Set for Success which is led by the Wimbledon Foundation, the charitable arm of The All England Lawn Tennis Club and The Championships, in partnership with children’s sport charity the Youth Sport Trust, is helping young people at Prescot School to have the best start in life. 

Students received a visit from World Champion inline skater Jenna Downing for a mentoring session where they heard about Jenna’s personal experience as a world class athlete and were given inspiration.  

Jenna, part of the Youth Sport Trust’s team of Athlete Mentors, has run two mentoring sessions to date with a targeted group of 12 students aged 14 to 15 at the school. She said:

I’m super excited to be working with The Prescot School on the Wimbledon Foundation’s Set for Success programme. Already I can see so much potential in the students selected for this programme.  

Each of them has a fantastic competitive spirit and passion, which comes to life when playing sport and taking part in physical activity, and they are already starting to demonstrate the important skills and qualities required to become an effective leader in their school and communities. I am really looking forward to supporting the group as their Athlete Mentor and seeing the journey that they go on over the next academic year.

Across the next two years, young people will also get the chance to take part in sport, physical activity, active learning, and become young leaders in their local communities. As well as helping them to build their confidence, resilience and optimism for the future, they will receive an accredited Sports Leaders UK award or qualification at the end of the programme.  

Jordan Flynn, teacher and Set for Success lead at Prescot School, said he hoped the programme could help influence aspirations as well as using sport to help improve behaviours and support students to develop links with local employers. He said:

In the current times, it’s unclear how our pupil's futures could look. Programmes such as Set for Success offer our pupils wonderful opportunities to build on their blossoming personalities and help to shape the young adults they are transitioning into.  

From an early stage in the programme it is great to see the positive impact it is having on some of our pupils, putting them in a strong position, in what is an important time in their lives.

Set for Success is also running in three other areas across the UK and will initially support 320 young people. The programme has been developed specifically for the Wimbledon Foundation building on the 25-year knowledge, track record and expertise of the Youth Sport Trust.