Press Releases
Press releases from City Year London:
City Year comments on Education Select Committee report into teaching standards
2 May, 2012The Education Select Committee published a report yesterday arguing that more should be done to attract, train and retain the best teachers. One of the ways it sees schools doing this is by giving sixth formers tasters in teaching. Commenting on this report, CEO of City Year London, Sophie Livingstone, said:
“We think it’s a very good idea to arrange for sixth formers to spend time doing short stints of tuition and supporting teachers in the classroom. The closeness in age between tutor and child can have a really potent impact. City Year’s full time volunteers are aged between 18 and 25 and they act as ‘near-peer mentors’ to pupils. This big brother or sister relationship definitely helps children to learn. MPs are right to emphasise that the quality of teaching is critical to the success of their pupils, but we would also add that very high quality teaching support, in the shape of young, positive, role models, can make a massive difference to children’s learning.”
Read the full report here
City Year comment on Darra Singh’s London riots report
28 March, 2012Commenting on Darra Singh’s report into last year’s riots, CEO of City Year London, Sophie Livingstone, said:
“We need to equip young people with the ingredients for a successful transition to adulthood. Access to books and well-resourced schools with the capacity to provide the right literacy interventions is vital. But young people also need to be surrounded by the right role models and peer groups. Darra Singh’s report says some interesting things about emotional resilience and character. At City Year we believe positive role models are critical because they nudge children to behave in the right way and make the right choices. We all need to do more to help young people build resilience, make their own judgements and think for themselves.
“At City Year we are striving to tackle the cycle of deprivation by motivating children to behave well and achieve at school. Partly as a response to the riots, we are now working in schools in Tottenham and Brixton as well as other deprived areas of London.”
City Year comment on Ofsted literacy announcement
15 March, 2012“It is critical that children are able to read and write properly in order to make their way in the world and I welcome Sir Michael Wilshaw’s focus on this issue. However, children’s broader experience of school and the wider world will also affect their ability to achieve, both academically and in life. That is why at City Year we provide schools with a team of red jacketed tutors, mentors and positive young role models who not only support children academically, but also help them grow as responsible young citizens.
City Year’s role models support children inside and outside the classroom to break the all-too-familiar cycle of low aspiration and underachievement.”
Read BBC story here
City Year comment on youth unemployment figures
14 March, 2012Unemployment figures published by the Office for National Statistics on 14 March 2012 show that unemployment has risen by 28,000 to 2.67 million during the three months to January 2012. Youth unemployment, amongst 16-24 year olds, rose by 16,000 to 1.042 million, a rate of 22.5%.
City Year London’s red jackets take on MPs in charity football match
13 March, 2012Volunteers from London’s leading youth and education charity, City Year London took part in a football match on Tuesday against the all-party parliamentary football team.
The 6 a-side match, which was sponsored by the UK’s largest electricity and gas network owner, National Grid, was eventually won 2-1 by City Year London in an incident packed game at the Britannia Leisure Centre in Hackney. Read More »
ACEVO’s Commission for Youth Unemployment
6 February, 201206/02/12
Commenting on the publication of ACEVO’s Commission for Youth Unemployment, Sophie Livingstone said:
“The sad fact is that the education system does not prepare young people for the world of work and the quality of careers advice is very poor for most young people. Employers say that too many young people simply lack the basic skills necessary for the workplace, like being on time, answering a phone or dealing with customers. Read More »
More than 500 young people apply to join City Year
2 February, 2012More than 500 young people have now applied to join City Year to ‘give up a year and change the world.’
City Year recruits passionate 18-25 year olds to work on a full time but voluntary basis in inner city schools.
This week we reached a recruitment milestone of having received the 500th application to serve with us.
City Year CEO, Sophie Livingstone said:
“This is fantastic. It shows that more and more young people are passionate about helping to transform the lives of children in disadvantaged communities. Read More »
City Year London CEO responds to new Govt data on school performance
30 January, 2012Following the Government’s release of new data on school performances, which shows that disadvantaged children are half as likely to achieve the national benchmark of five A-C grade GCSE’s, our CEO, Sophie Livingstone, had this to say:
“Too many young people are not receiving enough intensive one-to-one tutoring or mentoring guidance to nudge them back on track. Teachers need extra support so that they can really focus on those young people that have slipped behind. Everyone has the potential to succeed in their exams but some young people need more personalised help and positive role models to keep reminding them of the importance of doing well at school”.
Read the full story here.
