The course is £395. This includes a 45-minute Parent Class at Chelsea Academy and three follow-up videos to help embed the skills learnt on the course. Please see below for multi-buy discount, referral coupon and childcare voucher information.
For every ten places that are booked on our Life Skills courses in the UK we offer one free place to a child who would not otherwise have access to this enriching experience
Our courses at this venue are Ofsted registered
Our courses follow a well-established education framework developed over many years with input from teachers, education experts and business leaders. This framework defines the skills and knowledge that children need to thrive in the 21st century. The world is changing very quickly and preparing children for their life to come is critical. They are under pressure from an incredible array of things today. Your children need tools to help them develop the right levels of confidence and resilience to build a future for themselves. Communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creative problem solving and the ability to lead are not handed to them at birth. These are skills that your children need to develop throughout their lives if they are to fulfil their potential. The earlier they start to develop these skills and understand how important they are, the more chance they have to lead an extraordinary life full of passion and purpose. Our courses help children do that.
Our education framework corresponds to the work of the Partnership for 21st Century Learning. We’d encourage all parents to click here to take a closer look at their work.
Life and Career Skills
Learning and Innovation Skills - 4Cs
Critical thinking - Communication - Collaboration -
Creativity
Information, Media, and Technology Skills
Key Subjects - 3Rs and 21st Century Themes
The framework we use recognises the importance of developing life and career skills. It focuses on learning and innovation skills alongside the key subjects and academic skills. Our ‘Learning to Fly’ courses are designed to help children develop the 4Cs – creative problem solving, critical thinking, communication and collaboration. We also teach and develop other essential character attributes such as leadership, resilience and growth mindset. We believe that talking and thinking should be given as much weight as reading and writing in any child’s development and our courses are designed to support that belief.
Our programme includes four 4-5 day courses for children in Years 3-6 (ages 8-11) in the Easter holidays, Summer holidays, October half-term and Christmas holidays. These separate courses can be completed in any order, on their own or as a complete programme. The 5th ‘Mastery’ module is designed as our ‘graduation’ course for children who have completed all four courses. This course pulls together all of the strands from the previous four courses and gives children a set of tools and a process for understanding how they can find ways to use all of the life skills that they have been taught on a daily basis.
The video below is from our 5 day Summer 2015 Life Skills Course. It provides an insight into the focus of the course, the activities and the views of the children attending.
Learning To Fly with Role Models: The Course Curriculum
Mastery
Collaboration
Resilience
Creativity
Leadership
Leadership – ‘Flying high and bringing others with you’ – developing leadership and emotional intelligence
Why is Leadership important?
Leadership is being able to support, encourage and motivate others to achieve a shared goal. It’s also about having a positive impact on others, in any context. One of the most important qualities in order to do this is a high level of empathy and emotional intelligence. In order to work with and lead others, we must first learn to identify and understand our own emotions, strengths and weaknesses. This self-awareness allows us to make our own best contribution and our empathy allows us to recognise the feelings, needs and strengths of others. This level of emotional awareness is an essential skill for building any type of relationship or interaction, whether with family, friends, peers, or work colleagues.
What does the course focus on and what activities will the children complete?
The course is designed to develop an awareness of what great leadership looks like and why. The week includes fun activities which encourage the children to explore different ways of working together and leading others. They will be encouraged to reflect on the power of connection, listening and developing trust and respect amongst the people you lead. Specific activities include exploring leadership language, taking it in turns to lead the team in completing timed challenges and leading the team to create different shapes with a rope while they are blindfolded.
Leadership
Empathy
Respect
Impact on Others
Strengths and Areas for Development
Leadership Language
Trust
What can my child expect the course to be like?
Fast-paced, high energy and challenging. Your child will be active and moving around for most of the week. None of the tasks are easy; in fact, we don’t mind if the children struggle with many of the exercises at the first attempt. It’s through this process that resilience and strength of character can be built in a fun, pressure-free environment.
Our courses are always based on three things…
active learning
We want our courses to be about doing, trying, being engaged.
ambitious content
We want our courses to be challenging, never patronising.
serious fun
We want our courses to have serious content with a big dollop of smiles and laughter.
Our courses deliver three things…
they empower the children
The knowledge, understanding and insight gained from our courses should allow the children to think differently and make them feel that what they think and say really matters.
they embed sustained behaviour change
Our courses give children the tools to use the skills and strategies in their every day lives to form new habits of behaviour.
they give children a framework for future success
Through the content, language and skills that we teach, our children are given ways of working that they can fall back on and use time and time again.
Example Course Timetable
*subject to change
What type of child is the course designed for?
