Blythe Bridge Students Launch Mindful Mondays to Support Mental Health in Schools
Students from Blythe Bridge High School in Stoke-on-Trent have turned a national competition win into a project that’s now helping schools across the country.
After winning the Oli Leigh Challenge at The National Careers Challenge Finals 2025, the team officially launched Mindful Mondays on 10th October, to mark World Mental Health Day.
The launch was attended by Councillor Adam Parks of Staffordshire Moorlands council, Michelle Leigh (founder of the Oli Leigh Trust), representatives from The Inspirational Learning Group (TILG), and the students’ proud parents and teachers.
Mindful Mondays encourages pupils to take time each week to reflect on how they’re feeling, take part in short mindfulness activities, and talk openly about mental health.
The idea began as part of the Oli Leigh Challenge, delivered by TILG with the Oli Leigh Trust, which asked students nationwide to design resources that could support wellbeing in schools or local communities.
With help from Rebecca Clarke, Head of Education and Curriculum at TILG, the concept has developed into a digital resource now available FREE to all UK schools through TILG’s Lightbulb platform. Resources include teacher guides, posters, presentations, and staff training, supporting schools to meet the Department for Education’s new RSHE guidance, which now requires suicide prevention and mental health education to be embedded within the curriculum.
Speaking at the launch, Michelle Leigh, founder of The Oli Leigh Trust, praised the team for turning tragedy into action:
“Oli’s legacy is about saving lives through early education and conversation. Seeing these students take that message forward in such a meaningful way is incredibly special.”
Councillor Adam Parks added:
“This is an inspiring example of what happens when young people are empowered to lead the way on important issues. Blythe Bridge should be extremely proud.”
The Mindful Mondays app is currently in development, with plans for release in 2026, giving students the chance to access activities independently.Schools can access all resources for free here: https://form.jotform.com/242493051403347
Over 100 students inspired to be the Next Engineers of our generation!
The Inspirational Learning Group (TILG) has marked another hugely successful year of its Next Engineers Summer Camp, welcoming over 100 aspiring young engineers to the Octagon Events Centre at Stafford Education and Enterprise Park. Now in its third year, the two week programme gave Year 9 and 10 students from across Staffordshire an unforgettable insight into the world of engineering.
Across the fortnight, students took part in a series of hands on challenges designed to develop critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork, all inspired by real world engineering scenarios. One highlight saw students explore Newton’s Third Law of Motion, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, by applying it to a mini-golf challenge, where they had to design and test courses that demonstrated the principle in action.
Other activities included building the tallest towers, creating hydraulic arms powered by syringes, and developing prototypes that could lift and move marshmallow objects, all pushing students to apply theory in fun, practical ways.
Each day ended with an “Engineer of the Day” award, celebrating those who had shown outstanding effort and ingenuity, appreciated and recognised by students and parents.
The programme also gave students the chance to see engineering in action beyond the camp. They visited Staffordshire University to experience what engineering at higher education level looks like, and were given exclusive access to GE Vernova’s factory in Stafford, where they explored different industries, career paths, and witnessed cutting edge engineering in practice.
The camp was supported not only by TILG’s experienced facilitator team but also by more than 40 volunteers from GE Vernova. Week one featured support from Maddie, Ehab, and Emily, while week two saw Maddie joined by Oliwer and Nathan – all recent graduates of Cohort 1 and 2.
Emily shared her reflections: “As I’ve done academy myself I understand how important it is for students to have a go at these experience weeks. It’s so important trying new things, to inspire for things when they are older, it’s an amazing career path that it can get students into. They’ve had amazing week testing different activities and projects. It’s been great. As well, for their presentation skills it’s an opportunity like no other.”
Alan from GE Vernova also added: “I’ve been attending many of these Next Engineers events. It’s an absolutely wonderful opportunity for the children, it’s fantastic. They are the future of our industry, and we need engineers and we need top quality graduates. And these, are going to be the future. You can see it in their experiences that are gaining here and their enthusiasm and its what we need, it is the future.”
At the end of each week, proud parents and guardians were welcomed to a showcase event where students presented their final prototypes on stage, sharing their designs, findings and insights. These sessions gave young people the chance to develop their public speaking skills and demonstrate the passion for engineering they had built throughout the camp.
Parents were quick to share their gratitude for the programme. One said: “I just wanted to send a quick email to thank you, Liam, Ben, Caroline, Emily, Maddie, Nathan, Sammie and the rest of the TILG and GE Vernon a team for a wonderful week. It’s been really special to see how much Shey has enjoyed the week and a real spark in her passion for engineering. She has come home every day telling us every detail of everything that’s happened. This week couldn’t have happened without every single one of you making it so memorable, educational and inspirational for Shey and clearly all of the young people that were there. Thank you so much.”
