Partners since 2022, over the next week Oppidan Education will be mentoring both our year 6 and Year 8 pupils. The Year 6 interview day forms part of their 1 Year Transition Journey whereas the Year 8 day is focused on developing leadership skills.

Who are Oppidan?

Oppidan is a leading mentoring company in the UK, who mentor young people, especially during big ‘life changing’ moments like moving onto senior schools or facing adulthood. With individual families, mentoring is focused on helping pupils achieve academic and personal success.

What is the Prep School Transition Journey?

The one- or two-year programme supports pupils in Years 5 & 6 with the transition to senior school. Oppidan’s trained mentors deliver in-house workshops that focus on essential skills that boost their results and help pupils thrive in a new environment.

The journey includes:

• Workshops on key transition skills
• 1:1 Interview and communication workshop
• Video courses and talks for parents
• Impact reporting on pupil personal development

What is the Oppidan Interview Day?

Whether it’s getting ready for senior school or university, our 1:1 workshops develop key skills that help prepare pupils for their next step.

It includes:

• 25-minute 1:1 sessions for every pupil
• Whole-group assembly and plenary
• Reports for each pupil and individual school impact report

What is the Oppidan Leadership Training?

Oppidan will be working with the Year 8 pupils to develop their leadership skills and help them more easily gain positions of responsibility within the school community. Alongside theory and scenario-based work, the workshop will also feature a talk from Olympic Gold Medallist and Oppidan mentor, Grace Prendergast with key tips on becoming a great leader.

What do Oppidan measure?

Oppidan evidence clear impact on pupils personal development and measure change through longitudinal mixed-method studies combining qualitative focus group and quantitative survey data. This enables us to accurately and reliably measure improvements in children’s personal development. There is a key focus on three areas:

Character

Character refers to a range of interpersonal and intrapersonal social and emotional learning skills, encompassing a child’s ability to understand and have confidence in themselves, and to collaborate well with those around them.

Communication

Communication refers to a child’s ability to convey their emotions and thoughts accurately and eloquently, to use body language and tone to engage listeners, to feel comfortable speaking in public, and to listen actively to those around them. We measure communication through a selection of behavioural questions from the Skills Builder Framework.

Engagement with learning

Engagement with learning refers to a pupils’ motivation to learn, ability to take ownership of their learning, behaviour, attendance, and academic attainment.