Our courses are not designed specifically for children who struggle with leadership, we believe everyone should be developing this important life skill. Perhaps your child has great leadership potential but lacks the opportunity to demonstrate and develop it further. The course is a great opportunity for someone who may already be a ‘natural leader’ but needs to develop their empathy and ability to understand the impact of their actions on others. Developing the skills of collaborating and communicating with others can boost general self-confidence and self-awareness. The course is also a great way for children to explore being outside of their comfort zone within a fun environment.
How do I explain this course to my child?
Please click here for our child friendly page, designed to explain everything about our Leadership Course to young people.
Who delivers the course?
All courses are led by a qualified teacher passionate about character education and supported by our top creative Role Models.
The quality of our Role Models is paramount to the success of our courses so we recruit people who inspire children. All of our Role Models undergo a rigorous application procedure and we are totally focused on recruiting people who are talented, engaging & fun. With academics, professional sportsmen and women, actors and musicians, we have a variety of personalities to suit every child and our Role Models are young enough for children to connect with. We look for people who celebrate unique thinking and resilience; whilst ensuring that a holiday course should, above all things, be a lot of serious fun.
Here are some examples of our course staff:
In addition to delivering our Life Skills Courses, Max has taught extensively at both Abingdon School and The School of St Helen & St Katherine in Oxfordshire. He has also led workshops at a number of primary and secondary schools, including Sittingbourne Community College, Bath Community College and Meadowside Primary. Whilst in London, he has also taught after-school drama for 4-8 year-olds with Perform. Click here for Max’s full profile.
As a teacher Brigid has taught in primary and special needs education throughout London boroughs, as well as having spent a year in Qatar as head of Performing Arts in an international primary school there. Whilst in training to be a teacher Brigid enjoyed volunteering her skills on missionary educational projects and travelled to India, China, Uganda, Kenya and even New York City in this capacity. Brigid is a keen ambassador for life skills development and always ensures a growth mindset is at the heart of her approach to teaching and learning. She has worked with young people throughout the world with wide ranging resources, cultural influences and abilities and has witnessed first hand the transformative power that life skills can have on the life of a young person! Read Brigid’s full profile here!
Brigid
Ed
Ed is currently a science specialist private tutor and volunteer who is working on a project called ‘Motivation of the Invisible’ which looks to humanise those sleeping rough across the UK and highlight the ever-growing problem through interviews and social media. A qualified teacher, Ed completed the Teach First graduate programme in North London, teaching for three years as well as being Head of Chemistry in a large secondary school. Whilst teaching, he completed a Masters part-time in Leadership from University College London which has given him a greater understanding of how to lead but crucially, the knowledge of leadership as a concept to pass onto others around him. Click here to read Ed’s full profile.
What do others say about the courses?
Our track record
We are proud of the difference we’ve made to thousands of children since we started. The results of our previous Confidence & Resilience course surveys reflect that:
- 90% of all of our parents would be interested in a future life skills course.
- 95% of parents said that their child enjoyed or really enjoyed themselves.
- 91% of students said that they would be likely or extremely likely to recommend a course to a friend.
- 85% of students strongly believe that you can get better at anything you put your mind to.
“The positive feedback he received really boosted his confidence and on holiday he was not phased by asking staff for something whereas previously he would ask us to do it.”
“She has been a lot more tolerant & better at problem solving in a mature manner especially with her younger sister.”
“She seems more confident about attending senior school interviews and has said that the course really helped her to prepare.”
“She said she wished school was like this. She absolutely loved it. Thank you.”
“I love the detailed feedback for him and what you were able to get from him.”
“He came back home everyday in a very upbeat mood and very talkative about the day activities. His mood and behaviour during the school holiday was best we seen in a long time, listening more, showing maturity when asked to do chores, demonstrating empathy with his brother’s problems.”
Click here for additional testimonials.
Click here for course photos in our Gallery.
In the video testimonial below, Gail talks about how much her son Henry enjoyed the Resilience Course at Chelsea Academy in April 2018.
Course logistics
The course runs from 10am – 4pm daily. The slightly later start ensures it doesn’t feel like a school day.
Early drop-off: There is the option of dropping your child off at 8.30am, at a cost of £15 per morning. We don’t offer activities for the children from 8.30am – 10am so we ask them to bring a book or game to keep themselves happy! Please email [email protected] if you’d like to request this service.
Role Model pick-up: If a 4pm pick-up is tricky, then our Creative Childcare service should be able to help. We can find an engaging Role Model to collect your child and either take them home or explore London for the afternoon. Our childcare sessions are a minimum of 3 hours. Our fees are explained here. Please email [email protected] if you’d like to request this service.
The course focuses on ages 8 – 11 (split into groups according to age and personality) as this is a crucial period of their development and before their step up to secondary school.
We have children attend our courses who may have mild additional needs and SEND. As our courses are challenging by nature and the content is ambitious, it’s important to us that your child is able to access the learning and that the environment and level of support is appropriate for them. If your child requires additional support with their learning, behaviour or physical needs, we would suggest the course may not be right for them. We encourage parents to give us a call and discuss their child’s needs in detail with us, in order to make an informed decision.
