and £2.42 of benefits back to society
NCS is amazing value for money. The whole experience including food, accommodation and travel costs just £50 and bursaries are available on a case by case basis. Support is also provided for young people with additional needs.
Even if you have family holidays planned during the summer, register for further information, because no matter what commitments or holiday plans you have they will endeavour to get your teen onto a programme at a time that is suitable.
After reading about all the amazing things they do, I bet you are wondering how much this opportunity is going to cost! I am sure if this was a school trip it would be pretty expensive, but NCS is amazing value for money. The whole experience including food, accommodation and travel costs just £50 and bursaries are available on a case by case basis. Support is also provided for young people with additional needs, where else can your year 11 get 2 to 4 weeks of fantastic activities and making new friendships as well as helping the local community ?
If this sounds like the perfect way for your school leaver to spend some of their summer holiday, there are still places available for Year 11s to take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity this summer. To sign up now, go to the NCS website.
This looks like such an amazing experience and one I would love for my daughter to take up when she is older.
This looks like such a great experience, I wish I had done something like this when I was younger!
I’ve seen a lot about this and it looks like such a fantastic experience! My daughter is too young but hopefully it’s still running when she’s a teen!
This looks fantastic! What a great incentive- would have loved this when I was That age!
I have heard so much about this scheme. It is a great way to keep teens occupied with worthwhile activities x
This looks like a fantastic opportunity for teens. Good value for money too and great that they offer bursaries.
This sounds really great, I hope something like this is around when my little bear is older as I would be so proud of him for getting involved
I have never heard of this program yet. But it looks so good! Especially when it gives back some money for the society! I wish there was something like that when I was a teen