Another added: “I just wanted to make contact to thank everyone involved for the fantastic opportunity provided with the Engineering Experience. M**** got so much out of the week – she thoroughly enjoyed the activities planned and learnt a lot about the processes an engineer has to go through. From a parents perspective, it was reassuring to have such a well organised course, with such great communication. I was also very grateful for the specific support put in place for M***** – having an autism diagnosis, she is much more comfortable with a clear structure and she really appreciated having someone (Caroline) to make contact with if she was unsure about anything. I know that this experience has helped her confidence to grow considerably and she was delighted to receive her award for being ‘Engineer of the Day’. Wishing you all the best of luck with future experiences.”
Another successful year of inspiring the next generation of engineers. Congratulations to all students who took part.
As we move into the 2025/26 academic year, The Inspirational Learning Group will continue to expand opportunities for young people through the Next Engineers Discovery Programme. These sessions, delivered free to schools across Staffordshire, give Year 9 pupils an introduction to engineering, broadening their knowledge and inspiring future career choices.
The Inspirational Learning Group attends International Education Conference in the heart of China’s financial district
Financial Street, Beijing, a landmark in China’s financial sector, well-known for its concentration of financial institutions; integrating decision-making, information exchange and international cooperation.
Ben Dyer, co-founder of The Inspirational Learning Group and Rebecca Clarke, Head of Education and Programmes, were recently invited to participate in the Financial Street Youth Summit hosted by the Global Innovation Center, Beijing Financial Street Education Investment Company, Beijing Financial Street International Education Technology Company and SKT Education Group – The Inspirational Learning Group’s international delivery partner in China and Hong Kong. The Global Innovation Center integrates government, industry, academia and finance to promote global innovation exchange, working with leading Nobel prize winners and prestigious education institutions across the world.
The theme of the 2025 World Youth Forum was Driving innovative business models with Digital Finance, with speakers representing a wide range of businesses and financial institutions. Ben represented TILG in a panel discussion focussed on Talent Demand and Career Development in the Era of Digital Finance. From the discussions it was apparent that all nations are facing the same issues in relation to skills development in the face of an ever-changing employment market driven by rapidly developing technology.
Ben stated that technologies such as AI, data science and machine learning are no longer niche disciplines, they are skills that every young person must learn and understand. However, he also noted that soft skills such as empathy and interpersonal communication are the key drivers for fostering innovation and addressing and resolving crises. These skills are essential for the development and integration of new technologies into business and finance. Furthermore, he pointed out that improving work experience opportunities for younger students is crucial in enhancing their academic capabilities, stressing how vital it is to foster collaboration between industry and academia to better equip learners with a broader range of practical skills.
Day 2 of the conference was focussed predominantly on the education sector with an overarching theme of Emerging talent challenges in the AI era with key- note speakers from including, Zhao Gang -Director General of the Global Innovation Center, Wang Yuxi – General Manager of Financial Street Education and Li Quan – Director of The Financial Research Institute at Nankai University.
Ben joined a panel discussion entitled AI empowered innovation and new competency education and interdisciplinary practice, which looked at the challenges in bringing together different curriculum areas and employers to promote skills development in an interdisciplinary, cross-curricular approach. Ben asserted that AI can be a valuable tool, particularly in the field of education where it can help learners acquire knowledge faster and more effectively but emphasised the importance of teaching the skills to critically evaluate the information generated by AI. The panel acknowledged that the future of education is not built by one, but by all and that an educational ecosystem should be developed where AI empowers learners to thrive.
Rebecca was invited to join education experts from across the globe for a further panel discussion Reforming Youth Competency Assessment in the Digital Economy. Rebecca acknowledged that, like many other countries represented at the conference, the system of assessment in the UK did not accurately reflect the skills and competencies that employers are seeking in new hires. Echoing the thoughts of the other panel members, she emphasised how programmes like The National Careers Challenge can bring together employers, educators and different curriculum areas to help learners of all academic abilities to develop and recognise their transferable skills. Rebecca also stressed the importance of recognising these skills formally, showing that they are of equal importance to the more traditional academic competencies.
Following the conference, Ben and Rebecca were invited to join a meeting with representatives from the Financial Street local government, where it was agreed that it was of critical importance to support the development of entrepreneurial talent within the education sector, bringing together educators and employers from high- growth sectors including data, digital finance, digital broadcasting, animation and VR.
Finally, delegates were delighted to visit Beijing Financial Street Runze school, a high-end international school providing education to students aged 4 to 18. The name Runze means ‘Hidden but influential, wise and ambitious,’with the school principal, Liu Changming, offering students a holistic education and a rich extra-curricular programme with a strong emphasis on drama and the arts.
It was an honour and privilege for The Inspirational Learning Group to be invited to attend this conference which has highlighted the global demand for multi-disciplinary, employer-led programmes which bring together employers and educators to prepare learners for future employment and career success. The conference also offered the opportunity to forge a closer relationship with SKT Education and to explore further TILG programmes that could be developed and delivered to schools in the region.
