With Community Day coming up this Saturday, we’re spotlighting a new participant of our community programmes every day this week to highlight some of the vital work that NTFC Community Trust do across Northamptonshire.
Today, we hear from Simon Anderson, the headteacher of Irchester Community Primary School, a partner school of the Community Trust. Simon talks about the impact that having a mentor in his school has had and the ongoing relationship between them and the charity. He told the It’s All Cobblers To Me podcast,
“The Community Trust was based at the school prior to me being at the school. I've been at the school three years, but the Community Trust was working with the school before that. So 2021 was when the school first engaged with the Community Trust and we had a learning mentor in school for a day or two a week, first and foremost. That staff member, Rhys Barnes, was the original person. He was in and he was covering PPA sessions for teachers.”
“When I arrived, we changed the way we utilise that mentor. So we very much thought about the process of using the mentor for supporting children's mental health and wellbeing through sport...It became more of an intervention based role rather than whole class stuff.”
“Patrick (the current mentor) runs sport-based mental health interventions for us. So any child that might need a bit more bespoke wellbeing work, he does one to one groups with them, one to one sessions with them. He does meet and greets for us. So some children struggle to come in in the mornings now and again. So he's available to do those meet and greets and just settle them into the day. And it just really helps for some children to have that bond with someone that's not a teacher and that we find that that bond is a different bond. The teacher bond is obviously there and it's a professional relationship but for Patrick it's more of that he can create those relationships and get a little bit deeper with those children.”
To hear more about the partnerships that NTFC Community Trust can offer to schools, check out Simon’s podcast episode.
Link to episode: https://podfollow.com/cobblerstome/episode/5d1d272e2dbb507d5c39ea8cdbbd599a941a5dbf/view
Come back tomorrow for more from NTFC Community Trust and don’t forget this Saturday is Community Day at Sixfields, where you’ll be able to learn so much more about the work of the charity as they celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2026.