Project will inspire Royal Sutton School girls to flourish

A pioneering new project at the Royal Sutton School is seeing much-loved charity Cherished inspire young girls to build confidence, learn about themselves and develop their career aspirations.

For years, Cherished have been empowering young girls and boys across Sutton Coldfield, with their highly personalised mentorship schemes, which have been rolled out in many schools belonging to the respected Arthur Terry Learning Partnership (ATLP), including the Royal Sutton School.

Now, a group of the Royal Sutton School’s Year 10 girls are embarking on the first run of Cherished’s groundbreaking new programme, Flourish, which will see them interacting with businesspeople and entrepreneurs over the course of eight weeks.

Throughout the programme, the girls will be guided through the process of creating a business idea or product, with engaging activities on offer to develop their business skills.

Hannah Simnett, who founded Cherished in 2011 at the age of 18, is a former student at the school, and returned on Thursday, March 6 to host the first session with local businesswomen Natasha Groom and Michaela Rei Botha.

Hannah said: “Flourish started after I had a number of ladies in the local community get in touch asking if we do anything to support girls in pursuing their career dreams.

“We have programmes at Cherished that offer emotional support and mentoring, but nothing like this.

“So, we set it up using our own experiences in different sectors with the aim of empowering girls to start forming and nurturing their own ambitions – and since I went to this school myself, I couldn’t think of a better place to get the programme started!”

Flourish aims to teach young girls how to navigate the path to a successful career. While some of the girls entered with an idea of what they wanted to do, others were considering their future for the first time.

Headteacher Nicola Gould said: “Children need realistic ambitions, especially in the modern digital environment. These days, so many young people have ‘influencers’ as their core role models and aspire to make a living that way, but that’s often not a feasible career path.

“Our girls had to write an application letter stating why they wanted to be part of the group – it got them thinking about how they might develop and apply their passions and skills, both for themselves and the community. You can’t get a better example of this than Cherished!”

The Flourish programme will culminate in a final Dragon’s Den-style panel, in which the girls will pitch their business ideas to a group of successful local entrepreneurs.

Hannah said: “We had an outpouring of support from local businesses – 25 Sutton businesspeople and entrepreneurs got in touch offering their time, which we’re so grateful for.”

Among the businesspeople involved with the outstanding programme are Natasha Groom, a financial planner at Chamberlain Wealth Management Ltd, and Michaela Rei Botha, who works for AIQOS, a consulting firm in the financial technology – or ‘fintech’ – sector.

Natasha said: “Being involved with Flourish is personal to me. I want to empower young girls in the next generation of leaders – I could have really used something similar when I was their age! The girls responded so positively – they were really engaged.”

Michaela said: “I love working on purpose projects and helping people do what they care about. That’s my passion.

“Today, the girls warmed into the programme excellently and I can already tell they’re going to get deeper into it as we go along. They seem very excited and confident – like this is a safe space for them to be who they want to be.”

Mrs Gould said: “I’d like every school in ATLP to have this programme, especially in terms of delivering financial management as part of the curriculum. Students need to be pragmatic and know not only what they want to accomplish, but how.

“It’s helpful having ordinary people come in who the children can relate to – not just teachers. They can see the possibility in themselves.”