1. Reflection
During the course there is time set aside for the children to reflect on their learning and progress and they are encouraged to set themselves targets with support and feedback from the Role Models staff.
2. Written Report
Parents receive a written report from the Role Model facilitators at the end of the week, highlighting their children’s strengths and areas of improvement. They also have the opportunity for a one-to-one discussion with the Role Models at pick-up time at the end of the week.
3. Parent Class
It’s really important for you as parents to know what we’ve done so that you can support your child’s learning at home. We always invite parents and carers to attend a 45-minute ‘Parent Class’. This is held at 10.15am on the first day of the course. The Parent Class includes an overview of what your child has covered, ongoing strategies for how this learning can be supported at home and information on of our key frameworks, Growth Mindset, and how it can support your child’s development.
4. Follow-Up
Parents receive email communication after the course which includes ideas and strategies for supporting their child at home within collaboration, creative problem solving, resilience and leadership. They will receive three follow-up videos which are designed to embed key themes from the course. These videos will be fortnightly and presented by our Head of Character Education who designed the content of each course.
Groups will be no larger than 15 children per Role Model, to ensure a high level of support, however we may have more than one group of children per course. We also aim to have volunteers on every course to increase the support.
Groups for the week will be split according to age and personality. The whole group will come together for communal sessions such as the morning welcome, lunch and assemblies.
Yes. Children should bring a snack, a packed lunch and plenty of water to drink throughout the day. We encourage healthy lunches which should also be nut free.
The course is £395 which includes VAT. This includes a 45-minute Parent Class during the week and three follow-up videos to help embed the skills learnt on the course.
We currently provide four Life Skills Courses: Collaboration, Resilience, Leadership and Creativity. We also offer multi-buy discounts across these four courses.
Multi-Buy Discount Scheme
When you purchase more than one course place, you will receive a £50 discount on each subsequent course place, e.g.
- £50 discount if you purchase two course places in one transaction;
- £100 discount if you purchase three course places in one transaction;
- £150 discount if you purchase four course places in one transaction; and so on.
To take advantage of this discount scheme, all course places must be purchased at the same time (in one transaction) and all courses must be of the same type, e.g. non-residential courses for UK students.
Referral Coupon
We also offer a £50 referral coupon. This works by providing you with a coupon code after a course is purchased that is valid for 14 days. If another parent uses your coupon code they receive a £50 discount and you receive an automatic £50 refund on your card. This coupon code can be used by an unlimited number of parents and you will receive a £50 refund each time it is used (up to the amount of the original order).
Childcare Vouchers
Childcare vouchers are accepted at Chelsea Academy School. If you would like to pay using childcare vouchers, please email us via [email protected] to let us know. In your email, please mention which course(s) you would like to book and for how many children. You will also need to provide us with your name, contact telephone number, billing address (for the invoice) and each participant’s full name and date of birth. Please do let us know which voucher provider you are with, so that we can give you the relevant carer account number.
- For bookings, please click on the “Book Now” button to add the course to your cart.
- You have the option to apply a coupon code to your cart at this stage.
- All multi-buy discounts will be automatically applied at this stage.
- On proceeding to checkout, you will be asked to provide some details including credit/debit card information, prior to placing your order.
- Once the order has been placed and the booking has been confirmed, you will receive a booking confirmation email.
- You will also receive a referral coupon email.
- A member of the team will be in touch prior to the start of the course with our Pre-Course Form and further Pre-Course Information, such as directions, what to bring, what to wear and details on the Parent Class.
- Please ensure that you complete this Pre-Course Form in a timely manner, as we require these details to tailor the course to each child and ensure that specific needs are met – no later than 2 weeks before the course start date.
For any questions, please contact Hugo Shephard – ([email protected] / 020 3637 7107).
If a customer wishes to cancel a course prior to its commencement, the customer needs to provide us with at least 28 days’ notice. If at least 28 days’ notice is provided to Role Models then the customer shall receive a credit towards one of Role Models’ future courses based on availability and equivalent cost. If less than 28 days’ notice is provided to Role Models then neither a reimbursement or credit note can be provided.
Please click here for access to our full T&Cs.
All of these courses recognise a new educational framework built around the importance of developing confidence and resilience in our children. As importantly, they also recognise and teach what has now become known as the 4 Cs of innovative education. Our children need to learn how to communicate, collaborate, critically think and creatively problem solve and almost every employer globally is telling us that these are the skills they want to see developed amongst this generation of young people.
I congratulate the Role Models team for putting these courses together and for giving young people globally the opportunity to start developing these important skills. I’m sure your children will benefit hugely from being a part of this important drive towards skilling as well as schooling the next generation.”
